Here’s a wierd and pointless thought. The Big 10 keeps offering Notre Dame to join which would make 12 teams, and make a championship game. And you know Michigan and Ohio State would never give up thier last game of the season matchup.
If that had been in place this year Michigan and OSU would have potentially played three times in a row with a split.
The SEC was fairly strong this year, but they also played Southern Miss, Central Florida, Western Carolina, and Florida State. I’m not horribly impressed, or, at least, I don’t see why Michigan’s weak ooc schedule should be more important than Florida’s.
Arguable, of course, but we still know that 1) Florida now has a major conference championship, and 2) OSU has already beaten Michigan. Shrug I know which way I want the NC game to go, but I don’t vote.
And that is a point that I hope the voters at least think about, regardless of how they decide to go. Would you be more sanguine had Mich-OSU tied? 
I’ve never followed other conferences too closely, and I admit I have no idea how the BCS rankings are determined. Point and laugh if you want, I’m just dumbfounded by that system. But I am a two-time UF alumnus, so I’m just stoked for my SEC Champion Florida Gators! Incidentally, they won the National Championship my freshman year of college, 1996.
GO GATORS!
That’s funny… Didn’t Michigan win it in 1996?
Doh. Got mixed up - that was the next year.
No need to be embarrassed.
The answer to how they determine BCS rankings is in your username—it’s voodoo. For all the logic and integrity the system has, they might as well cut the head off a chicken or throw darts at a board.
I find nothing more amusing than the way that college football fans, just about every year, act surprised that the whole “BCS picture [is] muddled yet again.” It’s as if they actually have some faith that the system itself is a fair and logical reflection of how the best teams in the country stack up against one another.
At the risk of overanalysing the whole situation, i think the BCS is an interesting little microcosm of America’s ambivalent attitude to the local versus the national. Everyone’s obsessed with local and regional competition and rivalries, and don’t want a true national tournament of the best college football teams, because that would mess up all the neighborly pissing contests between Age Old Rivals.
At the same time, this is America, so there has to be a National Champion (i’m surprised they don’t call the winner the World Champion). In the absence of a proper national competition, they have to resort to a system best described as Giggle and Guess.
So you don’t think Florida’s schedule was much, much tougher than Michigan’s this year, or you just don’t think they should be penalized for the crappiness of their own conference? I can understand the argument that says, hey, they played Notre Dame and they beat everyone in front of them, but I can’t see how anybody can argue that Michigan’s got a better resume than Florida at this point.
I don’t even understand how this is a controversy. The BCS title game should be between OSU and Florida - Michigan lost most recently. The whole point of college football is to finish strong, and losing a few weeks ago doesn’t help Michigan’s case.
Perhaps the rankings in the coaches poll are just to hose the BCS and show how stupid it is?
One other thing. Florida should get extra points because they play in a conference with a championship game.
What happened to number one versus number two? Hell, I don’t care if Michigan plays Ohio State. I just want it to be number one and number two. Remember how much bitching there was a couple years ago when we had co-national champions?
I’d be saying this even if I weren’t an ex-Michigan student. It really seems pretty cut-and-dry to me.
Florida played a tougher schedule. That’s not opinion, that’s just running the numbers. Florida won its conference; Michigan didn’t. Florida is 9-1 against bowl-eligible teams. Michigan is 6-1. Michigan already had a crack at OSU.
Look, I HATE Florida. More than any other team in the country (even Miami). I was rooting against them tonight on general principle. It pains me to stick up for them. I’ll probably go vomit after posting this. But they deserve their shot.
And I don’t think OSU-Florida would be a walk for OSU. It *could * be, but I remember everyone saying that Oklahoma was going to kill LSU a few years ago, and that didn’t happen. Hell, no one expected UCLA to beat USC last night. Speed, momentum, bad calls by the stripes (is it just me or has this been the WORST officiated year in college football history?)
The SEC is the toughest conference and given the way things shook out this season, Florida deserves to go.
Sorry, didn’t finish my thought. Just tack on “anything could happen” to the above.
I want OSU-Michigan.
… It shows the BCS to be completely lame. Again.
… It will be a ratings disaster. It’s worse than Red Sox-Yankees, because at least in the playoffs* the Yankees don’t beat the Sox in the first round just to play (and beat) them again in the LCS.
… It f’s over the Florida Gators.
What’s not to love? 
*How’s that for an idea?
This latest controversy reminds me yet again why I HATE the existing system of determing the champion. It ultimately comes down to someon’e OPINION!
Is Ohio State really the best team in America? Probably, but we don’t really know. Is Florida better than Michigan? Who the heck knows? For that matter, if the refs hadn’t blown the call in the Oregon game, Oklahoma would have just one loss, and Bob Stoops could justly ask “Why not us in the finals?”
WIth the current system, we don’t get to see who’s best- we just have the opinions of coaches, writers, and stat geeks. And their opinions mean squat to me. NOT because they’re stupid, NOT because they’re biased, NOT because their opinions are necessarily different from mine. Just because opinions ought to be irrelevant. A playoff is the only proper way to determine a champion… but we all know a playoff isn’t going to happen in the near future, if ever.
Still, it’s absurd to suggest that the championship game (regardless of who winds up playing in it) proves anything, because we have no way of knowing that the two teams in it are really the best.
I will say that in the Battle of the Conferences, while the SEC gains no points for, well, knowing where its member schools are located, the Big Ten aggressively courts negative points for not knowing how to count. 
I know people talk about a playoff, but seriously, I don’t think I want one. College football has never been a purely meritocratic sport. Things like athletic budgets and facilities matter. Basketball, on the other hand, seems to be a lot more about smart coaching, and while facilities are nice, you basically need a court, balls, a weight room, and that’s about it. I like the fact that we see the more meritocratic system with hoops but I don’t think I want to see it with football.
Winning a MNC has to do with talent, preparation, coaching, media love, and LUCK. My alma mater hooked one last year for the first time in 30+ years, and it was a fun, wild ride. astorian, I hear you, but the fun thing about college football is that there tends to be a lot of consensus at the end of the day. And when there’s a split NC, it’s always great to hear the arguments about why your buddy’s school is more deserving of the title than the other school.
My opinion? The point of a football season is to win your conference division, conference championship, and get to a BCS or prestigious bowl. MNCs are kind of out of your hands for the most part. If you do all the steps up to there, you’re doing really well.
The best thing about the current system is that every single game matters. With 2 losses, you have no chance at the Championship. Even with only 1 loss, it’s very tough to get in. Makes for a more exciting regular season. almost as if the regular season is one giant playoff.
If there was a 8 or 16 team playoff, then you could afford to drop a game, maybe even 2 and still get into the playoffs.
What’s with all the Florida hate? Was it the Steve Spurrier era? He might be a drama queen, but he’s one of the best coaches ever. And I can TOTALLY see why people would hate FSU (I do) or Miami (buncha thugs and gangstas, I dislike them too), but why the Gators?