A little bit of BCS past history...

Since the advent of the BCS, people have complained about the problems that the system has. Looking back at the past history of the BCS is somewhat revealing. Teams like Oregon or Texas Tech and other non-traditional powerhouses have been able to reach BCS games, but not touch the BCS Championship game. The following is a list of all of the participants in the BCS title game for the ten years of its existence.

(1) Oklahoma - 3 appearances: 2000, 2003, 2004. 1 Victory.
(2) Ohio State - 3 appearneces: 2002, 2006, 2007. 1 Victory.
(3) Florida State - 3 appearances: 1998, 1999, 2000. 1 Victory.
(4) LSU - 2 appearances: 2003, 2007. 2 Victories.
(5) USC - 2 appearances: 2004, 2005. 1 Victory.
(6) Miami - 2 appearances: 2001, 2002. 1 Victory.
(7) Texas - 1 appearance: 2005. 1 Victory.
(8) Tennessee - 1 appearance: 1998. 1 Victory.
(9) Florida - 1 appearance: 2006. 1 Victory.
(10) Nebraska - 1 appearance: 2001. 0 Victories.
(11) Virginia Tech - 1 appearance: 1999. 0 Victories.

Wins are in bold above. You'll notice that we've got a few things going on. First, four of the five teams that are in contention for this year's slots (Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and USC) are past champions of the BCS, all having won it since 2000, and all having been to the title game since 2004. Alabama is the lone new participant, should the Tide win the SEC, but they are hardly out of place here.

The second thing that's obvious is that nobody but college football royalty, for lack of a better term, can get into this game. Oregon got shut out the year Nebraska went, probably because they're Oregon and Nebraska is Nebraska. Not really sure what this tells us about the process, other than the bias that is inherent in poll voters seems to show up in the computer polls as well, at least enough to keep the smaller-name programs out of the title game.

Third, there are quite a few teams that have gone in back to back (or back to back to back) years, but no one has ever repeated. Teams tend to win the first time they go to the game, and drop it the next year. Take Miami, winning in '01 and losing in '02 to Ohio State. Or Florida State, winning in '99 and losing in '00 to Oklahoma. Or USC, winning in '04 and losing to Texas in '05. They're somewhat of an exception, simply because their exclusion from the title game in 2003 in favor of Oklahoma caused the AP Poll to split the title, voting for USC over LSU (leading to the eventual removal of the AP Poll from the BCS process). Two teams also have back to back losing years (Oklahoma in 2003 and 2004, and Ohio State in 2006 and 2007). So basically, it's nearly impossible to repeat as champions. (Tim Tebow, take that as a note: if you win it this year, get the hell out of Florida, because while everything would say you'd repeat, the history certainly doesn't look good for it....)

Fourth, we've only had one team win the title more than once. LSU's wins came with different coaches and four years apart. Another interesting dynamic here: no coach has won more than one title since the BCS's inception. Nick Saban, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer, and Pete Carroll are all past winners, so that one will end this year unless Utah makes some miraculous rise in the final BCS poll (that was a joke, OK). Saban would also be the first coach to take two different schools to the national title game in the BCS era.

Fifth, for those who still think that the "right" result will be reached, we've seen teams get the short end of the stick before. One example I've already cited, where Nebraska lost its conference title game, and held onto the #2 slot ahead of an 11-1 Oregon team that was rolling at the time. Another was the USC snub in favor of Oklahoma, but that was a more difficult call, regardless of whether it was the BCS or humans making the decision. And in 2004, we had three undefeated teams - USC, Oklahoma, and Auburn. The SEC got the short end in that scenario, and Coach Tuberville is now unemployed despite taking a team to a 13-0 record in the SEC just four short years ago.

This is a bizzare scenario we find ourselves in this year. There's a real chance that Florida could win the SEC title game, yet we could see Oklahoma and Texas in the title game. On the other hand, if Oklahoma loses, USC could get into the picture. Not likely, but possible. Regardless, Texas has its own claim on the Big 12 title game, and the only reasonable result to play out is that the winner of the SEC and Oklahoma, assuming it wins, go to the title game. We'll see what happens, but as stated above, we've seen some pretty outrageous, unfair results out of the BCS in the past. Don't believe for a second that it can't happen again.

All for now.... game previews later on tonight.