Utah should have been ahead of USC. The way they pounded Bama... No gimmick statue of liberty plays, no lateral passes, no BS. They played football. They sacked the QB and took it to the SEC. So ya, they should be co-champs.
Utah deserves a shot at the national title (be in a playoff) but no they are not the national champion. Anyone who saw how narrow their margin was versus TCU at home (an opponent Utah clearly looked inferior to yet got big breaks) knows they are probably not one of the 4 best teams. Jumping on a deflated Bama plagued with suspensions/injuries hardly throws out their performances versus TCU, Michigan, New Mexico, Air Force, Oregon State. The winner of tonights game + Utah + SC + Texas all have cases honestly. I hope they all get votes for #1 just to highlight what a mess it is.
Not sure if this has been posted or not, but Rick Reilly at ESPN nailed the BCS to the cross here... http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3815656
By this standard, anyone who saw USC against Oregon State, Florida against Ole Miss, Texas against Tech, and OU against Florida knows they are not the national champion. Utah beat two teams that will end in the top 10 - the same as either Florida or OU (depending on who wins tonight), and more than Texas or USC. More importantly, they didn't lose any games - unlike any of those other teams. I agree here - I hope the AP gives a few votes to everyone and causes a mess.
No. It doesn't prove they're NOT the real champions but if you gave Utah the same schedule as Florida, Oklahoma or Texas they wouldn't finish undefeated. You can probably add USC to that list too. Given how flawed the BCS format is, I agree there should have been an "I don't know" option. Since that wasn't present and considering that I think deep down we all know Utah isn't one of the four best teams, I have to vote 'no' in this poll.
But you could say that about a lot of national champions outside of the SEC and B12. The last decade or so, you'd have about 2 top ten teams in each of those conferences. If USC or Ohio State or Miami had to face those schedules in their championship years, they might not have gone undefeated - but we don't deny them a title based on what might have happened. If you're talking about teams like Boise State this year or Hawaii last year, the argument makes sense - because they didn't beat ANY good teams, so they didn't prove it on the field. Or if TX/OU/Fla/USC were undefeated, you could make the argument that they did it with a tougher schedule. But the reality is that all the teams with a tougher schedule lost a game. And Utah had a pretty decent schedule. They have 2 wins over top 10 teams, 4 wins over top 25 teams, and 6 wins over bowl teams. That's not as strong a schedule as Florida, USC, OU, or Texas, but on the top end, it's better than a lot of Big East and Big 10 teams faced. If Penn State or West Virginia were undefeated, they would have been the national champs. Why not Utah?
Every national championship is going to be subjective until a playoff system is established. It's time to put an end to this illegal BCS cartel.
So, in that case, the BCS should say "we don't accept champs from the [insert names of what you think are weak conferences here]" BEFORE they vote on any game. But... they should have a shot. I didn't vote for anything up there. I don't know too much about college football... but... meh, who cares what conference they're in? If they win convincingly and don't let good teams beat them, then they should be considered.
yes, anyone who denies it is out of their mind and must be a sooner, longhorn, gator etc if you went undefeated, the only team to go undefeated, would you seriously be fine not to be called the national champion?
USC is a bad example. The year they won and next year when they again went undefeated before losing to Vince Young and the most predictable play in college football history, not many were arguing they weren't one of the best two teams. Their out-of-conference schedules were always decent plus the P10 usually produced a couple serious teams outside of USC. For the years they played for the championship I believe they had as many wins over ranked opponents as anybody else making a case, IIRC. Same with Miami. I shouldn't have to remind you of how strong the Big East used to be before the ACC gutted it. In 2001, the year they won, I believe they set some kind of record for margin of victory over ranked opponents. They were nearly untouchable with the exception of the few inevitable slips here & there. They deserved to play for the championship and judging by how badly they killed Nebraska I think the evidence speaks for itself. They were just as good in 2002, as well. They beat something like five ranked opponents before they got screwed out of a repeat national title. Ohio State is the best example to support this theory. It more or less speaks volumes to how the B10 has regressed and how the polls/voters/BCS seem to ignore this. Being the headline team from a notorious powerhouse of a conference has undoubtedly helped Ohio State out 2/3 past years. People are probably now starting to realize the compromising position the B10 has put the selection process in. I think people have learned from example given the outcome the past two times Ohio State was awarded a spot to play for a championship and hopefully won't make the same mistake again. I still contend that OSU's ineptitude in big games is not grounds for B10 disqualification from future NC games. You can't punish an entire conference for one team's shortcomings. That's a different discussion, though. I agree Utah's case is unique. It's very hard for me to take this stance and part of me wants to agree with you. Who is this second top 10 team you speak of aside from an obvious deflated Alabama team? TCU? I respect your opinion but I simply cannot condone the 0 loss/okay SOS > 1 loss/strong SOS theory. Utah's pre-bowl ranked opponent victories includes two wins over teams that basically came out of nowhere. Nobody expected them to be any good and in BYU's case they simply benefited from playing nobody. Sure, their win against Bama was impressive but if you tried convincing me beforehand that they deserved a spot in the NC game I would have considered it a complete joke. That complete joke has now been reduced to a tough moral dilemma but again, I simply can't agree with ya on this one. Like the rest of you guys, I wish it was as easy as just saying "Let em play one more". I would love to see Florida/OU winner vs. USC, Texas or Utah. Apparently a playoff format just makes too much sense?
if you look at the body of work of the team over the course of a season - the answer is ABSOLUTELY F-KING NOT. It's not possible to even make the argument with a straight face.
I don't know if they would be the champs but they should be playing in the game tonight. They did the Bama who was the #1 team for most of the second half of the season. Again, this goes back to a playoff.
The thing is though that very few people will remember the controversy in 4-5 yrs. At most they will only remember who got the trophy. For example, how many people still remember how #3 Florida St got into the championship game despite losing to the #2 team Miami (who had lost to the #4 Washington)? How many people remember the fiasco that was Nebraska making the championship game over the Colorado team that had beat the Huskersand Texas in the Buff's last two games? Already most people have forgotten that Auburn went undefeated and was left out of championship shot and it won't be long before people forget about how OU snuck into the championship game despite losing the Big 12 game to KSU. No one will ever remember this controversy and when no one remembers the controversy, who was given the BCS trophy over time becomes a clear and definite champion. Sad but true.
A clear champion on the BCS record books...but nobody willl actually REMEMBER them, unlike the great teams who won great games like 2005 Texas, 2004 USC, 2002 Ohio State, 2001 Miami........etc etc etc. THey'll be a champ in the same way that 2003 LSU was the champ...the team that happened to be in the right place at the right time, indistiguishable from their contemporaries.
I have made up my mind and I will give the title to Utah as well. This is why I hate college football. You have people that believe the Gators are #1, some who do not, some who think other teams deserve consideration, and so on and so forth. Last year, did anybody say that Memphis, Duke, UNC, or anything team deserved some consideration for the national basketball title along with Kansas? What about Georgia, Miami, or Florida State deserving some consideration for the baseball title along with Fresno State? It's absolutely ridiculous how the national title is decided in college football and until it is fixed (which will probably be never) it will remain very distant on the list of sports I enjoy .
Well apparently a fair amount of voters thought Utah was national championship caliber as they have come in 2nd in the final AP poll. I'm surprised OU and Texas dropped so far. http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9052530/AP-Top-25:-Gators-are-No.-1,-Utes-surge-to-No.-2?MSNHPHMA AP Top 25: Gators are No. 1, Utes surge to No. 2 MIAMI (AP) - Florida is No. 1 in the AP Top 25. Utah is perfect at No. 2, though not perfectly happy. Texas and Southern California also claimed to be the best - but media voters didn't think so. The Gators received 48 first-place votes and 1,606 points in the poll released early Friday, after they beat Oklahoma 24-14 in the BCS national title game. Utah, the only team in major college football to go undefeated this season, got 16 first-place votes and 1,519 points. "I thought we had an outside chance," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said in a telephone interview with the AP. "There was enough national sentiment, I thought we might get the No. 1 slot. It wasn't to be." Florida won its third AP national championship and second in the last three seasons. Steve Spurrier and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel led the Gators to the 1996 title. No. 3 USC received one first-place vote. Texas was No. 4, and will have to settle with finishing ahead of fifth-ranked Oklahoma. The Longhorns beat the Sooners in the regular season and thought they deserved OU's spot in both the Big 12 and national championship games. The Utes from the Mountain West Conference swept through their regular season, while Florida and Alabama from the SEC, Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and Southern California from the Pac-10, jockeyed for position in the national title chase. The Mountain West does not have an automatic bid to the BCS - it's not considered a strong enough league to deserve one - but the Utes earned their way in. Utah was seventh in the final regular-season poll, but that perfect record looked much more impressive after the Utes beat Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl last week. "All you can do is go out and beat the people on the schedule, which was exactly what our guys did," Whittingham said. Whittingham proclaimed his team No. 1. USC's Pete Carroll had already done that after the Trojans' 38-24 victory in the Rose Bowl against Penn State. Texas coach Mack Brown followed suit, proudly touting his Longhorns as the nation's best after a 24-21 victory over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl earlier this week. Whittingham said he would vote his team No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, even though the American Football Coaches Association has agreed to have all its voters place the winner of the BCS national championship game first on their ballots. Utah did receive one first-place vote in the coaches' poll and finished fourth. Whittingham isn't worried about losing his vote. "That's their call," he said. "I have to look out for my players." Brown said he'd vote for his team, too. Carroll has never had a vote in the coaches' poll, always skeptical of the way major college football crowns a champion. Florida's Urban Meyer became the 17th coach to win multiple AP national championships. "I'll tell you, we're going to enjoy a big win, we're going to enjoy the national championship," he said, brushing off questions about other coaches claiming their team is best. "Let someone else worry about that. Gators are No. 1" Alabama's loss to Utah dropped the Crimson Tide to No. 6 in the final poll. TCU, Utah's Mountain West rival, finished seventh, followed by Penn State, Ohio State and Oregon. Boise State led off the second 10, followed by Texas Tech, Georgia, Mississippi and Virginia Tech. Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, Oregon State, Missouri and Iowa rounded out the top 20. Florida State, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Michigan State and BYU were the final five.
There is not now nor has there ever been a National Champion in college football. If I had to pick my top team this year though it would be Utah. Only in college football is a champion elected.... what a joke.
