douxpaysan
11/29/2007, 05:14 PM
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Mizzou is getting screwed through fault of its own
Nov. 27, 2007 By Gregg Doyel CBSSports.com National Columnist Tell Gregg your opinion!
Missouri has earned a spot in the national championship game. That conversation should be over. The Tigers have done everything Ohio State has done -- played 12 games, won 11 -- and has been deemed by man, computer and the androids running the BCS to have done it better than Ohio State.
Go ahead and celebrate a big win Missouri, but your job isn't finished yet. (Getty Images)
But it's not over. Missouri has earned a spot in the BCS title game, but isn't there just yet. The Tigers' reward for a season well played is a 13th game, a quasi regular-season game against Oklahoma, for the official Big 12 title. And if Missouri loses on Saturday to Oklahoma, Missouri loses its spot in the BCS title game.
Ohio State would go instead. This is an outrage, but I'm struggling with one thing: Who gets my outrage? And who gets my sympathy?
As it stands right now, Missouri looks like the sympathetic figure. Poor Tigers. They've gone 11-1, and if the Big 12 didn't have a money-grubbing conference title game, Missouri would be resting up for its Jan. 7 shot at a national championship.
And as it stands now, Ohio State is the irritant. The Buckeyes have done nothing wrong, but the biggest thing they've done right is play in a conference that doesn't have a league title game. Because if Ohio State had to play a 13th game -- say, against Illinois, the only team to beat the Buckeyes this season -- Ohio State would be in the same boat as Missouri: Congrats on winning 11 of 12; now go win a 12th.
But that's not the case. Ohio State had to win 11 of 12. Missouri will have to win 12 of 13. Nowhere in America can you rationalize that for me. Poor Missouri. Ugly Ohio State. Those appear to be the battle lines.
But they're not.
See, Missouri put itself in this position. Missouri, you could say, deserves to be in this position. Certainly the Big 12 as a whole deserves to enter every season knowing that its members' path to the national championship will be rockier than that of the three BCS leagues that don't have to navigate a conference title game: the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big East.
Missouri is about to be screwed, but the Tigers don't get a free public relations pass in 2007 -- not after what happened in 1994. That was the year the Big 8 and the Southwest Conference (mostly) merged, creating a 12-school corporate conglomerate that pandered to television from the beginning by selling its soul league to television, creating a conference title game that makes millions for the Big 12 membership but makes the current inequity facing Missouri.
Over the years the Tigers have made millions of dollars off the Big 12 title game, despite never playing in it. The Big 12, like the SEC and the ACC, is socialist. Money is split up among everyone, regardless of who deserves it. That's socialist, right? Whatever it is, it creates annual anarchy at the top of the BCS.
Most years, the dominant regular-season team from at least one of those dollar-chasing leagues -- the Big 12, SEC and ACC -- has to survive another hurdle in early December to preserve its rightful place in the BCS title game. Florida has managed to win its conference title game and go on to win the national title as well. LSU has done it. Texas. Oklahoma. Tennessee.
It can happen, but that's not the point. Here's the point:
It shouldn't have to happen
http://cbs.sportsline.com...y/10498095
Mizzou is getting screwed through fault of its own
Nov. 27, 2007 By Gregg Doyel CBSSports.com National Columnist Tell Gregg your opinion!
Missouri has earned a spot in the national championship game. That conversation should be over. The Tigers have done everything Ohio State has done -- played 12 games, won 11 -- and has been deemed by man, computer and the androids running the BCS to have done it better than Ohio State.
Go ahead and celebrate a big win Missouri, but your job isn't finished yet. (Getty Images)
But it's not over. Missouri has earned a spot in the BCS title game, but isn't there just yet. The Tigers' reward for a season well played is a 13th game, a quasi regular-season game against Oklahoma, for the official Big 12 title. And if Missouri loses on Saturday to Oklahoma, Missouri loses its spot in the BCS title game.
Ohio State would go instead. This is an outrage, but I'm struggling with one thing: Who gets my outrage? And who gets my sympathy?
As it stands right now, Missouri looks like the sympathetic figure. Poor Tigers. They've gone 11-1, and if the Big 12 didn't have a money-grubbing conference title game, Missouri would be resting up for its Jan. 7 shot at a national championship.
And as it stands now, Ohio State is the irritant. The Buckeyes have done nothing wrong, but the biggest thing they've done right is play in a conference that doesn't have a league title game. Because if Ohio State had to play a 13th game -- say, against Illinois, the only team to beat the Buckeyes this season -- Ohio State would be in the same boat as Missouri: Congrats on winning 11 of 12; now go win a 12th.
But that's not the case. Ohio State had to win 11 of 12. Missouri will have to win 12 of 13. Nowhere in America can you rationalize that for me. Poor Missouri. Ugly Ohio State. Those appear to be the battle lines.
But they're not.
See, Missouri put itself in this position. Missouri, you could say, deserves to be in this position. Certainly the Big 12 as a whole deserves to enter every season knowing that its members' path to the national championship will be rockier than that of the three BCS leagues that don't have to navigate a conference title game: the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big East.
Missouri is about to be screwed, but the Tigers don't get a free public relations pass in 2007 -- not after what happened in 1994. That was the year the Big 8 and the Southwest Conference (mostly) merged, creating a 12-school corporate conglomerate that pandered to television from the beginning by selling its soul league to television, creating a conference title game that makes millions for the Big 12 membership but makes the current inequity facing Missouri.
Over the years the Tigers have made millions of dollars off the Big 12 title game, despite never playing in it. The Big 12, like the SEC and the ACC, is socialist. Money is split up among everyone, regardless of who deserves it. That's socialist, right? Whatever it is, it creates annual anarchy at the top of the BCS.
Most years, the dominant regular-season team from at least one of those dollar-chasing leagues -- the Big 12, SEC and ACC -- has to survive another hurdle in early December to preserve its rightful place in the BCS title game. Florida has managed to win its conference title game and go on to win the national title as well. LSU has done it. Texas. Oklahoma. Tennessee.
It can happen, but that's not the point. Here's the point:
It shouldn't have to happen
http://cbs.sportsline.com...y/10498095