BCS - Florida Over Michigan By A Hair, Will Play Ohio State - ESPN

We will see how this plays out. As I think about it, Florida has the speed to keep up with Ohio State, so while the people in the East may not like it, it may be the best matchup after all. As for Michigan, it gets to play USC, and so now must beat the Trojans and hope for an Ohio State loss to clam that the BCS was a mess to begin with.

Updated: Dec. 4, 2006, 8:00 AM ET
Gators win right to face Buckeyes in BCS title game
Associated Press

Florida beat Michigan on Sunday in the only game that mattered.

The Gators, who lobbied hard for this victory, were picked to play No. 1 Ohio State for college football's national championship, ending any chance for the Wolverines to get the rematch they so desired and thought they deserved.

The Gators had a BCS average of .944, and the Wolverines were just behind at .934. The teams were tied in the computer ratings, but Florida had a 38-point lead in the Harris poll and a 26-point advantage in the coaches' poll.

All these factors were sure to set off renewed calls to scrap the BCS and go to a playoff. Count Florida coach Urban Meyer as supporter of that plan.

"We're beyond the fact of do we need a playoff," he said. "It's now, can we get one."

Of course, Southern California could have made things simpler by beating UCLA on Saturday. Instead, the second-ranked Trojans were upset 13-9, dropping in the standings and clearing the way for Florida (12-1) or Michigan (11-1).

The Gators leapfrogged idle Michigan by winning the Southeastern Conference championship game, 38-28, over Arkansas.

"It's well deserved, and I'm proud of it," Meyer said of the Gators' selection.

The BCS Championship Game is Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.

Michigan's consolation prize is a Rose Bowl bid to play USC (10-2), a classic Big Ten vs. Pac-10 matchup of teams left to wonder what could have been.

"I don't think they [Florida] would have moved ahead of us if USC would have won the game," said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr.

In other bowls:

• Big 12 champion Oklahoma will meet unbeaten Boise State in the Tostitos Fiesta on Jan. 1.

• Big East champion Louisville will play ACC champion Wake Forest in the FedEx Orange on Jan. 2.

• LSU will take Florida's spot in the Allstate Sugar and play Notre Dame on Jan. 3.

When the Wolverines ended their regular season with a 42-39 loss to the Buckeyes two weeks ago, they talked about getting another swing at their Big Ten rivals.


Teams ranked in BCS Top 2
to lose final regular-season game
Year Team Lost to
2006 No. 2 USC UCLA
2006 No. 2 Michigan No. 1 Ohio State
2003 No. 1 Oklahoma No. 15 Kansas State
2003 No. 2 Ohio State No. 9 Michigan
2001 No. 2 Tennessee LSU
2001 No. 2 Florida No. 6 Tennessee
2001 No. 1 Nebraska No. 15 Colorado
1998 No. 2 UCLA Miami
While Michigan was left to wait and hope, the other contenders still had games to play.

As Florida padded its resume, second-year coach Meyer became very vocal about getting a chance to play Ohio State, especially when it appeared the Gators would be left out.

He called for a playoff and suggested the BCS should be imploded if the SEC champ again was left out of the championship game -- the way undefeated Auburn was in 2004.

In the end, he said he didn't think voicing his opinions about the BCS helped push his team into the title game.

"It's an imperfect system," Meyer said Sunday. "If you want a true national championship, the only way to do it is on the field.

Carr agreed: "I hope one day we have a system where all the issues are decided on the field."

But Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, however, isn't so sure about a playoff system.

"With a 12-game season, it would be next to impossible to have a 16-team playoff," he said Sunday. "We'll continually improve the system. As you look at it over the past few years, it has gotten better and better."

It's always something with the BCS. The system was created to make sure No. 1 and No. 2 played in the final game of the season, but rarely has there been a title game everybody agreed upon. If it's not too many unbeaten teams, which was the case in '04 when USC beat Oklahoma for the title, it's not enough, which has usually been the case. Last year, when USC and Texas were the only undefeateds, was an abberation.

"What we've got is an extremely exciting regular season that the BCS actually enhanced by making so many games important not only in the region that they were played but nationally," said Mike Slive, BCS coordinator and SEC commissioner. "The next part is here we are with many deserving teams.

"We need to continue over the next few years to look at the postseason to make sure it works the way we want it to work."

Slive repeatedly has said he's willing to discuss changes, including the so-called plus-one model, which would have the championship matchup set after the big four bowl games are played.

This year, the BCS worked out for the Gators, who can focus on winning their second national championship. The first came in 1996, when Steve Spurrier's Gators beat Florida State in the Sugar Bowl -- a rematch, coincidentally, of a November regular-season game won by the Seminoles.

Michigan had hoped for a similar scenario, but Carr chose not to publicly pitch for his team.

It's unclear whether that would have helped or whether Meyer swayed some poll voters. Maybe when faced with the possibility of a Michigan-Ohio State rematch, the voters, like Meyer, cringed.

At least one coach, who voted for Michigan, said the possibility of a rematch didn't influence his vote.

"I don't think coaches are, quite frankly, the best people to vote on that poll," said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, who had Michigan No. 2 and Florida No. 3. "But I take it very seriously. I know it's important, because we're dealing with people's lives."

Tressel decided not to get involved at all. He has a vote in the coaches poll but abstained.

"We felt it was somewhat of a conflict of interest," Tressel said.

Tressel said he didn't feel right putting Ohio State in the middle of the decision of who the Buckeyes are supposed to play for the national title.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, a member of the coaches' poll, said there was no scenario in which he would choose not to vote. On Tressel's abstention, Carr said: "I thought it was real slick."

Meyer could empathize with Tressel.

"I made a decision a year ago when I was asked to vote, not to vote for this very reason," he said.

Instead of the 104th meeting between the Wolverines and the Buckeyes, Florida and Ohio State will play for the first time ever.

The Buckeyes have won four national titles, including the 2002 title under Tressel. Ohio State upset Miami 31-24 in an overtime classic at the Fiesta Bowl.

Last year, Ohio State beat Notre Dame 34-20 in the Fiesta Bowl, giving the country a taste of what was to come this season.

The Buckeyes have been No. 1 since the preseason. Led by Heisman Trophy front-runner Troy Smith, they've run roughshod over their competition. Only Michigan and Illinois stayed within 17 points of Ohio State.

Senior quarterback Smith capped his season with four touchdown passes against the Wolverines. He finished with 30 TD passes and five interceptions.

Florida, meanwhile, seemed to struggle almost every week. The Gators won at Tennessee by one in September, and none of their last five victories over I-A teams have been by more than 10 points.

The Gators relied on their defense, a unit ranked 10th nationally in yards allowed and sixth in scoring.

Florida's senior quarterback, Chris Leak, entered the season as a Heisman contender but ended up sharing the job with freshman sensation Tim Tebow.

Tebow's tough running has complemented Leak's passing, but unlike the explosive Buckeyes, Florida's offense has had its ups and downs. The Gators' only loss came Oct. 18 at Auburn, a 27-17 setback that was a four-point game until the Tigers scored on the final play.

"They have a great football team," Tressel said. "When you can win the SEC championship, you're a great football team."

The Gators are back in the BCS for the first time since Spurrier left after the 2002 Orange Bowl, but Boise State (12-0), Louisville (11-1) and Wake Forest (11-2) will make their BCS debuts. Oklahoma (10-2) is a BCS veteran, making its fifth appearance since the 2000 season.

Boise State from the Western Athletic Conference is the second team from outside the original six BCS conferences to play in the big-money bowl games. Meyer's Utah team was the first in 2004.

Notre Dame (10-2) is making its second straight BCS appearance under coach Charlie Weis. The Fighting Irish will be trying to snap an eight-game bowl losing streak against LSU (10-2).

The Tigers were set to make their first Rose Bowl presented by Citi appearance, but USC's loss has them playing in their home state. The Sugar Bowl returns to New Orleans this season after being temporarily relocated to Atlanta last season because of Hurricane Katrina.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press

ESPN's Pat Forde On BCS Selection Probems - ESPN.com

ESPN's Forde is totally correct here. The BCS is a mess once again. This time, Michigan's fans get screwed.

Updated: Dec. 4, 2006, 12:36 AM ET
Whining, politics, voting reversals part of BCS system

By Pat Forde
ESPN.com
Archive

The voters have spoken. Between Gator chomps, here's what they said:

Never mind.

Never mind what we did the last couple of weeks, voting Michigan ahead of Florida. We've changed our minds because, hey, we can.

Because the rematch thing suddenly became too real. Because when Urban Meyer politicks, we listen. Because we thought it was time to throw the embittered SEC a bone after stonewalling Auburn's national title bid two years ago.

We thought the Wolverines were better than Florida back in November -- and even though Michigan hasn't played a down of football since Nov. 18, we've decided that we don't think so anymore. We were dazzled by the Gators' work since that date: a seven-point victory over Florida State and a 10-point win over Arkansas. And we decided that Ohio State-Michigan was not in need of a sequel.

That's our story and we're sticking to it. Now if you'll excuse us, we'd like to put our fake nose and glasses back on and return to anonymity. These publicized ballots make us more accountable than we'd prefer. Goodbye.


Biggest BCS Winners

1. Florida. Obviously.

2. The SEC. Having its champion relegated to third wheel in a two-team party for the second time in three years would have been more than the members of the nation's most powerful and passionate league could handle.

3. Boise State. More inclusive rules allowed the Broncos to make their first-ever BCS game and give the WAC its first BCS player.

4. Wake Forest and Louisville. Both earned their first-ever BCS bids, and one of them will walk away from the Orange Bowl with its first-ever BCS bowl victory.

5. Notre Dame. Nice to be coveted by the Sugar Bowl less than a week after being housed by 20 by USC.

6. The Rose Bowl. No, it didn't get the freshness of an LSU invasion, but it got a throwback matchup of Michigan and USC. That will fit with the tradition of the game.

Once again, Florida and the ballot box have made for a wildly controversial combination. Six years ago it was hanging chads. This year the voters are hanging Chad (Henne) out to dry outside the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game.
Some system, huh? You've got to love a sport that reduces its championship to a politicized popularity contest/guessing game.

I really don't have a problem with a Florida-Ohio State title game. In fact, I prefer it to Ohio State-Michigan -- prefer to see a battle of conference champs, and prefer not to put the Buckeyes in double jeopardy against a team they've already beaten.


But I don't like the way it came about.

On Nov. 26, the Wolverines led the Gators by 86 points in the Harris Poll and 30 points in the USA Today poll. By Sunday morning there had been a 154-point reversal in the Harris poll and a 56-point swing in the USA Today poll.

That was shocking. If you were already predisposed to voting Michigan ahead of Florida, I didn't see enough in that game to merit that kind of turnaround. We certainly didn't see anything from Michigan to merit a demotion, given the fact that the Wolverines weren't playing.

Which makes me suspect that habitual slot voters massaged their ballots simply to block a rematch -- something they should have considered the previous two weeks, it seems.

Or perhaps they simply liked the sound of Meyer's insistent voice, as he lobbied like nobody since Mack Brown groveled Texas into the Rose Bowl two years ago. If we've learned one lesson from recent BCS history, it's this: Whiners win. And that will only breed more whining in the future.


Biggest BCS Losers
1. Michigan. Obviously.
2. Rutgers. A single dropped pass in the end zone plummeted the Scarlet Knights from the Orange Bowl to the Texas Bowl, which is on the NFL Network, which is available in approximately 13 households. That's harsh.

3. The Big Ten. Florida's power play prevented Jim Delany's league from having Glendale all to itself.

4. Miami. The Hurricanes get to cap their ugliest season in some time with a trip to balmy Boise to play Nevada, which figures to be approximately 1,000 percent more motivated.

5. LSU fans. Nice to have a virtual home game in New Orleans, but their zest to gobble up Rose Bowl tickets showed how much they were looking forward to their first experience in the Grandaddy of 'Em All.

6. Alabama. Second SEC team in the BCS means the Crimson Tide have to play in the Independence Bowl. I'm guessing coach-less 'Bama would not have minded in the slightest sitting out this postseason.

(Harris Poll voter Jim Walden was apparently so smitten by Meyer's pitch that he became the only voter on the planet to put Florida No. 1, ahead of Ohio State. Walden also voted Oklahoma fourth, Boise State fifth, Wake Forest seventh and LSU 11th. Makes me wonder whether we were watching the same sport all fall.)
Here's something else we learned this weekend: When the going gets tough, voting is optional. Buckeyes boss Jim Tressel flat refused to vote in the final USA Today coaches' poll and got away with it.

Tress was OK with voting every other week of the year. But now it's time to cast the final ballot -- which, coincidentally, will be made public -- he suddenly bails out?

Nice precedent there. How many coaches made a mental note of that maneuver and will try to employ it next year? What if 10 coaches decide that propriety demands an abstention on the critical (and public) final ballot?

Tressel will say he didn't want to influence the outcome of a vote that decided who his team will face for the title. But if he voted in August, September, October and November, he damn well ought to vote in December, too.

Of course, in a rational world the polls would be little more than curiosities, and the championship would be decided on the field. As Meyer himself said on ESPN Sunday night, the voters are "asked to do a job you can't do."

Divining the difference between 11-1 Michigan and 12-1 Florida is truly an impossible task -- though at least the voters were spared from splitting hairs in triplicate when USC spit the bit against UCLA.

The only way to know for sure is, of course, a playoff. But if you call a Division I-A university president today, you'll probably get the following ramble: "academic concerns … length of season … maintain integrity of the regular season … Meineke Car Care … MPC Computers … once-in-a-lifetime experience … this is a recording. …"

"Next year's going to be the same thing," Meyer said Sunday night.

Please, Urban, don't go ruining 2007 already.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.