Perception often does not reflect reality
A few days ago, the University of Oregon played Ohio State University in the championship game of the first four-team college football tie. If we had continued to use the old system, called BCS, to determine the two teams that would have played for the championship, neither of those teams would have been involved in the championship game.
The two teams that would have played if the old system were still in use were the two teams defeated by Oregon and Ohio State in the first round of the four-team playoffs, Alabama and Florida State. So, as was widely suspected over the years, it is highly likely that many of the last 16 NCAA soccer champions who were crowned weren’t the best team after all.
In fact, of the four teams that made this year’s playoffs, three of the four were fairly unanimous picks: # 1 Alabama, # 2 Oregon, and # 3 Florida State. The only controversial pick of the four was No. 4 from Ohio State, which incidentally won the championship game with a convincing score of 42-20. Going a step further, a reasonably good case can be made that two teams in Texas, TCU and Baylor, deserved to be involved in the playoffs more than Alabama, Florida State and Oregon.
The SEC conference, which was widely perceived as the best conference in college football as a result of its dominance of the BCS era, had five teams qualified in this year’s bowl and playoff season and ended up losing 0-5 by a average of more than 15 points per game. Many felt the BCS was biased in favor of the SEC in that they played fewer league games, smooth non-conference hours, and rarely played outside of conference road games.
Commissioner Mike Slive and the SEC did an extraordinary job of controlling the message and creating a perception of dominance during the BCS era. Unfortunately, perception often trumps reality in everyday life. Like the ancient mass perception that “ heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible to build ” before the arrival of the airplane or the conventional belief that the eye evolved many, many times, before they were discovered PAX genes that regulate the eyes and are found everywhere. the animal kingdom, proved that eyes evolved only once.
Maybe it’s time to put aside the belief in the SEC’s dominance of college football. You cannot win a championship if you are not in the championship game. This year, the SEC had to win on the field to get into the championship game and failed. Maybe the SEC wouldn’t have had a team in the last eight BCS championship games (both teams in 2011) if they had to win their birth via a tiebreaker?
If perception were all that mattered, we could simply ignore the playoff results and crown Alabama this year’s champion, as Mark Titus alluded to in the following prediction he made about Grantland before the game: “Ohio State 84, Oregon 0 Oregon attempts a field goal with 1:17 left in the game to avoid the shutout. Ohio State blocks the kick and runs back for his 12th touchdown. Knight is so embarrassed he cuts ties with the Ducks. Oregon then converts in a Fila school. Embarrassed Mariota quits soccer forever. The number of babies in Ohio called “Cardale” skyrockets. Ignoring the new playoff system, Alabama declares itself a national champion anyway, citing its “calendar strength “and” body of work. “Pollsters agree. The dynasty continues as Bama wins his fourth title in six years. Roll Tide.”
As far-fetched and joking as it was, that’s a pretty accurate description of how many champions (even before BCS) have been crowned. If perception accurately reflected reality, there would be no reason to play games. Hopefully we will eventually get a bigger play-off and a shorter regular season to ensure that the best team, rather than the perceived best team, is crowned champion at the end of the year.
You can follow Sam on Twitter @SuperTaoInc