College football rankings, week 14

Tailgater Top 25 Rankings, Week 14

With the final week of the season complete and the bowls set, the debating can begin in earnest.  What BCS flaws have been or will be exposed this year?  Who was snubbed?  Which team got more than it deserved?  One thing that is hard to debate is the title matchup itself. 

Notre Dame is the nation’s only eligible undefeated team.  Their spot in the title game makes perfect sense.

Alabama is clearly the best one-loss team in the country after winning the SEC on Saturday.  They too have earned their chance as a championship. 

As for the SEC Championship Game itself, some media outlets would have us believe that it was an incredibly close game, and while the final margin of victory was anything but comfortable for the Tide, ‘Bama did outplay UGA by a fair margin.  A blown call on third down led to a swing of ten points or more.  A pass interference foul on the Georgia defense was nullified by a supposed tip at the line of scrimmage, though replays showed that the thrown ball never changed course.  Instead of a first down and ten at the UGA 17 yardline, Alabama was forced to try a field goal.  The kick was blocked and returned by Georgia for a touchdown.

That errant call led to a 21-10 game.  had Alabama continued its drive form the 17, it would have very likely scored at least three points if not a touchdown; down 14-10 at the time, ‘Bama might have tightened that to 14-13 or gone up by three.

In the end, the officials’ mistake didn’t cost Alabama anything more than a successful cover, but such errors are still unacceptable.  There were no major upsets this weekend.  Louisville upended Rutgers to earn a Sugar Bowl berth, Baylor bested Oklahoma State, and Wisconsin decimated Nebraska.  That last one was probably the most surprising game if only because of its one-sided nature.

Wisconsin now goes to the Rose Bowl as a five-loss team.  The Badgers are, without a doubt, the worst team ever selected to the BCS given the full set of circumstances.  Wisconsin “won” the Big Ten on Saturday but finished third in the Leaders Division behind Ohio State and Penn State.  The Badgers went 4-4 in a weak Big Ten.  Only the total lack of foresight on the part of the BCS allowed them to represent the conference.  Surely there should have been a rule regarding teams that finish behind ineligible programs.  Numerous schools would have better at large selections, including Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Clemson.

Wisconsin joins Connecticut as the only unranked programs to be selected to a BCS bowl, and UConn was, at least, an actual conference champion.

But perhaps it’s fitting that the Badgers got in.  After all, their selection highlights the gross inadequacies of this system.  The 2013 BCS bowls will feature:

• A fundamentally flawed Florida State team that hasn’t looked particularly good since beating Clemson earlier this year;
• A two-loss Louisville team, from a weak Big East, that barely survived the likes of Southern Miss, South Florida, and FIU;
• An NIU team whose strength of schedule ranked 211th in FBS and FCS according to the NCAA, and that lost to a bad Iowa squad; and
• The five-loss Badgers, boasting the most defeats of any BCS team in history.   

Here are our updated college football rankings for week 14.

Bigalke: