Longhorns Get Hosed, Bring Back Nasty Memories of 1993

In 1993, the two top teams in the country were Notre Dame and Florida State. Damn, that seems like a long time ago... but I digress.

Notre Dame beat Florida State that year, head to head, during the regular season. They lost to Boston College the next week, and both ND and FSU ended the season with 1 loss. Not being in the BCS like we have now, they each played their bowl game, won, and that was that. And then FSU was awarded the top spot in the country, despite the obvious head-to-head battle that, to me, proved which team was actually better. ND got hosed.

Fast forward to 2008. Earlier this season, Texas beat Oklahoma, and then later lost a close one to Texas Tech. Both teams finish the regular season with one loss. Yet Oklahoma is voted #1 and gets put into the Big 12 Championship and later the national championship game. Same situation: the two teams had the same record, one beat the other, and yet the pollsters decided that they didn't like that so they just ignored it. So Oklahoma's playing for an undeserved national title and Texas is stuck playing #10 Ohio State.

This is why the rankings system does not work. I'm for a playoff. It's not a huge issue for me, I don't lose sleep over it (I have my daughter and her head cold to thank for that). But it amazes me that the college sports world has stood for this as long as they have. The obvious "popularity contest" nature of the rankings system should have gone by the wayside decades ago... yet it hasn't for whatever reason. Head to head play is and should be the deciding factor when records are equal. And the best way to assure head to head play is to have a playoff.