Oh, boy. What a hornet's nest Ohio State president Gordon Gee has stirred up today.
↵↵It's bad enough that the BCS rankings -- mysterious as they are -- seem as if they have stacked the deck against Boise State or TCU having a chance to play in the BCS title game; now the president of the school that you see pictured in the dictionary when you look up "football factory" has gone and stirred things up, saying:
↵↵"I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there's some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to (be) in the big ballgame."↵↵
Right, Gordon. I'm sure Eastern Michigan University is a very fine school. But they are 2-9 this year, they were 0-12 last year, 3-9 in 2008, 4-8 in 2007 ... need I go on? Did your "student-athletes" really need to run up the score to 73-20 against the Eagles? Same with Toledo, who you beat 38-0 last year, or Youngstown State, who you beat 43-0 in 2008. Did you think that maybe you hurt their feelings? Or were your coaches trying to get extra BCS points?
↵↵Gee went on to say that he wouldn't change his mind "if someone put a gun to my head" and that the "incessant drive" to have a playoff and true champion is "a slippery slope to professionalism." Right. Just like it is in college basketball, right, Gordon? Or any one of the dozens of other NCAA sports in which true champions are crowned through playoffs and, you know, actual competition?
↵↵Gee, Gordon. Here's some advice. Go back to your ivory tower. I hope your team loses next Saturday and thus doesn't go to the Rose Bowl, and gets trounced in whatever [Insert Sponsor Here] bowl game it does play in. Death to the BCS.