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Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Thursday, January 4, 2001

Sooners save us
from split decision

OKLAHOMA OK. Here's to the Sooners for winning the national football championship with a 13-2 victory over Florida State in the Orange Bowl last night for a perfect 13-0 season.

There's no recount needed to know who's No. 1 when you're the only undefeated team in the nation.

The Sooners settled all debate by claiming the undisputed national championship in this season's Bowl Championship Series title game.

Thanks to the Sooners, a lot of trees were saved. The newsprint can now be used for commentary other than whining about polls and computer rankings or calling for the need to have a playoff system to determine the national champion.

Claims this season by Miami and Washington that they should be No. 1 if the Sooners lost to Florida State are now moot. They didn't.

There's only one No. 1 in the nation -- Oklahoma.

The Sooners went unbeaten, just as Florida State did last season and Tennessee the year before when they won the national titles.

All this shows that a playoff system to determine the national champion isn't really necessary. It's not worth the time, effort or expense of an already prolonged college football season.

That was the main reason why I was rooting for the Sooners, the OU kids of this college football season.

Besides, the BCS is a flawed system anyway. It can be subject to a lot of politicking. That Notre Dame had been selected despite being lower ranked than Nebraska or Virginia Tech is Exhibit A.

And how the BCS determined the two teams that played for the national title also created a lively debate.

Miami, No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, ranked No. 3 in the BCS ratings, was a scant fraction of a point behind Florida State despite a 27-24 victory over the Seminoles.

The Hurricanes had a legitimate claim to be No. 1, if Oklahoma had lost last night.

Washington coach Rick Neuheisel also lobbied for his Huskies after beating Purdue in the Rose Bowl, 34-24.

Like Miami, they were also 10-1. Besides, they beat the Hurricanes, 34-29. As Neuheisel points out, his Huskies won the Rose Bowl, and beat teams who won the Fiesta Bowl (Oregon State) and Sugar Bowl (Miami). His case was thrown out by the Sooners.

But the contrived BCS will continue to merrily creak along, evolving as it goes.

Next year, the Rose Bowl will host the BCS title game, meaning that for the first time in more than 50 years, Pac-10 and Big Ten champions might not be playing each other.

With its brutal schedule, the Big Ten champion will find it difficult to qualify as one of the two top teams in the BCS standings that'll play in Pasadena.

IF the Pac-10 winner doesn't qualify, it'll be assigned to the Fiesta Bowl.

The Big Ten has decided not to align its champion with another bowl. If it doesn't play in the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten champion will be selected to either the Sugar or Orange Bowl.

Here's hoping, though, that ABC and BCS officials will spare us from a repeat fiasco like it did selecting Notre Dame because of TV ratings.

The Fighting Irish had no business playing in a BCS bowl. Oregon State proved it with a butt-kicking 41-9 victory.

It was one of the most humiliating losses for college football's most storied program, one which has its own national television network.

Notre Dame didn't deliver on the field or in the TV ratings. The Fiesta Bowl had a six percent decline in ratings.

The Irish, though, did get to laugh all the way to the bank with a $12 million payoff.