McMisanthrope’s Top 25 – FINAL

A flawed system which just embarrasses the NCAA on all levels …

1. Kansas (12-1): Sure, it’s an unpopular pick, because people will say they played an easy schedule. But you know what? They played in a BCS conference, they finished with one loss, and they won a bowl game. No one else in the country has the same claim, and why crown a two-loss champion to embarrass the game if you don’t have to? They won the Orange Bowl, beating a team many felt had a claim to the BCS title game. They only lost to the two-loss Cotton Bowl champion. They played a BCS conference schedule they had NO control over. Sorry, but if people truly understood what college athletics were about, Kansas would be the champion. And so they’re my champion. Congratulations, Jayhawks!

2. Hawaii (12-1): They lost their Sugar Bowl, but no way Georgia flies to Honolulu and wins. Hawaii has perhaps the best HFA in college football right now, and it makes them a better team than they showed in New Orleans. One loss, even a blowout one at the end of the year, shouldn’t kill your season. Ask the 2004 Oklahoma Sooners.

3. USC (11-2): Two years in a row, the best team on the field had no chance at the BCS title, which simply shows how biased and corrupt the BCS system really is today. It doesn’t crown a champion; it makes a mockery of the MNC concept. The Trojans would have beaten Florida last year, and they would have beaten LSU this year. That simple. I find it ironic that LSU made the title game on perceived reputation, even though USC started the season ahead of LSU in the polls based on those same reputations. The anti-Pac 10 bias came through again, once again demonstrating the corruption rampant in the BCS system. USC would clean LSU’s clock, and Pete Carroll is ten times the coach Les Miles is. Pathetic.

4. West Virginia (11-2): I guess this is really all THEIR fault. If they had just been able to beat friggin’ Pitt, LSU would never have been allowed to mess all this up. Fuck you, West Virginia. Forever. I do find it ironic how they BLEW OUT the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl, when they couldn’t even score in double digits against Pitt. It defies logic; it really does, like USC losing to UCLA last year in roughly the same fashion. I suspect the Wolverines won’t be happy when their new coach pulls the same garbage against Sparty, Purdue and Iowa, though.

5. LSU (12-2): I guess they have to be someone’s champion in order to pay the bills, right? A flawed champion of a corrupt system where votes are bought and sold like currency? When college football finally gets around to doing things the right way, the debates will rage on about these laughable BCS title games in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2007. I’m sure someone will prove that Michigan or Notre Dame really should have been the BCS champions in all those years, and they’d be just as right as the assclowns who put FSU (twice!), Nebraska, Oklahoma, Florida and LSU into these “championships”. I also find it laughable that LSU has won both its BCSMNCs in the Sugar Bowl; send these fuckers to Pasadena? They’d get snot-fucked sideways. Yet another reason why college football is a joke, and the LSU Tigers are its poster children.

6. Missouri (12-2): Justification of sorts? Not really. Our highest non-BCS entry won its bowl game easily, and they had a great season. If there had been an eight-team tournament, they wouldn’t have been in it. This is the equivalent of winning the NIT. Enjoy it, Tigers.

7. Ohio State (11-2): What can you say? The Big Ten does suck. But they did win it.

8. Georgia (11-2): Different draw, and it could have been them beating Ohio State for a tainted BCSMNC. BTW, they are behind Mizzou, because they didn’t even make it to their league title game.

9. BYU (11-2): Quietly under a lot of voters’ radars for two seasons in a row now.

10. Oklahoma (11-3): Heh. Told you they sucked.

11. Virginia Tech (11-3): The ACC sucks, too. The Hokies lost to someone else’s version of Beamer Ball. That has to hurt.

12. Texas (10-3): It’s amazing how bad college football was this year, when severely flawed teams like OU and Texas can still win 10+ games and finish so high.

13. Arizona State (10-3): They’d beat LSU if the Tigers played in Tempe.

14. Boston College (11-3): Weak bowl win over a mediocre team from a mediocre conference. BTW, some teams can play 14 games in a season, but a playoff/tournament would add too many games to the season? Whatever. The BCS sucks; LSU as a two-loss champion is more proof.

15. Cincinnati (10-3): Should Michigan have hired Brian Kelley? Only time will tell.

16. Boise State (10-3): Never should have lost that bowl game.

17. Oregon (9-4): Nice bowl win without their Heisman QB. Every season has multiple layers of storylines, and the Dennis Dixon Story has been overlooked. If he stays healthy, Oregon wins the BCS title. What a shame … reminds me of the Kenyon Martin injury right before the 2000 NCAA Basketball tournament.

18. Tennessee (10-4): See the Texas note above and see the Boston College note above. If teams THAT HAVE NO CHANCE AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP can play 14 games in a season, explain again WHY a tournament wouldn’t work? Oh yeah … the BCS sucks cocks.

19. Oregon State (9-4): Mike Riley is quietly making this program very good on a yearly basis.

20. Auburn (9-4): I have nothing interesting or original to say about Auburn.

21. Michigan (9-4): Nice to see Lloyd Carr go out on a high note. The man deserved better than this, but his seniors let him down. At least they finally won a bowl game, though.

22. Penn State (9-4): JoePa is going to coach forever, isn’t he?

23. Texas Tech (9-4): My early, dark horse Heisman prediction for 2008? Mr. Crabtree.

24. Florida (9-4): Lame bowl loss. Watch out for this team in 2008.

25. Wake Forest (9-4): Nothing to complain about for this follow-up to their 2006 ACC championship.

Also considered: South Florida, Clemson, Illinois, Utah, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Virginia, Central Florida, Air Force