Technology trumps Rose Bowl tradition

I hate computers.

At least when it comes to college football. On Sunday, a computer decided that my alma mater was unfit for its first trip to the Rose Bowl in 46 years, despite what many humans said.

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This year my favorite college football team, Cal, was battling Texas to play in the Rose Bowl. College coaches, in their poll, placed the University of California Golden Bears fourth in the country, and the University of Texas Longhorns fifth. Sports writers also ranked Cal fourth and Texas fifth. But that wasn't enough: Nowadays computer polls decide who wins.

And the computers chose the Longhorns. So despite being ranked ahead of Texas for weeks--even in the computer-based Bowl Championship Series ranking--and suffering its only loss of the season to No. 1-ranked USC, Cal lost out in its run for the roses on Sunday night.

So much for progress.

"With the computers, we could talk about Oregon getting shafted 3 years ago in going to the Fiesta Bowl when it should have played for a national championship. Or USC being screwed last year by the computers. Every year it seems the computers get a little more sophisticated or the formula is supposed to get less clouded, and every year it seems to trump at least one Pac-10 team." --Stephen Klein

The last time Cal played in the Rose Bowl, in 1959 against Iowa, the world was a simpler place: A Pac 10 team (then the Pacific Coast Conference) played a Big 10 team. This year's matchup would have been a "classic" Rose Bowl, a football tradition dating back to 1902.

As the Wikipedia reminds us: "In its early years (except during the first world war), the game always featured a team (not necessarily the conference champion) from the Pacific Coast Conference, as well as a team invited from further east." This year, Cal was a runner-up to the USC Trojans in the Pac 10, although the Golden Bears almost beat the Trojans earlier this season.

But just like my hometown of Pasadena has changed ("the little old lady from Pasadena" now hangs out at the Starbucks in "Old" Town), the Rose Bowl--aka "The Granddaddy of Them All"--has changed. "Since 2002, with the creation of the Bowl Championship Series system, team selection for the Rose Bowl is now tied into the other three BCS Bowls, although in any given year the Rose Bowl still attempts, if possible, to maintain the traditional Pac 10-Big 10 format."

Ha! This year Texas makes its first trip to the Rose Bowl, and the Pac 10 is shut out all together. What happened? According to the Bowl Championship Series Web site, "The BCS was established to determine the national champion for college football while maintaining and enhancing the bowl system that's nearly 100 years old." Translation: Money and television has changed college football, just like all sports.

Even Texas feels bad for Cal. "I really feel sorry for Cal," Texas coach Mack Brown told sportswriters on Sunday. "The system doesn't work; we understand that...We will keep at this system (to) where teams like Cal will be playing in the BCS."

The ESPN message boards were more blunt: "Cal got screwed!" one read.

In fairness, Cal didn't exactly awe the nation this weekend when it needed a big win. Although Cal beat Southern Mississippi (an unranked team) on Saturday night, it didn't trounce them. The San Jose Mercury News called the win a "sluggish victory." And in defense of the BCS rankings, the results do incorporate the votes of humans: coaches, as well as sports writers. This weekend, the margin between Cal and Texas narrowed in the human polls.

For Cal, the booby prize is a trip to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, against another Texas team, the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Texas Tech has a 7-4 record and isn't even ranked among the top 20 college teams.

As for me, I had already plunked down a $300 deposit in hopes of seeing Cal play in the Rose Bowl, figuring it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. (I also graduated from Northwestern University, another college football dropout.) Now my family has a choice, the Cal Alumni Association said in an e-mail Sunday night: get most of the $300 refunded, or attend the "exciting" Holiday Bowl. No offense, but we're going to eat the $15 "processing fee" and join our friends in Pasadena for the Rose Parade--the oldest part of the Tournament of Roses tradition, dating back to 1890.

So far, the Rose Parade hasn't changed that much, but this year's grand marshal will be Mickey Mouse--not a human. And Disney owns the rights to the BCS games through the ABC television network.

We'll listen to the Holiday Bowl on the radio.

What do you think of using computer-based rankings to decide the champions of college football? Share your thoughts.

No offense...

Just get over your loss. Texas has had this happen for three years already. The system always fails and this time Cal was the loser. Welcome to the BCS.

No offense, but.... but....

We out here in West Coast country always complain at the lack the writers and BCS computers give to the West Coast. You would be surprised if you are in the South, but many teams out here never get the respect that they should be given.

With the computers, we could talk about Oregon getting shafted 3 years ago in going to the Fiesta Bowl when it should have played for a national championship. Or USC being screwed last year by the computers. Every year it seems the computers get a little more sophisticated or the formula is supposed to get less clouded, and every year it seems to trump at least one Pac-10 team. The only time I can remember that the BCS worked the way it should have for the western states was with Oregon State and Washington both being in the bowl championship series and Oregon in the top 10. Washington was ranked 4 by the BCS, while Oregon State was 6th.

The preference most times by the writers goes to the central and east coast conferences, plain and simple. Case in point, LSU and Georgia are somehow ranked 8 and 12 yet I have seen stellar performances against Troy (4 point win for LSU) and Georgia couldn't hold a handle to Tennessee. Maybe someone could explain why the West never gets the treatment the East does, or wait, maybe we need to beg for votes like the prized Texas coach did. Way to go Mack!

STFU

Blah blah blah no respect blah blah blah east coast bias.
Whatever -- somebody was going to get screwed and it
happened to be you guys, instead of Texas again.

This column was a bunch of crap, too -- get off your soapbox
and stick to your job. Blame it on the computers, when it was
the polls that really did Cal in.

[Ubber geek]

Washington was ranked 4

http://www.analogstereo.com/nakamichi/nakamichi_1000zxl_service_manual.htm

[khm64]

Tradition > Cal?

So you'd rather stick with tradition rather than go cheer for your favorite team? It's that kind of thinking that's keeping college football from a playoff system, which would most likely include your precious Cal Bears.

It's nice to have traditions -- especially in college football -- but when it impedes the progress of changing the sport for the better, it's time to reconsider that tradition.

If you don't like the system, take umbrage with your favorite college's president (and all the rest of them), not the computers. They signed off on this system so they and their fat, happy, blazered bowl buddies can stuff more money in their pockets.

[truegenius]

Dump BCS system

I've never liked the BCS. The thing that gets me is that college basketball successfully uses a bracketed format to determine the national champion. There's no reason we couldn't do similar for football.

Continue to have the post-season bowl contests; the TV networks and the schools like the exposure and the money. In basketball there's an NIT plus various other rivalry-based games during the academic year. But starting around, say, the second week of December, the "NCAA College Football National Championship Tournament" could work out this way:

1. Regional quarterfinals
2. Regional semifinals
3. Regional finals
4. National semifinals
5. National championship (New Year's Day or thereafter game)

Regional quarterfinals would pit the winners of conferences against one another. Have brackets for conferences in the West (like the PAC 10), Midwest (like the Big Ten), Northeast (like the ACC) and the South (like the Big XII). And no special considerations if your conference has more schools subdivided into divisions like the Big XII - when you're in the basement of a conference you're not a factor anyway. Conference champions should automatically get a seed. (If you want to make it interesting, have a first-round contest pitting the #1 vs #2 in each conference.)

The nice thing about a system like this is it would provide an incentive for regional rivalries and restore credibility to the notion of who's best. EVERY other sport in this country - basketball, hockey, pro football - even tennis - does this. College football is the only sport that, for some silly reason, resists a playoff system. It's not like coaches and sportswriters wouldn't have anything to do all season long - the NCAA hoops tournament uses the final rankings to seed the teams, don't they?

Let's stick a fork in the BCS. Nothing against computers, but they're only as good as the folks that use 'em.

Big 10 sympathy

I'm a Michigan grad myself, and I'd much rather be watching a Cal vs Michigan Rose Bowl instead of a Texas/Michigan game. Every recognizes that the BCS is screwy again this year, and Cal didn't even get the worst of it! How about poor Auburn? In any case, you have my sympathies on this. Remember, however, that it's not the computer rankings that are the problem, it's their heavy weighting in the BCS rankings (among other problems). The computer rankings, such as the NY Times poll, were designed as an alternative to the subjective voting that depends on the opinions of people (coaches, reporters) who are probably only catching the highlights on SportsCenter!

Big 12 owning the Pac-10's

Cal didn't win the Pac-10, so the tradition argument is not valid. If a Pac-10 team deserves to go to the Rose, it's USC. Cal doesn't deserve the Rose Bowl because the Pac-10 is a weak conference in comparison to the BigXII South. I wouldn't be surprised if the Red Raiders beat Cal in the Holiday Bowl.

Wolverines will CRUSH Texas "Cows"

Texas sucks! Year in and year out, Texas is way overrated! Cal is far more deserving than Texas. I hope the Wolverines would kick the **** out of the Texas "cows," just like how Washington State (a Pac-10 Team) did last year.

[Ubber geek]

Rose Bowl

http://www.analogstereo.com/nakamichi/nakamichi_rx505_service_manual.htm

Auburn got the big SHAFT

I feel your pain on the Rose Bowl. Auburn got shafted even worse. There is no way an undefeated SEC team would not have stomped Oklahoma or USC in the mud....

BCS needs to go!