I Hate The BCS But It Does Deserve Credit For Putting The Biggest Stars On The Biggest Stage

Before I start this post I want to make it known that I believe the BCS to be a horribly corrupt system run by a cartel of people who are only concerned with keeping their inordinate amount of power and control on the College Football FBS postseason and National Championship. They spread lies and misinformation in their goal to prevent the implication of a playoff system that would fairly declare a national champion and benefit everyone in collegiate sports financially but would cost them some of their power. If you are wondering why I feel this strongly please check out this book entitled "Death to the BCS," it really opened my eyes.

Having said all that I did find some benefit of the BCS system last night while watching the Rose and Fiesta Bowls sick on my couch. The BCS Bowl games may not always pit the most deserving teams against each other (for example see tonight's 13 Michigan vs. 11 Virginia Tech) but they do at least give America the chance to see the best players in college football do their thing.

The Fiesta Bowl was supposedly a matchup between Stanford and Oklahoma State but in reality it was Stanford QB Andrew Luck against OK State WR Justin Blackmon. Now I know this game came down to a couple of missed FGs by Stanford that cost them the game in overtime but the outcome of this game is going to be largely irrelevant in the future (for instance can you name any winner of the Fiesta Bowl in the last decade off the top of your head right now? The only one I have was when Ohio St beat Miami for the Championship back in 2003). What's going to be remembered about this game is Andrew Luck 27/31 for 347 and 2 TDs and Blackmon going into nothing short of beast mode with 8 catches for 186 and 3 TDs (imagine if these two played together). It's BCS games like this that can vault a player's value by leaps and bounds heading into the NFL Draft, JaMarcus Russell played the best game of his career in the Sugar Bowl before heading to the pros and we all know how that turned out.

In the Rose Bowl Game played earlier in the day we got another incredible game between Oregon and Wisconsin that saw Oregon hang on for a 45-38 win. Not only did we get to see great play out of Wisconsin's Heisman-caliber athletes in QB Russell Wilson and Montee Ball but we also got a preview future Heisman candidate De'Anthony Thomas of Oregon. Thomas is easily one of the fastest players in the country and flashed that speed with a Rose Bowl record 91 yard TD rush early in the game. Thomas has played behind two-time Heisman finalist LaMichael James this year so he hasn't been in the National Spotlight. However going forward to next year I predict De'Anthony Thomas to be one of the most highly touted players in the nation as Oregon looks for that elusive National Championship.