I would also agree that in a pre-BCS world, Notre Dame would have gone to some place like New Orleans or Miami.
Even in a BCS World, Notre Dame was picked to go to the 2001 Fiesta Bowl and that team was arguably worse than this year’s squad
While I’m here…I’d like to be the first to admit that I completely underestimated Ohio State. I still don’t think they’ll win, but they’ve shown me that maybe they do deserve to be #2 after all. This has been a great game so far, so props to the BCS. Still hate it, though. 
At the same time, I want to say that I had said for several weeks now that Miami would look a little difference against a top 15 team, which they do.
Ouch. That McGahee hit hurt me on my couch. Ouchouchouch.
Omigod. What a game!
I told you all that the BCS creates exciting matchups! Long live the BCS!
Well, not really, but it was the best college game I’ve ever seen. One of the best football games period I’ve ever seen.
I only got to see the OTs, but those were pretty good. I thought OSU was done for once the game got to OT.
Being a UCLA fan, I really don’t like other school, but since it was Miami that started the Bruins on their present downward spiral, I’m not too broken up.
Well, the BCS clearly matched two great teams, the only two un-beaten teams in Major college football.
It produced a great game, which was won by the team that played the best. Not much to quarrel with this year.
Just remember, no BCS, and Ohio State would have played the Washington State team that got waxed by twice beaten Oklahoma, and Miami would most likely have played the Notre Dame team that lost to North Carolina State by 22 points.
Stuff like the above happened more often than not in days before the BCS, so I thinks the BCS is an improvement. Not perfect, but an improvement.
Yeah, yeah, but it also gave us Miami vs Nebraska last year, so it all evens out.
The problem with the old bowl system was that technically, the first place team could get away with playing whoever they wanted. One year in the 1980s, #1 Brigham Young beat a mediocre 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl to win the national championship. (This is not to say that BYU couldn’t have beaten a legitimate bowl opponent that year–they did have Steve Young, but alas, we’ll never know.)
Actually the BYU national championship team was quarterbacked by Robbie Bosco, who came after Steve Young.
Exactly! The BCS is basically a mini-playoff anyway. One game playoff for the National Championship and then more one game playoffs for #3, etc.
Go all the way or not at all. Trying to please all the people (traditionalists who love Bowls and pro-Playoff people) will lead you to please neither.
And btw, the BCS only gave us ONE good game… the last one. The Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowls were horrible (and makes me want to see Oklahoma v. USC).
'84, and no, Young wasn’t that starter that year. It was a QB that was unsuccessful in the pros. Brisco somebody.
Well, the problem with the BCS is that it determines the #1 and #2 just as arbitrarily. I mean, in the '84 season BYU was the only undefeated team so they would definitely be in the Championship Bowl. Well, if their credentials were that suspect, maybe they shouldn’t have been involved in that game at all, maybe it should have been Washington and Florida (I think they finished 2 and 3) battling it out for the #1 spot. Look at last year when that whole uproar about Nebraska being in it when most people felt it should have been Colorado. Or the year before that when a lot of people felt it should have been Miami in that game.
The BCS just gives the illusion of a #1 vs #2 game. Playoff gives you a true #1 vs #2 game. Old system doesn’t pretend to be anything other than it was, and was probably just as accurate in giving teams a fair shot at the title as the BCS.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the most important criteria for a successful postseason is that the Rose Bowl features two good teams on New Year’s Day. Preferably the Big 10 and Pac 10 champ. That’s all I ask.
BYU didn’t in the Holiday Bowl that year because it wanted to duck a game against a better team; BYU was the WAC champion and in 1984 the WAC champion was contractually obligated to play in the Holiday Bowl, the same way the Big 8 Champ was contractually obligated to play in the Orange Bowl and the Big 10 and Pac-10 champs were contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl. The Holiday Bowl officials were not about to let a potential national champion off the hook to play in another bowl.