Who plays Alabama for the title?
As I understand it, it would be TCU.
Cincy, and FTR, I voted for “who should play Bama for the Championship.”
Cincy should get a bump from the computers after their win today, which hurts TCU. The computers already have Cincy ahead of Texas and TCU.
I would love to see Alabama vs. Florida, then Boise State, then TCU in that order.
But you HAD to put the Lions up there…
Cincy barely escaped today. they were behind all day. They did not show any D at all. They were not that impressive.
Doesn’t matter now! 
This specific poll is already outdated, but it’s NOT a foregone conclusion Texas will be playing in the championship game. There is a human element to the BCS formula, and if enough voters were unimpressed by the Longhorns’ performance, I could see TCU inching up.
F***in’ hamsters ate my post… but in a nutshell, Texas has been ranked #2 or #3 the entire season, while TCU gets past #10 only in week 9. Texas beat #20 at a neutral site, and throttled #14 at their home. TCU beat a pair of #16s, one at home and one away. The Mountain West has some abysmal teams - New Mexico, UNLV, Colorado State, San Diego State - while the Big XII only has two cream puffs - Colorado in the North and Baylor in the South. Despite Kansas’ record they are actually a very dangerous team - ditto for Texas A&M. Texas won against all of its fiercest rivals (A&M, OU, Tech) and two of those games were in neutral or away sites.
To argue for TCU over Texas is to say that Horny Frog’s late season performances vs. New Mexico and SDSU are more impressive than Texas vs. A&M and Nebraska. That’s just kooky talk. Not to mention that the Big XII championship game was one of the most impressive defensive battles I’ve seen in some time.
First, while I didn’t go to UT, I’ve lived in Austin for 23 years, and root for the Longhorns. I’m not an Aggie or Texas-hater looking to undermine them.
Second, I HATE the BCS and the bowl system. I’ve always wanted a playoff. I think it’s absurd that championships should ever come down to ANYONE’S opinion. It’s not that the sportswriters or coaches are stupid or biased, it’s that they just don’t KNOW who the best teams are. Neither do you. Neither do I.
Anyway, I wasn’t arguing that TCU should be in the finals. I’m saying that, in any system where opinions and perceptions are part of the formula in deciding who plays for the title, there’s a chance that Texas could be leapfrogged by TCU (or someone else), IF enough voters saw last night’s game and said, “Meh. Maybe they’re not that good. Maybe TCU is actually better…”
FWIW, IMO, one reason why Texas is ranked ahead of TCU, Cincy and Boise is because they started the season ranked ahead of those teams. The fact that were 6 spots ahead of TCU in week 9 is absolutely irrelevant. It is the whole season that counts.
I think Cincinnati is the #2 team. They have wins that are more impressive than Texas. I am not a proponent of a playoff, as there is almost always going to be at least one team who feels that they left out. This year, there is three teams.
I think the computers will rank Cincy higher than both Texas, TCU. IIRC, the computers are not biased by the fact that Texas started the season higher than Cincy, TCU and Boise.
So? If Texas were ranked #1 all season they should still drop to #25 if their last game exposes them. I’m not saying they should drop to #25, but there is no reason pollsters should ignore the performance of a team just because they have been ranked at some spot all season, that is exactly the type of logic that pisses everyone off about the polls and has everyone screaming for a playoff.
We currently have a 2 team playoff based on people’s opinions. If you expand that to 8 you have a much better chance of including all of the deserving teams. Not perfect but much better.
What are the wins that are more impressive than Texas’? They clobbered the road apples on their schedule, but the rest of their games are fairly close (not greater than 17 pts). They blew out a decent (by record) Rutgers team. They squeaked out a win vs. #25 by 3 playing at home late in the season. Their final game looked pretty similar to Texas’ - edging out the #2 team in the conference by a point.
Regarding the human polls… that’s part of the game. You may not think it’s a big deal to have everyone expecting you to beat the tar out of all of your opponents because you are supposed to, but it is. The funny thing is, I don’t remember people scrutinizing Bama’s 2-pt win over Tennessee, or their 6-pt edging of Auburn. Texas has three rivals that essentially base the season on beating them - OU, A&M, and Tech. They play much better than their record suggests in those games. This might be true of Cincy, I have no idea. But of those three games, only one was in Austin. The other two were at the opponent’s house or a neutral field. You also have to factor in a road win against OSU, which until last week was going to the BCS.
It is mostly a reflection of Texas (and the Big XII) wins more than it is Cincy’s wins.
When todays polls are released, chances are that only OkSU will be only ranked team that Texas beat. Nebraska will fall out of the rankings.
Assuming Nebraska falls out of the top 25, the 13 teams on Texas’s schedule played a total of 157 games. Out of those 157 games, there was only one win against a top 25 opponent. (OU beat OkSU).
The facts are clear, the Big XII was very weak this year. The 12 Big XII teams played a grand total of 11 non-conference games against BCS teams. And they were 4-7 against those teams. Those wins were against UGA, Illinois, Wake Forest and Duke. The Big XII lost there only two games against Big East teams, UConn and WVU. They also lost to Ark, Miami, Va Tech, Iowa, and UCLA. K-State lost to La-Lafayette. Colorado lost to Colorado St and Toledo.
It is extremely disappointing to see two of the better teams (UT, TTU) in the Big XII not play any non-con games against BCS teams. And yes I know about Arkansas begging out of their contract with UT. But TTU hasn’t scheduled a BCS team in about 6 years.
The BCS has done to football what the NCAA tourney did for basketball. It becomes about victories, more than quality of opponents. NCAA you need 20 victories. In football ,losses even against very good programs will kill you. So we have horrible scheduling. Michigan plays against very lowly rated programs instead of bragging about having the toughest schedule in the nation. They charge the Mich. fans just as much for crappy ball games. Playoff games add even more a lot of revenue to the schools.
It is time that colleges support professional school teams. U of M should pay their players instead of pretending they don’t. All colleges in big sports programs do. Just quit faking it. The Univ. of Michigans semi pro team should play Oklahoma’s semi pro team.