Brooks: In an instant, BCS controversy begins

Published September 22, 2006 at midnight

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Gentlemen, your controversy has started.

September isn't yet a memory, but college football already has managed to mire itself in the muck.

At the tweet of a whistle, the majority of Division I-A coaches would vote to abandon rules changes designed to accelerate games. But until last weekend, the coaches might have been ambivalent on this season's across-the- board use of instant replay.

Oklahoma's 34-33 loss at Oregon transformed that ambivalence into something w-a-a-a-a-y beyond angst.

If you need the circumstances rehashed, you certainly don't have an Oklahoma or Oregon ZIP code. Let this tidbit suffice: Sooners coach Bob Stoops and school president David Boren aren't merely mad, they want someone sent to Guantanamo. Now.

Because of the formula used in determining the participants in the ludicrously lucrative Bowl Championship Series games, what happened in Eugene, Ore., could have a ripple effect into late November and beyond.

I'm not saying either the Ducks or Sooners are contenders to play in the BCS national title game, only that one or both could contend for a place in one of the four other BCS games.

The formula used to determine BCS participants depends, in part, on polling - the Harris Interactive Poll, which replaced The Associated Press, and the USA Today (coaches) poll.

Also, averages from six computer rankings are used in the BCS rankings.

Figure the computers to burp their babble based on what they're fed - wins and losses being the entree.

But what path do the humans - the Harris pollsters and the coaches - take? Do they adjust their ballots to reflect the Sooners' shafting in Eugene by a Pacific-10 Conference officiating crew?

If you're Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, yes. He said this week he will take into account the Oklahoma-Oregon fiasco when assembling next week's USA Today Top 25.

How many of Hawkins' peers will follow suit? How many Harris pollsters, a group of 114 media members, former coaches/administrators and players, might do the same when they begin voting next week?

For now, local Harris pollsters Eddie Crowder and Mike Moran say they will disregard the game, a reaction that might change as the season unfolds.

Several enraged e-mailers from Oklahoma want to know if my weekly AP Top 25 will reflect Saturday's travesty. Sure. Not that it matters anymore in the BCS world, but if Oklahoma and Oregon are relatively close (W-L) in late November, having them co-share a position might be appropriate.

Another AP voter, Jimmy Burch of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, disagrees. Burch doesn't "plan to view either team differently. Heartbreaking losses involving dubious calls happen in all sports. . . . I think the precedent was set in 1990."

You know where he's going with this - straight to CU and Fifth Down.

As I recall, the win at Missouri wasn't erased or given an asterisk - except in Atlanta, where Georgia Tech wanted "co" stricken from co-national champions.

Cardinal sin

Word to wise (or otherwise) teams visiting Louisville's Papa John Stadium: Stomp on the Cardinal logo at midfield and pay an ugly price.

Five teams have done it, five teams have lost. Badly. The combined score: Louisville 257, Bird Stompers 35.

That total includes last week's 31-7 rout of reeling Miami, and Cardinals athletic director Tom Jurich has taken note of the developing pattern.

"I want to take that bird on the road," Jurich told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "My next purchase is going to be a 25-foot bird to take with us."

No. 8 Louisville, coping with injuries to its starting quarterback and tailback, visits Kansas State on Saturday - minus Jurich's big bird.

Flagging memory

Bad blood apparently bubbles between No. 12 Notre Dame and Michigan State.

Spartans players planted their school's flag at midfield in South Bend, Ind., at the conclusion of their 44-41 overtime win last season, and Irish coach Charlie Weis promised, "There's one incident in particular that I'll use as motivation" for Saturday's rematch.

Weis also reportedly told boosters this summer his school would not lose again to the Spartans as long as he is the Irish coach.

Michigan State coach John L. Smith had this explanation for the 2005 postgame flag plant: Notre Dame conveniently forgot the Megaphone Trophy, given to the game's winner since 1949.

Sniffed Smith: "I think they didn't plan on losing it, so they didn't bring it."

Michigan State has won seven of the past nine meetings.

Touring the Big 12

• The Big 12 was more than a little chagrined after last weekend's 5-7 finish that included an 0-5 effort against Top 25 teams. Three weeks into the season, the conference's four unbeaten teams include teams picked to finish fifth and sixth in the hardly muscular North - Missouri and Kansas State. The other pair, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, are 3-0, but like Kansas State, haven't played a BCS conference opponent.

• Texas Tech's 12-3 loss against now-No. 16 Texas Christian stung Red Raiders coach Mike Leach. He's considering replacing starters for Saturday's home game against Southeast Louisiana, a final tuneup for the conference opener against Texas A&M.

"I'm going to eliminate some of the soft guys," Leach said. "I think some of the guys that coast in practice or don't have a complete practice, we're not going to play those people."

Touring the Mountain West

While Leach was lamenting his players' softness, Texas Christian coach Gary Patterson was lauding his guys' toughness. The Red Raiders hung 70 points on the Horned Frogs two years ago, and that's one of the reasons Patterson issued his players bracelets reading, "Make it personal."

"We wanted to pitch a shutout," Patterson said. "We were ready for this one for a long time."

• The Mountain West is 3-8 against BCS teams, but five of those losses have been by a combined total of 18 points - including Air Force's one-point loss at Tennessee and Brigham Young's double-overtime loss at Boston College. "We've proven we can be competitive," commissioner Craig Thompson said. "The next step is to win those football games, not be competitive and lose." The league's standard bearer, TCU, owns the nation's longest winning streak, 13 games.

No stranger to No. 1

Coach as long as Penn State's Joe Paterno and there will be chances to play top-ranked opponents, as the Nittany Lions will Saturday at Ohio State. Paterno is 4-6 against No. 1-ranked teams.

Year No. 1 opponent Result

1966 at Michigan State Lost 42-8

1976 at Pittsburgh Lost 24-7

1981 at Pittsburgh Won 48-14

1982 Georgia* Won 27-23

1983 Nebraska** Lost 44-6

1986 Miami*** Won 14-10

1988 at Notre Dame Lost 21-3

1989 vs. Notre Dame Lost 34-23

1990 at Notre Dame Won 24-21

1998 at Ohio State Lost 28-9

* Sugar Bowl ** Kickoff Classic *** Fiesta Bowl