Belligerant Complaint System

All right -- who wants a college football playoff system, raise your hand. Ok, good. Me too. Glad to get that out of the way. But you know what I want almost more than that? For people to stop complaining about the BCS.

"The BCS kept the unanimous #1 team in the nation out of the championship game in 2003!"

"The BCS is too complicated!"

"The BCS ran over my dog with it's mini-van!"

Wah, wah, wah. I'm legitimately sorry if something happened to your dog, but it's well past time for the rest of you to give some rest to the rest of us.

2003 almost always seems to be exhibit A, so let's look at that. The outcry was thunderous when Oklahoma and LSU played for the championship despite USC (the one in California) being ranked #1 in both the AP and coaches poll. "It's UNANIMOUS!" people cried. Well, half of that sentence is true -- people cried! And it's true that USC was #1 in each poll, but neither was "unanimous". All three teams -- each with one loss -- received first place votes, which is the very definition of NOT unanimous. You know what WAS unanimous, though? That EVERY computer poll used had Oklahoma ranked #1. So how obnoxious is it that everybody was all mad and said that they had to change the computers? It's like this -- people realized that the human polls are subject to any number of biases, weaknesses, and subjectivities, and so intentionally and knowingly they implemented and factored in a computer ranking which -- although subject to it's own set of weaknesses -- would provide clear objective input to balance out the subjectivity of human voters. But when people didn't like what they had to say, you would have thought that Skynet had become self-aware.

Also, do people realize that before the BCS, all three teams would have played in different games and probably nothing would have been resolved? I'm not saying that a playoff wouldn't be better -- it would. But isn't this a whole lot better than it was before? So you're not eating at Morton's. I'm sorry. But yesterday you were asking for "More gruel, please!" and today you're grilling burgers and pork chops. Stop complaining.

Side note -- here's why USC didn't "deserve" to play for the championship, in my opinion. 1) They lost a game. In college football, when you lose, you forfeit any RIGHT to play for the championship. You may still be granted a chance, but you've left it up to chance, and now you just have to hope for the best. Sorry. Now of course this applies to OU and LSU also, but the next criteria does not; 2) What happened in their conference championship game? Oh yeah, they didn't play one. LSU had one loss in their regular season and then won their POST-season SEC Championship game, which gave them one more win -- and a BIG win -- then USC had. Oklahoma had ZERO losses in their regular season (playing the most difficult schedule of the three teams in question!), and then lost their POST-season Big 12 Championship game. People's reaction -- as incredible as it seems -- was that OU should be penalized for losing their extra game for which USC had NO CORRELATE AT ALL when they'd won ALL their regular season games. OU went 12-0 in their regular season. USC went 11-1. Then OU dropped their EXTRA game, which USC didn't play. Now somebody explain to me how that makes USC more deserving.

Side note two -- to USC people who have "claimed" the championship -- where's your trophy? Huh? Baton Rouge? Why does the inscription say "Louisiana State University"? Boy, if I was the athletic director at USC, I'd have this situation addressed immediately!

For what it's worth, this year the computers hate OU. You know what? That's tough. We lost to Colorado, and so now we have to hope for the best.

Now how about this "it's all too complicated" garbage. Seriously, the people on tv have been saying this for years. The one's who, it's their JOB to know about it? When OU starting entering into the picture, I looked the formula up on-line, read for about 5 minutes, and said "Oh, ok. I get it." My IQ is not in the genius range. Think about stuff, it's not that hard. Goodness.

There are other complaints, but they're all crap too. Some people talk about how a playoff would do away with all controversy. Really? Is that why everybody's so happy and controversy-free after the field for the 65-team basketball tournament is revealed? Or how about "settle it on the field!" Yep, that's what the whole process is based on, is what happens on the field. And now, since the BCS came along, we've had a real championship game on the field, too. See how much better that is!

Again, I'm not saying a playoff wouldn't be better. It would. I'm for that! But you know what else I'm for? Less whining and victimization. Play football. Win your games. Have a good time. Go back home. See? Now everybody wins. (Not you, Baylor.)