BCS Still an Unsettling System

There have been more electric days on the field in college football than Saturday, but never one with more backroom buzz, money on the line or participants conflicted:

Pacific 10 against the Rose Bowl.

Orange Bowl vs. the Rose Bowl.

The bowl championship series vs. Western civilization.

Washington State Coach Mike Price against UCLA Coach Bob Toledo, two friends who joked that when they get fired, they’re going to open a bait shop in Mexico.

Well, with Saturday’s victory over UCLA, Price may have sent Toledo on his first step to Cancun.

What a bizarre, complicated day it was, what with USC fans rooting for UCLA while many UCLA fans were rooting against the Bruins in the hope defeat would facilitate change.

Instead of saying, “This is wonderful,� Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen stood in the Rose Bowl press box before Saturday’s UCLA game and said, “Isn’t this awful?�

He could have added, “Isn’t this confusing?�

When the dust settled on Washington State’s 48-27 win, unlocking the mysteries of 13 bowl matchups, Washington State quarterback Jason Gesser hobbled off the field and said, “I think we are playing Iowa, but I don’t know.�

Actually, after weeks of speculation and BCS bewilderment, we can finally project an end to this madness.

With Miami, Georgia, Washington State and Oklahoma all winning, the bowl picture finally takes a form that doesn’t resemble room-temperature Jell-O.

Here is what we think we know, in this office, at this hour, not accounting for last-second knee-jerking, gerrymandering or politicking.

Miami and Ohio State, the nation’s only two unbeaten teams, will play for the national title in the Jan. 3 Fiesta Bowl.

That’s a fact.

Washington State, which clinched the Pac-10 bid, is going to play Big 12 champion Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl.

Iowa, co-champion of the Big Ten, is going to the Orange Bowl.

USC will go to either the Sugar or Orange Bowl, and Notre Dame, at 10-2, will fall to the Gator Bowl. Then again, the Big Ten sort of announced that in a news release Tuesday, didn’t it?

USC probably is headed to the Sugar Bowl to play Georgia, with the Orange Bowl matching Iowa against Florida State.

How did the Rose Bowl, which was supposed to keep its Pac-10-Big Ten arrangement in years it wasn’t hosting the national title, lose Iowa to the Orange Bowl?

Because Miami will end up No. 1 in today’s final BCS standings, the Orange Bowl gets the first selection of at-large schools. The Rose Bowl, because it lost No. 2 Ohio State, gets the second pick.

The Orange Bowl, needing an anchor school that will guarantee a huge turnout, will take the third-ranked Hawkeyes.

The Rose Bowl, although not a happy camper, is resigned to this outcome.

“We understand they need to do what they have to do,� Rose Bowl chief executive Mitch Dorger said of the Orange Bowl. “We’d prefer a Pac-10-Big Ten matchup, but we understand everything they’re talking about is perfectly within their right. They need to first and foremost take care of their bowl, their committee and their community.�

There is another scenario in which the Orange Bowl could, legally, crown its bowl the “Rose Bowl of the South.�

Iowa vs. USC in Miami? It’s probably a longshot, but under BCS guidelines, it would work like this: Because the Orange Bowl has a slightly higher payout than the Sugar -- specific figures won’t be known until gate receipts are counted -- the Orange Bowl could jump order and take USC from the Sugar.

BCS sources say this option is on the table, although BCS spokesman John Paquette said Saturday night he could only “confirm the procedure.�

If the Orange Bowl took USC to match with Iowa, it would obviously displease both the Rose and Sugar bowls and you would think this displeasure would be a factor in the Orange Bowl’s ultimate decision.

This unfolding day of strangeness had Hansen, the Pac-10 commissioner, privately rooting for a Washington State win, against the best interests of the Rose Bowl.

Hansen works on behalf of all 10 member schools and knew a Washington State win would put a second Pac-10 school into the BCS, and that would mean an extra $4.5 million for the conference.

“I’m always uncomfortable at conference games because I know one of my friends is going to lose,� Hansen said. “I like nonconference games where we win by a huge margin. Last Saturday [USC over Notre Dame] was the kind of day I like.�

Hansen is also eager to send a conference team to the Sugar or Orange bowls to prove the Pac-10 can fill major bowl seats in stadiums east of Tempe.

Saturday was a day when the winners and losers got lost in the nuances of the complicated BCS system, ostensibly created in 1998 to help simplify a college game that has been unwilling to trade the venerated bowl system for a playoff.

Instead, college football has tried to marry the concepts, with dubious results.

For the third consecutive year, the BCS is shadowed by controversy. In 2000 and 2001, the top two ranked schools in both polls could not meet for the title because the No. 2 team each year was not No. 2 in the BCS standings.

This year, the system will have matched the undisputed top teams, Miami and Ohio State, which is what the BCS is designed to do.

Yet, the fallout this year with the non-championship bowls could have lasting repercussions. By midweek, the Rose Bowl became resigned to the fact that it was going to lose Iowa to the Orange Bowl in a certain scenario.

That scenario came true.

There had been rumbling of behind-the-scenes bickering between the Orange and Rose bowls, but the Rose Bowl is doing its best to take the high road.

“We have absolutely no animosity toward the Rose Bowl,� Dorger said.

So today, at 11 a.m., the Rose Bowl’s six-member panel of the Game Policy Subcommittee will convene in Pasadena and likely conclude, all things considered, that Oklahoma is OK.

It could have been worse. Had Colorado defeated Oklahoma in Saturday’s Big 12 title game, the Rose Bowl would have been left with an undesirable choice among Colorado, USC and Florida State.

“I don’t even want to go there,� Rose Bowl President Gary Thomas said of that possibility.

Thanks to Oklahoma, he doesn’t have to.