SPORTS: BCS System shows its flaws

Only in Division I-A Football can three teams play for two national titles in the space of 4 days. Number one-ranked USC beat number four-ranked Michigan in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2004 to claim the AP Title and number two-ranked LSU beat number-three ranked Oklahoma in the Sugar bowl on January 4, 2004 to claim the BCS/ Coaches Title. This worst-case scenario that the BCS backers have feared since the system inception in 1998 has finally come to pass.

After Oklahoma�s loss to Kansas State the pollsters dropped them from number 1 to number 3 in both the AP and coaches poll.

The seven computers, that help calculate the BCS rankings, must have missed that game. Of the seven computers five of them still had Oklahoma number one. The reason given for the computer prejudice is the strength of schedule rating. Since USC plays in the PAC-10 their strength of schedule is far less than that of Oklahoma who plays in the Big 12.

The BCS set out to create a system for crowning an undisputed national champ but all that we have today is a split national championship and a system that is a national chump. We will never know for sure who is the real 2003 national champion not because of human error as it was in the past but because of computer error.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com



[Edited on 5-1-2004 by SkepticOverlord]