If Pete Carroll thought Election Day was the time to get away with calling out the Bowl Championship Series, man was he wrong. At his Tuesday press conference, with just a few less people than the Barack Obama rally in Chicago, Carroll spoke his mind about the BCS, and it was basically what you'd expect from a 7-1 Pac-10 team ranked 7th in the last BSC poll, if by that I meant the complete opposite.
"I think it stinks. I don't think it's the way it should be," Carroll said concerning how college football crowns its champion. "But all we can do is keep talking about it."
"I don't understand how the thing works, I don't really know," he said. "Maybe you guys will answer for it one of these days. Maybe you know and I don't. I'm sure you do. "What is the criteria of the process? Is it to pick the team that has the best season, that has the season that you like the most and feel best about voting for? Or is it the best team at the end of the year, the team that would win a playoff system if you did have it?" he said.
You know, a lot of people, including president-elect Obama, hates the BCS, but is Carroll really in a proper place to be speaking out against this thing? Did you know that for the last six seasons, USC has made a BCS game, twice making the National Championship game? Granted Southern California has had a couple of very talented teams but they do still play in the weak Pac-10 and to calling out the BCS for one year when they might actually be getting it right seems a bit loony.
(It is also a decent time to speak of Oregon State, the team that beat USC. The Beavers lost to Penn State by 31, Stanford by eight, and Utah by three. Also, in 2007 USC got beat by Stanford at home, which would have been the equivalent of Ron Paul upsetting in this election. The year before that, Carroll's team was upset again by Oregon State and UCLA.)
While the No. 7 spot in the BCS might seem harsh, the teams in front of them are all legit. Oklahoma has only lost to Texas, Florida lost a heart-breaker to Ole Miss but came back with convincing wins over LSU and Georgia, both ranked in the top-6 at the time. Texas played the four toughest games of anyone this season, winning three and nearly coming back in the last on the road in a place that would have made the Roman Colosseum look tame. Penn State is undefeated and while they play in the Big Ten, has the same huge win that USC sports, and you end with Texas Tech and Alabama, who deserve to be exactly where they are.
The head coach continued to go off on the BCS process, even calling out the computing system that most Joe Six Packs have hated for many moons.
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"I don't know how the computer thing works," Carroll said. "I don't get that part of it. I don't know how the computer knows how good another team is. I don't understand that. I don't know how they can evaluate who you're playing and stuff and all that."
Well, the computing system is flawed, we all can agree on that, but anyone that watches college football this year would agree that USC is not a top-4 team. Sadly Pete, this is the same argument coaches and players have had about you and your team for the past few seasons.
Everyone likes riding that bull until the darn things turns its horns on you.
Pete Carroll Thinks the BCS 'Stinks' originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
