Bowl Games

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Bowl Games

 

In BCS, deserve’s got nothing to do with it

 

DON RUIZ; THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Published: December 9th, 2005 02:30 AM

 

I’ve come to believe that most of life can be explained through Clint Eastwood’s classic Western “Unforgiven.”

Today, the film offers something for Oregon fans complaining that their Ducks deserved an invitation to the Fiesta Bowl.

 

There is a scene late in “Unforgiven” in which sadistic sheriff Little Bill Daggett is sprawled on his back and about to die. He looks up at the man who will kill him, gunslinger William Munny, and says, “I don’t deserve this.”

 

Munny looks down with his pitiless blue eyes and speaks the last words Daggett will hear – and the words Oregon fans need to hear now: “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

 

Maybe it would be a better world if it did. There’s some appeal to a utopia where every team begins every season with an even chance of ending it in a Bowl Championship Series game.

 

In that world, the Ducks would be flying south to the Fiesta Bowl instead of the decidedly more second-tier Holiday Bowl.

 

In this world, the BCS has two primary functions: matching the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in a national title game, and funneling obscene amounts of money into a handful of favored pockets.

 

In that quest, the BCS sometimes favors TV-friendly bowl matchups over “deserving” teams.

 

That is good or bad depending on your point of view.

 

Oregon sees it as bad because surely most of us can agree that a 10-1 Pacific-10 Conference team whose only loss came to the unbeaten defending national champion is at least as “deserving” of a high-profile bowl as 10-1 Penn State, 9-2 Ohio State or 10-2 Georgia, and more so than 9-2 Notre Dame, 10-1 West Virginia and 8-4 Florida State.

 

But deserve’s got nothing to do with the BCS.

 

While Oregon fans might prefer watching the Ducks play the Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl, everyone else seems pretty content with Ohio State-Notre Dame.

 

Jerry Seinfeld – almost the equal of “Unforgiven” as a life compass – has rightly observed that fans root for laundry.

 

And the fact is, most fans like the idea of those Notre Dame uniforms, and all the history they represent, lining up against Ohio State uniforms, and all the history they represent.

 

Most fans probably like it even if they concede that the players in those Oregon uniforms might beat the players in those Notre Dame or Ohio State uniforms.

 

If talent were all that mattered, any NFL game would be “better” than any college game, and any college game would be “better” than any high school game.

 

Fans apply other tests. “Deserve” isn’t the highest one.

 

By most fans’ standards, the BCS system – for all its flaws – has served its purpose this season.

 

In the Orange Bowl, any weaknesses in the on-field pairing of Penn State and Florida State is overcome by the compelling sideline match of coaches Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden.

 

In the Sugar Bowl, West Virginia and Georgia offer a combined 20-3 record.

 

In the Rose Bowl, the BCS offers its greatest gift: allowing an undisputed No. 1 and No. 2 – undefeated Southern California and Texas – to settle the national championship.

 

And while that will be a much-anticipated climax, the lead-up of non-BCS bowls offers some pretty good pairings. Some highlights, and one lowlight:

 

• Peach Bowl (Dec. 30): Louisiana State (9-2) and Miami (9-2) are proud programs that began the season as national contenders.

 

• Holiday Bowl (Dec 29): Even if it’s a disappointing consolation prize for the Ducks, Oregon (10-1) and Oklahoma (7-4) offer a look at one team trying to join the national elite against a traditional elite that has slipped.

 

• Alamo Bowl (Dec. 28): Not the best Michigan and Nebraska teams (both 7-4), but again, there’s a lot of tradition in that laundry.

 

• MPC Computers Bowl (Dec. 28): Boise State (9-3) vs. Boston College (8-3) is just the kind of fascinating intersectional matchup that gives even meaningless minor bowls a reason for existing.

 

• New Orleans Bowl (Dec. 20): I attended Southern Mississippi, so I say this as a loving family member: Arkansas State (6-5) vs. Southern Miss (6-5) is a matchup so bad that it almost takes on moral implications. When departed viewers reach those pearly gates, Saint Peter might reasonably ask how, in our limited time on this imperfect Earth, we could possibly justify devoting three hours of our lives to such a game.

 

Don Ruiz: 253-597-8808

 

don.ruiz@thenewstribune.com