BCS Rankings: Terrible Tie-Breaking Procedure Gets It Right with Big East Champs

Barring a monumental, inexplicable jump, West Virginia will earn the tiebreaker in the Big East and represent the conference in the Orange Bowl.

Now, the way they will win that tiebreaker is abysmal, but it doesn't mean that the end result is wrong. 

This isn't the first time that we've seen this situation. It's simple, really. Three teams are tied for the best record in the conference. Cincinnati, West Virginia, and Louisville all finished the season with 5-2 records in the conference.

Cincinnati beat Louisville, but lost to West Virginia, while West Virginia beat Cincinnati, but lost to Louisville. Of course, Louisville beat West Virginia, but lost to Cincinnati. 

In 2008, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech were all tied for the lead in the Big XII South. Oklahoma beat Texas Tech, who beat Texas, who beat Oklahoma. That was a little more important, as the winner of that tiebreaker (Oklahoma) eventually earned a spot in the National Championship Game.

Both tiebreakers were ultimately decided by the team ranked higher in the BCS.

That's a shame and all conferences need to stop using that as a tiebreaker now. Human polls make up two-thirds of the BCS, but computers still have too much of an impact.

On a national stage, a case can be made that they need to stop this system entirely. After all, when you have two teams who didn't play each other or have many (if any) common opponents, an objective way to determine the better team is not a terrible idea, at least not in principle. 

The conference tiebreaker needs to come down to the coaches of the common opponents. You could include the coaches of the teams in question, but you would need to make a rule that they can't vote for their own team. Otherwise, you might as well disqualify them.

But it's best to have the people who have actually experienced all of the teams in question to get the tiebreaker in determining who the best of the group is. Leaving it up to the BCS is just a poor way to do it. 

Having said all of that, the BCS got this one right. I wouldn't feel that way if Zach Collaros didn't hurt himself, but he did. Actually, if Collaros hadn't hurt himself against West Virginia, Cincinnati likely would have beaten the Mountaineers that week and certainly would have beaten Rutgers the following week. 

In other words, we wouldn't be in this position. 

But as those three teams currently stand, West Virginia is clearly the team best suited to go to the Orange Bowl and play against the ACC champions. 

You'll never convince me that they earned the tiebreaker the right way, but that's not the fault of the Mountaineers. That's just a terrible system at play. 

Just because the tiebreaker got the right result doesn't mean that it's a good system. Every conference needs to take the fortune of getting lucky here and change their way of breaking a three-way tie. They need to do that now. 

Let the people who had to deal with the teams in question tell you who the better team is. That will give you a far more accurate result.