SC or Texas lose... Penn St is AP #3 but gets the BCS #2 slot while LSU is AP #2... Penn St wins a close BCS title game while LSU kills whomever in the Sugar... AP votes LSU #1... Who here will recognize the AP championship?
Let's go down memory lane for a moment with the AP and the BCS, shall we. When the BCS was organizing their new bowl system, one of the considerations was to base team selections on ONLY the final AP and Coaches Polls. The AP is on record at the time as saying, "No, we don't want to create the news, we just want to report it". The AP had a chance in 1996 to play a bigger role in the process, but backed away. It is also important to remember that AD's and Presidents of all Div. I conferences agreed to support the "spirit of the BCS format" in determining a national champion. In other words, there was an unwritten understanding, particularly from the major conferences, to accept and support the BCS champion. Then the strangest thing happened... after seven years of BCS activity, the AP, having never once questioned the use of their poll by the BCS, noticed that their #1 wasn't always matching up to the BCS formula # 1. They were appalled that such a discretion could occur... and abruptly announced that the BCS never had the right to use the AP poll in the first place. Now why did the AP think they could make such an outlandish turn-about and get away with it?? Simple... because ONE school, one coach, and one administration... USC and Pete Carroll... decided honoring the AP and breaking ways with their "brothers" on the football field... was fair and just. If Pete Carroll had stood up and said, "We appreciate the AP recognizing our achievements, but we are more anxious to win our second BCS trophy" (or first, at the time)... then he could have single-handedly done more for the game and the NCAA than any coach to date. but he didn't.
I hear that Sears is going to award the "Sears Craftsman" award to the team it believes is the real champion. Perhaps there will actually be three national champs come January.
Auburn was screwed last year and the system sucks. USC deserved to play for the NC in '03 and '02. Auburn deserved to play for the NC last year. We need a playoff but won't make it happen. What would make the original post funny is replacing Penn St with LSU, LSU beating Texas, USC losing to UCLA and winning their bowl game against Penn St(?). Then USC claiming a NC though LSU won it, for the second time.
This debate (if it can even be called a debate) revolves around one very simple question....where exactly was/is it written that the AP determined/determines the NC? Last I checked, the NC was determined by the BCS (as agreed by the powers that be) in the NC game played between the top two BCS teams at the chosen venue of the NC game. The suggestion that there were "co-national champions" in 03 supprted by nothing more than the excuse that we can agree to disagree is a cop out. What is the basis for such a claim? This underscores a greater phenomenon....the refusal by some to give effect to the rules. Unless you can support your argument, why bother.....anybody can be disagreeable just for the sake of being disagreeabe!:dis:
No one decides anything. The BCS is only a bowl arrangement with an agreement that USAToday (ESPN no longer affilitated) names the winner as #1. As far as I'm concerned, the NCAA does not recognize a champion in Div I-A football so it's really up to each individual to choose what to recognize: the AP poll or the USAToday poll? The AP poll has no value? What will you say if LSU somehow gets the AP #1 and someone else gets the USAToday #1? It's possible. The only answer is an NCAA playoff, just like Div I-AA and Div II http://ncaasports.com/football/mens/schedules
It goes back to ancient Rome ... ok, not that far back, but it does go back to the old days when the AP (first poll in 1936) and UPI (first poll in 1950) were the two major polls determing the MNC. The UPI was eventually replaced with the Coaches Poll (1991?). There have been many other polls come and go, but these two have been the main players for many years. The AP poll never agreed to crown its champ based on who won the BCS title game, but the Coaches poll did. Since the media is part of the AP and get to report whatever they want, we will continue to have co-champs until we have a playoff. The real problem is that the NCAA refuses to crown a Div 1-A college football champ like they do in every other NCAA sport.
USC didnt have to play by the rules in 2003. Why? Because they are USC and have a long history with the AP.
Using the logic many of you have used, I have come to a conclusion. Even with the BCS system and BCS championship game. It is all mostly determined by the votes of human beings and not by head to head play on the football field. Therefore, there has never been a national champion in college football.
