Boise State stepping over ‘Sisters of the Poor’? That’s rich

Unbuckling the mailbag:

Question: According to the Ohio State president, Big Ten and Southeastern Conference teams “do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor.” Has he seen Auburn’s schedule this year?

Has Mr. Gee seen Michigan State’s murderers’ row schedule?

Note to Mr. Gee, Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and other SEC and Big Ten honks: Football is played in the Western half of the United States too.

Don Schireson

Answer: Gordon Gee is an interesting man. He wears bow ties and is very smart, but the comments he made this week were ridiculous and self-indulgent.

Gee said schools such as Boise State and Texas Christian don’t belong in the Bowl Championship Series title game because they don’t face the weekly gauntlet faced by schools in the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences.

While this is, in general, true, it is also the reason why Boise and TCU have never come close to competing for the BCS title until now.

All those factors are taken into account by the BCS voters and computers.

It took Boise State and TCU years of sustained excellence to get into a position to compete for this season’s national title.

Boise State is in the race because it went undefeated last year and opened No. 3 in the preseason Associated Press poll and No. 5 in the USA Today coaches’ poll.

The voters put Boise State in the race. It would be outright fraud to think a team that starts No. 5 in the coaches’ poll could not possibly advance three spots over the course of a season’s 13 weeks.

TCU started No. 7 in the coaches’ poll because its only loss last year was to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

You must also remember the Ohio State president is only concerned about one school here…Ohio State.

The success of Boise State and TCU this year threatens, in certain scenarios, to keep his blessed Buckeyes out of a BCS game.

Ohio State, after all, has “only” been to eight BCS games since 1998. The Buckeyes have advanced to three title games, one Rose Bowl and also earned four at-large berths.

The Big Ten and Pacific 10 conferences have each captured one BCS title. Ohio State won in 2002 and USC in 2004.

Yet, Ohio State has received four at-large berths, twice as many as the entire Pac-10 has earned in 12 years.

The world, Mr. Gee, will not stop on its axis if Ohio State is left out of a BCS game this year at the expense of an undefeated Boise or TCU.

Another thing: The Big Ten has not been a gantlet this year. Ohio State’s best win is over four-loss Iowa. Ohio State lost to Wisconsin and didn’t play Michigan State. The Buckeyes’ signature nonconference victory was in Columbus against Miami, which is no longer ranked.

Ohio State’s schedule ranks No. 59 this week in the Sagarin Ratings. Michigan State is No. 67.

The Big Ten may not play too many “sisters of the poor.”

But they seem to be playing a few “sisters of the rich.”

Q: How many non-USC Pac-10 teams have been BCS-worthy in that 10-year period of time? Cal in 2004 and…? USC dominated all decade.

KW Tweet

A: I would offer Oregon in 2005. The Ducks that year finished No. 5 in the final BCS standings and appeared to be heading toward the Fiesta Bowl. But…wait!

There’s a clause in the BCS contract that demands that Notre Dame get an automatic BCS bid anytime it wins and/or sneezes….or something like that. Actually, Notre Dame is guaranteed a BCS spot if it finishes in the top eight.

How does Notre Dame get a deal like that?

It’s one of the perks of being Notre Dame. In fact, the BCS is comprised of 11 conferences and…Notre Dame.

Notre Dame finished No. 6 in the final BCS standings of 2005.

USC and Texas finished 1-2 and played in the Rose Bowl. Remember, this was the year before the “double host” format.

So, the Big Ten champion, Penn State, was shipped to the Orange Bowl that year and Ohio State finished No. 4 in the standings, which mandated the Buckeyes also go to a BCS bowl.

Ohio State ended up playing Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. That was the great young Irish team led by first-year coach Charlie Weis, who would use the momentum of that BCS game to lead Notre Dame into mediocrity.

So, Oregon, at No. 5, was boxed out and ended up in the Holiday Bowl.

That was a year after Cal, as you mentioned, got aced out of its first Rose Bowl appearance since 1959 by Texas under the same 3-4 rule. Texas finished fourth and Cal finished fifth.

So, the Pac-10’s history with BCS has not always been pleasant.

In 2001, remember, Oregon finished No. 2 in both polls but No. 4 in the final BCS standings.

And, in 2003, USC finished No. 1 in both polls but got left out of the BCS title game.

Q: Which conference has the worst record in BCS bowl games? I believe it’s the Big Ten.

Anthony

A: OK now, no more Big Ten BCS bashing. It’s true the Big Ten is 10-11 all-time in BCS games, but it’s not the worst record among the major conferences. That distinction belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is an awful 2-10. The second-worst conference is the Big 12, at 7-10.

The SEC’s 14-5 record tops all conferences in BCS victories and winning percentage. The Pac-10 is second at 9-5, followed by the Big East at 6-6.

Q: Were you born in Tuscaloosa?

The last thing Auburn and our country need is meddling from L.A. That prevented the last Auburn team from claiming a national championship. Enjoy the surf; leave the football to the SEC.

Dan Ryan

Franklin, Tenn.

A: Wait. Los Angeles prevented Auburn from getting to the 2004 BCS title? I could have sworn Auburn didn’t go because USC and Oklahoma finished first and second in the final BCS standings. And Auburn finished third.

USC and Oklahoma opened the year at 1-2 and didn’t lose. Auburn started back in the pack, No. 18 in the preseason coaches’ poll, and couldn’t make up the ground even though it played Citadel, Louisiana Monroe and Louisiana in nonconference.

Q: You really need to remember to take your medicine. You are beginning to hallucinate.

Richard O. Brooks

A: You are right. This week, in fact, I hallucinated that a little man in a bow tie from Ohio took off in an air balloon and started preaching from the sky about why Boise State and TCU didn’t belong in the BCS title game.

Q: I support a non-AQ making the Big Game. I think you’re right and that’s the problem. I think the one thing that would blow up the current Bogus Championship Series fiasco is if the non-AQs were left out of the final game, particularly if it were a one-loss SEC team that bumped them.

See?

Eric Cannon

Clovis, Calif.

A: Yes, I can see clearly now. A “non-AQ” making the BCS title game would be a good thing for those hoping the BCS ends up in a big mess again and that brings us one step closer to a playoff.

Don’t get your hopes up, though.

It is difficult to imagine bigger BCS messes than the messes we had in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

And that didn’t lead to a playoff. In fact, ESPN bought the entire BCS broadcast package this year and said it actually liked the mess it was purchasing.

The BCS might require intervention, like that cable show “Hoarders,” where experts have to come out to the house and convince people living with garbage up to the ceiling they don’t need to keep every bottle cap they’ve popped off a soda.

I’m not even sure, though, that would help the BCS.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com