Bowl
Season Was A Muddled Mass
by Mike Mitchell
1/6/03 5:20 pm est
The BCS worked, if the measuring stick
is to put two undefeated teams together, as Ohio State halted
Miami's 34-game winning streak with a 31-24 double-overtime win
at the Fiesta Bowl to claim the 2002 national title.
But one would think that after all the trouble that is gone through
to sort out 117 teams and place them in a "winner takes
all" game that no participating referee would settle the
outcome with a flag.
Unfortunately, one of the most vivid memories of a thrilling
classic is field judge Terry Porter hesitatingly tossing a yellow
hanky for a controversial interference penalty that gave Ohio
State new life in the first overtime and snatched Miami's second
consecutive championship from their grasp.
The legitimacy of Ohio State's BCS title (14-0) could regrettably
forever be debated, because of the stooge in the striped shirt.
Buckeye fans can celebrate their championship but they will be
forced to forever listen to pundits' suggestions that an asterisk,
or even a huge question mark, should be placed next to it.
What won't be chronicled nearly as often is how Ohio State forced
five Miami turnovers and staked out a 17-7 lead. Or how Miami
came back to tie the game on a 40-yard field goal as regulation
time expired. Or how Ohio State QB Craig Krenzel kept the second
overtime alive with a 4th-and-14 pass completion. Or how the
Buckeyes ultimately landed the big prize in just the second season
of coach Jim Tressel's tenure, one year after Miami's Larry Coker
won the title in his first season.
Not enough talk will focus on how great a football game was played.
Just as you hear too little praise for the BCS, the absence of
which would have made this game impossible to even play. In the
pre-BCS days Ohio State would have played in the Rose Bowl.
In a way, it was perhaps a fitting end to a bowl season that
ballooned to 28 games and involved 56 of the 117 division 1-A
teams.
And even with that many slots to fill, bowl committees still
could not find a place to squeeze in South Florida. The omission
of the Tampa-based Bulls, who went 9-2 with their only losses
coming at the hands of Arkansas and Oklahoma, is inexcusable.
Bowl trips were rewarded to three teams for producing 6-6 seasons
- Wake Forest, Mississippi and Purdue. All three made the most
out of their opportunity by beating Oregon, Nebraska and Washington.
In the end, 16 bowl games were won by the team that oddsmakers
expected to lose. The propensity for postseason upsets helped
keep the parade of games interesting to monitor, but only a few
were fun to watch.
My personal favorites were Kansas State's 34-27 comeback win
over Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl, Wisconsin's 31-28 overtime
upset of Colorado in the Alamo Bowl, Virginia Tech's nail-biting
20-13 triumph over Air Force in the inaugural San Francisco Bowl,
and (of course) the Fiesta Bowl.
Though I tried to watch as many games as I could, my interest
was fleeting in most of them. I suspect I am not the only huge
college football fan who found it difficult to even care about
most of the games that took place in the muddled mass of match-ups.
Therefore, I have two priorities for next season.
One, eliminate at least a half-dozen meaningless bowl games,
particularly those that guarantee entry to a team that only has
to finish 6th or 7th in its' conference.
Two, improve officiating. |