Why I'm Sick of Pete Carroll...and the BCS Too

The 2009 BCS Title Game has come and gone. College football is officially over for a good eight months. As many expected, including myself, the Florida Gators were able to triumph in the Battle of the Quarterbacks.

All year, the Big 12 bragged about their supremacy in the quarterback position. Not that they didn't have a right, mind you. Any conference that features Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, Graham Harrell, and Chase Daniel clearly is loaded with gunslingers.

Not to be shown up, the long-time king of college football (the SEC) simply said that these four men wouldn't have nearly the numbers that they allotted throughout the duration of the season had they been matched up against the ever-tough Southeastern Conference defenses. Fair argument for both sides, I must say.

The Big 12 really thought they were something when Sooner QB Sam Bradford hoisted the Heisman Trophy with a cast on, which appears to be the required accessory for a sophomore winner. Of course, the real reason the Big 12 felt so good about the win was not that Bradford had such a good season, but that he somehow beat the SEC's darling, Tim Tebow.

Tebow, who happened to be the first soph to win the Heisman, started the season slow, only to come to true form after the Florida Gators were stunned at home by a very underrated Mississippi team. After the game, Tebow gave one of the most heartfelt and sorrow-filled press conference speeches in recent memory. Then, he did the unthinkable—he fulfilled his promise.

As few other college football players in history have ever could've done, Tim Tebow singlehandedly inspired his team to overcome the loss and, as though they had been offended by the thought that they may not be talented enough to play for a national championship, destroy every single team that stood in their path to Miami. Clearly, they succeeded in their mission.

So, in the end, the Oklahoma Sooners and Bob "Oops" Stoops lost another bowl game. The SEC felt as though it proved it is still number one in football, and that Tim Tebow really would not be the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12 (which is one of the most ridiculous and ignorant statements I have EVER heard).

So, after all of this reading, you are probably curious as to what Pete Carroll has to do with Florida. Carroll and his USC team were not in Miami, but in Pasadena (again), beating the socks off of Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions of Penn State. Unfortunately, the fact that Carroll was not in Miami is the very reason I am writing this article.

Every year, we go through this same cycle. The season starts. Southern Cal is ranked extraordinarily high. They play weak non-conference opponents, then play their even weaker conference opponents within the Pac-10. Then, somehow, the "Mighty USC Trojans" lose. To UCLA. To Stanford. To Oregon State.

By losing, they go in the dangerous "one-loss team" group. The only way someone in this group make the title game is if no BCS conference team goes 12-0 or 13-0, which almost never happens. So, now the voters look at the résumés of these one-loss teams.

They see an SEC team whose only loss came in a game against a ranked opponent within conference play. They know that in the SEC, every win is a quality win, because every team could potentially win every game. Same goes for the Big 12. Even the Big Ten has managed to send a less than stellar team to the BCS title game (i.e. Ohio State).

Alas, look who's left. Ol' Pete and his band of merry Trojans.  Unfortunately for USC, the Pac-10 features what is basically the worst competition of all the BCS conferences. So guess who doesn't get asked to play in the title game? You guessed it. Pete "Crybaby" Carroll.

Not that the Trojans go to the Toilet Bowl, or anything like that. They do get the automatic bid to represent the Pac-10 in the "Granddaddy of them all," the Rose Bowl. But leave it to Pete, who I have dubbed as the most ungrateful man in college football, to be upset about this honor.

I'm sure loads of teams would love to represent the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl. Heck, half of the Pac-10 would be thrilled to even be invited to a bowl—period.

Not Pete. He, for some completely unknown reason, is not content with this game, even though he knows that he lost a game to a team with little respect in the national media. Every year, he gets on ESPN and complains that he thinks his team is the best in the country, and that they get unfairly treated. Boo-hoo. Cry me a river, Pete.

You are the coach of one of the most storied college football teams in America. You win your conference every year. You get unbelievable (and in many cases, totally undeserved) amounts of coverage and praise for your team. USC is still one of the most popular teams in the country, and it hasn't been that long since two consecutive Heisman Trophy winners came out of your locker room.

Face it, Pete. The Pac-10 gets little street cred when their best teams include Oregon State and Arizona State, both of whom would likely not hold up very long in the SEC or Big 12.

To be frank, I think that Carroll needs to suck it up, be a leader, and just do his job. If the Trojans didn't lose a game, then we wouldn't have to worry about their lack of quality wins. They would automatically be sent to the title game as the only unbeaten team. So Pete should just make sure they don't lose.

If that is impossible, then perhaps his team is not as good as he likes to believe that they are. 

However, the Trojans continue to lose, and Carroll continues to whine and gripe. If only there was a way to end this vicious cycle...

Oh wait, there is. The elusive college football playoffs. For some reason unbeknown to me, the NCAA will not convert their football postseason to model basically every other sport in America.

The benefits of the switch outweigh the drawbacks like a sumo wrestler outweighs Nicole Ritchie. Just think: March Madness becomes December Delirium. The Big Dance births The Winter Ball. It's perfect. Just think how bland the world seems after Christmas. Football can help with that. 

The NCAA Men's basketball tournament starts with 65 teams. There were 70 bowl teams this season. This means that there would be more than enough teams to fill a 65-team bracket in football. And yes, I have heard that that is too many games. To that, I must politely disagree.

With the number of teams that are worthy of postseason games, the only way to give everyone a fair shot would be to have a LOT of teams. A 16-team bracket would simply leave too many people out in the cold and would still allow for people to whine that "they didn't have a fair shot."

As for having that many football games, I can hardly think of anyone who would be angered by adding more games to the year. Sponsors make more money. Fans get more games. The media gets to add more coverage. Players get more games. Coaches get to prove themselves on the grandest of scales.

Only the absolute toughest and best would be able to survive a tournament this large with this many quality teams, thus allowing the undeniable best team to win the championship. It's a winning situation for anyone involved. I see no reason why not to have this system implemented immediately. 

So, here's how it is. College football needs playoffs. The drama, the excitement, the loss of Pete Carroll's whining. What more could you want?  Even President-Elect Barack Obama supports a playoff system, and I believe that's a change that everyone would enjoy.