University of Utah | National Champions

Yes! They did it! Utah finished the season the only undefeated team in the nation, and are therefore considered the National Champions!

“Not so.” says the BCS. Over the last couple of weeks, I have spent many an hour pouring over articles written by sports professionals about Utah’s place in the NCAA Football National Standings. In case you weren’t aware of what the issue is, I’ll lay it all out here.

Utah finished the year the ONLY NCAA football program undefeated. Yes, the only one. 13-0. Yet, they were ranked #2 in the AP Top 25 and #4 in the USA today poll at the end of the bowl season. As far as I’m concerned, this is the only point that matters. In any other sport, the last undefeated team standing is the champion. No questions. But not in the Wacky World of the Bowl Championship Series.

The Utes also dominated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, shocking the college football world. As the first quarter came to an end, the overrated Alabama Crimson Tide trailed the Utes 21 – 0. After that the game was a little closer, but Utah never lost the lead, sacking their quarterback (John Parker Wilson) 8 times.

Now to the purpose of this thread. There have been a lot of really lame excuses out there as to why the Utes do NOT deserve to be National Champions. Here are my rebuttals:

Let me start things off by saying that this is an argument for who deserves to be National Champion, not for who the best program is. That argument would likely be among the last words spoken as the human race comes to an end some hundreds of thousands of years in the future. Even after the Super Bowl, you can still argue that the victor is not as good as other teams, but nobody disputes their right to their title. That said, let’s get started:

Lame Excuse #1 “They had a weak schedule.”
This is the token response from any BCS supporter. These babbling idiots say this without even looking at the schedule. During their season, Utah beat 4 teams that finished the season in the top 25 (BYU, TCU, Oregon State, and Alabama.) Utah dominated two of those four games. Is that not good enough?

Lame Excuse #2 “Alabama had a heart-breaking loss to Florida and didn’t want to be in the Sugar Bowl.” (aka “Their heart was in Miami”)
So what? So the Utes can’t be credited with their fabulous win because the other team wasn’t ready?? How does that make sense? A win is a win. The whole point of the contest is to determin which team is better at the moment they meet, not over the whole season. In the sports world, we call this an “upset.” I’m also really sick of hearing about how Alabama didn’t have Andre Smith, their left tackle… If you recruit in such a way that your quarterback gets sacked 8 times because one player is out (because of a stupid decision on his part, not an injury), you don’t deserve to win. In the sports world, we call that a “shallow roster.” Roster depth as much a part of having a good team as anything. Not to mention, he is a LEFT TACKLE. It’s not like they lost their quarterback.

Lame Excuse #3 “There’s no way Utah could beat Florida.”
This is the most ridiculous excuse since Utah DIDN’T play Florida. Florida’s and Utah’s schedules did not require that they meet. Once again, this isn’t about who is better since you can argue that for ages and not get anywhere. Utah beat every team they were scheduled to play and Florida did not. If you don’t like that, then you are saying the system is flawed. But no BCS (Gator) supporter would ever admit that…

Lame Excuse #4 “Utah barely won some of their games.”
Florida barely beat Alabama in the 4th quarter to make it into the National Championship. Once again, the point of a contest is to determin a victor. Utah came out victorious in every one of their games. Show me in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, or any other NCAA sport where a team is required to beat a team by more points than another team. I thought it was considered un-sportsmanlike to run up the score anyway. Now you’re telling me a team has to do so to play in the National Championship?

Lame Excuse #5 Preseason Rankings
This isn’t as much of a lame excuse as a lame reason. Utah started the season not ranked in a single poll (Florida was ranked 5th in both the USA Today and AP Top 25 polls.) This could be the sole reason utah did not enter the national championship. How is this not bias? Shouldn’t all teams start the season out on an equal playing field?

Other issues to chew on:

• BCS is biased toward their conferences and continue to feed them money and recruits as all the others falter. In golf, this is called a “handicap.” Take this handicap into consideration when deciding if the Utes deserve to be #1
• Automatic bids are blatant favoritism.
• In no other sport involving a series of games where one team always comes out the winner do you vote who will be number one (or which two will play for number one) at the end of the season.
• The BCS is monopoly that needs to be toppled.

If anybody has any qualms with any of my points, they need only blame the system. Any system where a team can go undefeated and only end up 2nd/4th is flawed beyond any excuses. As far as I am concerned, the BCS can take their rankings and stick them where the sun don’t shine. The numbers tell the truth, the Utes are the National Champions.