The Wildcats' unanticipated drubbing of a team being touted as perhaps one of the best ever threw the already topsy-turvy BCS situation into total turmoil and created a scenario in which the No. 1 team in both major polls will not be playing for the national championship at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 4. The Sooners will tussle with SEC champion LSU in that one. Meanwhile, top ranked USC and Michigan will renew the traditional Pac 10-Big Ten rivalry in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day in what could be the holidays' best college game. The Sugar Bowl victor automatically will be No. 1 in the coaches poll, but the AP's media poll will be conducted after the game. That means America could wind up with just what it didn't want -- two national champions. The AP and USA Today/ESPN coaches' polls currently have the trio ranked the same: (1) USC, (2) LSU and (3) Oklahoma. The BCS has it (1) Oklahoma, (2) LSU and (3) USC.
Rob Gillespie, president of BoDog and one of the biggest names in the sports gambling world, didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he watched the Sooners' visions of immortality evaporate into the chilly Kansas City air. Gillespie is a big admirer of Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops, but he's also the boss at one of the offshore gaming industry's largest books. "As a big Sooners fan I wanted to cry, but as a sports book operator with a lot of money on Oklahoma I was really happy," said Gillespie, who tabbed the Sooners to in it all before they kicked off their season back in September. "I was kind of hoping for a miracle comeback and a last minute field goal to win for the best of both worlds I guess."
Gillespie spoke Sunday morning before the BCS bowl lineup was announced, but said it wouldn't matter who reached the Sugar Bowl because all three candidates were worthy and one inevitably would get screwed. "It doesn't matter who goes, one good team will be left behind," Gillespie said. "After (Saturday's) performance it should be Oklahoma, but from what I read that appears unlikely. If USC sits No. 1 in both the AP and coaches' polls, but somehow doesn't crack the Top 2 in the BCS, there will be a huge outcry for a playoff system."
The BoDog boss was on target. Much of this side of the pond is up in arms over the Southern California snubbing. Just about every football bettor and fan has his or her own solution to the problem. "I say we take USC, LSU, Oklahoma and Michigan and let them play for it with a set of three bowl games over the next month," Gillespie said. "Or, better yet, cut down the regular season by a game (back to 11), let each major conference have a championship game and have those winners advance to a playoff with eight teams. Throw in the winner from a minor conference championship game or the top two at large teams and let them play. Or scrap it all, go back to the classic bowl matchups that had the Oklahoma-Nebraska winner throwing oranges on the field each Thanksgiving weekend or teams in the Big Ten/Pac 10 carrying roses across the field, and let the polls decide. Anything is better than the BCS and the inflexibility it instills."
Gillespie expects it will be late in the week before BoDog puts up its opening numbers. "We're going to take a few days, we're in no hurry," Gillespie said. "We want to check over injuries, things like that. People who are willing to tie up their money for a month at this time may not necessarily be the ones we're looking to hear from right now."
The Stardust, "home of the Las Vegas line," hung numbers on the four major bowls Sunday and posted the Sooners as a 5 1/2-point favorite. Race and Sports Director Bob Scucci certainly isn't a big BCS fan either, but he also has no quibbles with the computer about keeping the Sooners No. 1 in spite of their lopsided loss. "I would have favored Oklahoma over either USC or LSU," said Scucci, who regards the latter two clubs as extremely close. "Teams not being in control of their own destinies is the BCS's biggest flaw. It was instituted to eliminate bias and has done that, but you need some bias in there. You need to consider the fans and games they most want to see. It wasn't that bad before. A playoff would be the best way to settle it. You have to take the human element more into account."
Professional Handicappers League member John Ryan agrees with Gillespie and Scucci on the "human factor," even though he relies on a computer to help determine many of his selections. "No computer will ever be able to quantify the drama of athletic competition, NEVER," Ryan emphasized. "The peoples' polls voted USC as the No. 1 team in the land, while the computer, albeit with no hear, ranks them behind Oklahoma and LSU."
Ryan notes that before the BCS was enacted in 1998, a team could lose a game early in the season and still play for the national title. If a loss happened late, however, it was all over for a team to entertain ideas of a national championship. The East Coast-based handicapper believes the timing and size of Oklahoma's loss should disqualify it from a title quest. "A team is allowed to lose, sure, but I think how they lose is very important," Ryan said. "LSU lost to Florida while USC lost to California in overtime. Both were competitive games, but Oklahoma lost as a two-touchdown favorite on a neutral field. Disqualified."
USC got ripped off, Ryan believes, in ways not directly associated with winning a national title on the field, most notably the "award" money that accompanies such an appearance. "That money is vital for scholarships throughout a University and not just the football program," Ryan said. "It provides far-reaching reaching advancement for a campus and, most importantly, its students. USC versus LSU is my final decision."
Ryan notes the fact the Pac 10 is in the midst of rebuilding or that Notre Dame lost at Syracuse last weekend are elements a human brain might weigh in dishing out bowl invites that a computer wouldn't take into consideration. "That involves human subjectivity and no computer ever will be able to feel and think and play and love like us humans," he said.
Pro Handicappers League member Brian Gabrielle concurs America's colleges need a playoff system that will accommodate "human" aspects of the sport, but he thinks the BCS spit out the right Sugar and Rose Bowl alignments this year. "It worked. Again," Gabrielle said. "The Trojans can cry me a river. The best two teams ARE playing! No surprises in this camp. We knew Oklahoma had its toughest test on hand and alerted our clients to the Kansas State upset in our 2003 Championship Game of the Year call on the Wildcats.
"We also told you weeks ago that LSU and Oklahoma would meet in the Sugar Bowl, while USC and Michigan would compete in the Rose Bowl. And that's the way it should be. USC never met a Top 10 team all season long, played only two Top 30 teams and didn't have to play a championship game. Oklahoma played no less than five Top 30 teams and a pair of Top 10 clubs, while LSU played six Top 30 teams and was 2-0 against the Top 10. In fact, USC's cream-puff Pac 10 schedule was no more impressive than the Boise State schedule. If you really want to know which team got jabbed this season, it's the Miami of Ohio Redhawks, an amazing team that played a tough schedule and won its championship game in dominating fashion on the road. If there's going to be any 'split championships,' it ought to go the way of the Redhawks.
"The BCS system is a poor one when one drools over the dream possibilities a playoff system would deliver. But it is designed to match up the BEST two teams in the country in a championship game and it did exactly that. The final word on this season is that the opinion polls are a complete joke and all that can be gathered from USC's No. 1 ranking in each (AP and Coaches Poll) is that the opinion makers are trying to send a loud and clear message that the BCS system is not working. Hopefully, we'll get some form of playoff structure out of this yet which will allow mid major teams like Boise State and Miami-Ohio to go all the way. Then, and only then, will we have a true national champion."
Scucci believes the BCS was a product of ESPN, which will televise many of the bowl games. "They have the rights to most of the games and we bought into it," he said.
The Stardust opened USC as a 6-point choice over Michigan in the Rose Bowl and the number quickly climbed to 6 1/2. "We opened kind of on the low side," Scucci said. Kansas State went up as a 6 1/2-point favorite over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, while Florida currently is a 1-point pick over Miami in the Orange Bowl. "We expect more money to come in on Florida State. I don't think it'll go to 3, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it hit 2 1/2."
Scucci observes that at this stage in the process, it's probably easier to be an oddsmaker than a bookmaker. "Once the number goes up, that's it for the oddsmaker," Scucci said. "His job is finished. The bookmaker has to manage the number for up to the next month."
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