Michigan coach disappointed in BCS title-game snub
Posted: Monday December 4, 2006 12:30AM; Updated: Monday December 4, 2006 12:30AM
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Lloyd Carr is going to let people read between the lines.
Sunday night, the Michigan coach wouldn't directly say that his Wolverines should be headed to the BCS national championship game. But he wasn't making it hard to guess how he felt.
"I don't think there is any question that there are flaws in the system," Carr said on a Rose Bowl teleconference. "I hope that, in the future, we can have a system where all of the answers are decided on the field."
Michigan entered the weekend ranked No. 3 and helpless to do anything but watch, having finished its regular season with a 42-39 loss to top-ranked Ohio State on Nov. 18.
The Wolverines got what they appeared to need when No. 2 USC lost to UCLA, but, as it turned out, that wasn't enough to get Michigan a rematch with its archrival. Instead, the team will be facing USC in Pasadena, Calif., while Ohio State plays Florida, which jumped from fourth to second after beating Arkansas in the SEC title game.
"My statement is that I don't think they would have moved ahead of us if USC had won their game," Carr said of the Gators. "I don't know what the voters were thinking -- you'd have to ask them -- but I don't think there's any question that if USC wins, we remain No. 3."
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel chose to abstain in this weekend's coaches poll instead of helping decide which team he would face in the title game. It was a move that Carr would only touch on briefly.
"I thought it was real slick," said Carr, who also said he could not see any situation where he would give up his vote.
Carr was careful to say all the right things about Michigan's third trip to the Rose Bowl in the last four years.
"The Rose Bowl is not a consolation -- it is the greatest tradition in college football," he said. "I've always felt that there's no better experience for a college football player than to play in the Rose Bowl."
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said he voted Michigan No. 2 on his ballot.
"I didn't play Florida. I played Michigan, I played them at home and they beat us soundly. I thought from my end it was a fairly easy decision," Weis said.
Carr said that a traditional Big Ten vs. Pac-10 matchup in the Rose Bowl is even more appropriate this year after the Nov. 17 death of his mentor, Bo Schembechler.
"Coach John Robinson spoke at coach Schembechler's memorial, and he talked about the tradition of USC and Michigan," Carr said. "We have great respect for USC, for the Rose Bowl and for that tradition."
The Wolverines will be looking for their first postseason victory since beating Florida 38-30 in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2003. Michigan lost to USC and Texas in the next two Rose Bowls before dropping a 32-28 decision to Nebraska in last season's Alamo Bowl.
"We'd like to win one of these," Carr said. "We've done some great things to get to the Rose Bowl, but now we need to win one."
They'll be facing a USC team that was hoping for a fourth-straight shot at a national title and a coach who understands Carr's frustration. The Trojans won the 2003 AP national title despite being left out of the BCS championship game.
"I completely understand what coach Carr is having to deal with under the BCS system and the challenge he faces," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "I respect him for the way he is handling it."
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