Still Left Out

Okay, something a bit lighter today. ESPN, in its quest to find something to cover now that Brett Favre is retired, decided to put together a solution to the BCS quandary. Their idea is a new 40-team system that will have an official playoff. Their idea was, basically, to eliminate a lot of the "lesser" schools to "purify" the sport.

SportsNation voted on which 40 teams should make the cut, and the "official" one was done by three of their college football writers. And, for some reason, it was done in "draft" style - each would make their picks to get to 40 teams.

The first few picks were obvious. USC, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, LSU, Ohio State, etc. Teams like Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Penn State made the cut because they were also including history into this. Then came the first pick from a non-BCS conference: Utah. Then came another: Boise State. Then a final one: BYU. All the picks came from the same douchebag: Mark Schlarbach.

Ordinarily, I'd appreciate that they were including non-BCS conference teams (or as Ashley calls them, non-AQ conference teams). But do you know what Utah, Boise State, and BYU have in common? They were all beaten by TCU in the last two seasons. And TCU probably should've beaten Utah last season...at their place.

And because Mark Schlarbach picked three non-AQ teams, I think the other two douchebags were afraid to pick anymore. Because they had to get more AQ teams in. Deserving teams like Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Arizona State.

Really? Texas Tech has a gimmick offense and they get in. Texas A&M has yell practice, and they get in (and, yes, that was their actual reason). South Carolina gets in because "you have to have the Old Ballcoach."

Meanwhile, TCU is left out. TCU, a team that consistently puts up 10-win seasons. A team with two national championships, a Heisman winner, and a guy with an award named after him.

Yes, Boise State and Utah have BCS bowl victories. And BYU has a huge fan base of Mormons. I understand that. But they're not better than TCU, and I'll explain.

Boise State is a freak school. This was supposed to involve history, and Boise State has zero history. They win for three reasons: their dumb blue field makes people angry, they play no one on their schedule, and they use a bunch of trick plays.

The blue field is ridiculous. They're in the WAC, and they make very little effort to put together a non-conference schedule. This year, they're playing one road game in non-conference (at Bowling Green) with three home games. One against UC Davis, one against Miami (Ohio), and one against Oregon. One quality game (at home) and three jokes. Nice work! So they get to steamroll through a pathetic schedule, and they expect to get into a BCS bowl? It's pathetic.

TCU, meanwhile, found a way out of the WAC. They've moved conferences twice to try and earn the respect of college football instead of piling up wins against Division I-AA teams. We've scheduled games at Oklahoma (twice), at Texas, at Clemson, at Virginia, and at Arkansas. Every year, TCU schedules a game that they will be underdogs in.

Not to mention, in the Mountain West, we have to go to Utah or go to BYU. Those games are tough every year. Boise State's hardest game is a free trip to Hawaii.

And don't get me started on the trick plays. Teams use trick plays to cover up for inferior talent. Boise State used trick plays against Oklahoma because Oklahoma was better. The better team didn't win that game, and everyone in the world knows it. And that Oklahoma team wasn't that good.

And let's not forget December 23. TCU defeated Boise State the last time either team played a game.

The fact that TCU was left out was laughable to me. You want history? Two national championships and a rich history in the 30s-50s. You want great alumni? Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien, Bob Lilly, and LaDainian Tomlinson.

You want recent history? How about seven top 25 finishes since 2000? And two top 10 finishes (coaches' poll) since 2005. Four straight boll wins in four straight years. One of the top defenses every single season. And in the BCS discussion almost every season.

Yes, every year they find a way to lose a game while other teams have found a way to stay perfect. I understand that. But more so than any other team outside of the AQ conferences, TCU makes an effort to stand out. To prove that they belong. To prove that they should've been in an AQ conference from the beginning.

And that's why TCU should've been included. Even though, in the end, it's just a stupid fake league from an overrated network that thinks its cooler than it is. If ESPN is going to do this, they might as well get it right. And let's face it, they got it wrong.