Bullpen

The BCS worked for Tide, but everyone else, not so much

PHERSY: The Bowl Championship Series announced its bowl matchups over the weekend. There were winners and losers. But mostly losers ...

Many teams have legitimate arguments about why they should be in a BCS game (see, Boise State). Others are grasping at straws.

Columnist Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times outlines his thoughts on the recent announcements. Time for reform? Find out what Dufresne thinks ...

IN BCS, CLOSE DOESN'T COUNT

By Chris Dufresne

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — This year's Bowl Championship Series motto: "Thought you really had a chance, did you?"

Every game "sort of" counted. The BCS worked in Alabama, but outside Tuscaloosa there's ongoing discussion that it needs to be tweaked into an incinerator.

Oklahoma State fell short in pulling off one of the greatest comebacks in formula-calculation history.

Too bad close doesn't count in the BCS.

They're cheering in Dixie and crying a river in Stillwater because Louisiana State and Alabama are playing Jan. 9 for the national title in New Orleans.

It's LSU-Alabama (Part Deux).

"It sort of is what it is," stone-faced Alabama coach Nick Saban said on ESPN of the system that delivered his team to the title game.

LSU won the first game, 9-6, meaning we're possibly looking at another Battle of New Orleans to end the War of 18-12.

The Southeastern Conference, the beast with the loudest voice, is assured of winning its sixth straight BCS title and losing its first.

In the end, the BCS could only make Oklahoma State fans hope and Alabama fans sweat.

Outside of a few nervous hours, as computers churned and voters pondered, nothing changed.

Alabama entered, and exited, the weekend at No. 2.

All that's left is the autopsy. Alabama finished at .9419 to Oklahoma State's .9333.

"No. 3 Oklahoma State made a real run at the top this weekend," BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said in a statement. "This year the difference between No. 2 and No. 3 was the closest ever under our existing rankings formula."

Yippee!

The BCS, like a pickpocket, almost got away clean. Had Oklahoma State not lost in double overtime at Iowa State, or Stanford not lost at home to Oregon, we'd be sitting here with two undefeated teams playing for an undisputed national title. Boise State, at 12-0, might have earned a shot against Louisiana State.

The BCS' best defense, a good one, is that the schools that got left out have only themselves to blame.

Also, Alabama finished second in the three people polls that matter: USA Today, Harris and Associated Press.

Was a rematch between LSU and Alabama the right call?

Not in my opinion, especially because there was a viable option involving a quality conference champion.

It is reflective of a sport's shamelessness that the SEC, five years after it argued vehemently against an Ohio State-Michigan rematch, argued in favor of a rematch this time.

Don't blame the wacky BCS computers, though, if you didn't like Sunday's result — the computers had Oklahoma State at No. 2

In 2004, the BCS altered the formula to give more weight to the judges with eyeballs.

In other words, BCS voters in the USA Today and Harris Interactive indexes could have prevented LSU-Alabama II if they didn't want a rematch.

But not enough of them did.

Enough voters sized up LSU and Alabama and decided they were the best two teams.

Flawed systems produce flawed results.

Oklahoma State has a right to be upset. The pairing of Oklahoma State's offense against LSU's stellar defense has more universal appeal than a replay of a Nov. 5 game that produced zero touchdowns.

Billionaire booster T. Boone Pickens threatened an investigation if Oklahoma State didn't get to the title game — good luck with that.

Also, if you're Oklahoma State's coach, you can't say you'd vote Alabama No. 2 on Wednesday and cry bloody murder Saturday.

This wasn't a conspiracy — it was convoluted BCS kookiness as usual.

Got a problem with the BCS?

Get in a very long line. The BCS, in its 14-year history, is no more crooked or correct than it was in 2000, when Florida State beat out Miami even though Miami was No. 2 in both polls and beat Florida State.

Oregon's then-coach, Mike Bellotti, deemed the BCS "a cancer" in 2001 when his Ducks finished No. 2 in both polls and No. 4 in the final standings.

You want outrage? USC finished No.1 in both polls in 2003 and didn't make the title game.

The BCS is always at its worst when it affects your bowl plans.

The only cheerful news for BCS bashers is that the fundamentally flawed system, despite being absurdly entertaining, may have run its course.

Commissioners will meet next spring to discuss the format for the next BCS contract, which expires after the 2013 season.

Any plausible suggestion short of an eight- or 16-team playoff will be considered.

Commissioners could revisit the seeded "plus-one" model that was rejected a few years ago. That would have involved a mini-playoff featuring the top four teams in the final BCS standings.

Even that model, though, would have left Boise State out of this year's mix.

A better compromise would be melding the current BCS with an unseeded format in which all the bowls would go back to their traditional ties.

After the bowl games, you would use the BCS standings to determine No. 1 and No. 2 and play one extra game.

In the unseeded format, every BCS bowl would have meaning and extend the national title discussion.

In the unseeded format, Oklahoma State would get another game to makes its case in the battle against Alabama. And Alabama would get another chance to prove it was the worthy choice.

Every plan has pros and cons.

You might be saying anything has to be better than this.

But if you think this year was flawed, well, consider it might be worse next year.

Gophers football not far from respectability

The Minnesota Gophers football team ended on the kind of note that first-year coach Jerry Kill had hoped for.

It was a winning one, a 27-7 romp over Illinois, and one that gave significant hope to Minnesota's future under Kill.

Early this season, things looked as awful as they ever have for Gophers football. And that was a huge disappointment, with fans figuring Kill would get this program to quickly show signs of improvement. Instead, they were handed some disgusting losses, such as 28-21 to one of the worst teams in college football, New Mexico State. There was also a 37-24 dagger handed to them by neighbor North Dakota State and a 58-0 killing by Michigan.

But soon after, things gradually started to turn around for the Gophers. They showed signs of life in the second half in a 41-14 loss to Nebraska, then went out and beat Iowa 22-21 the following week. They followed that by almost beating big boy Michigan State, in East Lansing.

Finally, there was that 27-7 throttling of an Illinois team that — no doubt — was reeling to end its season. Still, it was an impressive win over a Big Ten school, one where there was complete domination on both sides of the ball by Minnesota.

And when was the last time we've been able to say that in for a Gophers program that has reeled for years?

The task now is to improve significantly on this season's 3-9 mark. It figures to happen if a couple of things fall into place.

They Gophers need to get bigger and strong along the offensive line, though for the first time in years they were able to run the football with moderate success this season. Minnesota is young up front, so improvement there seems automatic.

Minnesota also needs to see first-year starting quarterback MarQueis Gray continue to make the strides he did the last half of this season. If the Gophers can get him to accurately pass the ball downfield, they might really have something. We already know that he is among the best running quarterbacks in the country.

Minnesota also could use a dominant running back, something it hasn't had since Laurence Maroney was a senior in 2005.

On defense, a need is for its young defensive line to continue to get bigger and faster, and interior player Ra'Shede Hageman to emerge as a star next year, his junior season. The 6-foot-6, 300-pound Minneapolis product has given hints that it could happen.

In the secondary, the Gophers figure to need all kinds of help. Let's hope that Kill can land some recruits that can upgrade what was one of the worst secondaries in college football this year.

If all or most of those things happen, it's easy to imagine Minnesota finishing around 6-5 next year. Kill, who has an excellent reputation for turning lowly programs around, seems on his way to doing it here, too.

— Pat Ruff

Cowboys are true contenders

ARLINGTON, Texas — Now that the Dallas Cowboys have run the table in November, now that his team has come through the gantlet intact, Jason Garrett can let his guard down.

The coach who talks about stacking one good day on top of another, the one who forces himself and his team to live in the moment, acknowledges the obvious.

The Cowboys' 20-19 comeback victory over Miami on Thursday concluded a stretch that altered the complexion of the season. With a four-game winning streak for the first time in two years — and three wins in 12 days — the Cowboys enter the final month of the regular season as legitimate playoff contenders.


The Cowboys  know when they return in nine days to play Arizona, they will own at least a share of the NFC East lead. Since the New York Giants travel to New Orleans to face the Saints on Monday night, odds are the Cowboys will have sole possession of first place.

The 28th Thanksgiving victory in franchise history wasn't a thing of beauty. The Dolphins had more yards and committed fewer turnovers than the Cowboys. A team that has won only three games all season — albeit the previous three games — carried a two-point lead into the final three minutes.

A Cowboys team that was forced into overtime on the road four days earlier to beat Washington was running on fumes. But as cornerback Terence Newman said, "it's better to win ugly that lose gracefully."

Dez Bryant got it going. His 20-yard punt return gave the Cowboys the ball on their own 36-yard line with 2:59 remaining.

Tony Romo's pass to Laurent Robinson, who scored the team's two touchdowns, was incomplete. Romo then completed consecutive passes to tight end Jason Witten for 23 and 6 yards.

That's when the Cowboys turned the game over to DeMarco Murray.

"I've played quarterback in this league," Garrett said. "The most important thing for a quarterback is to be able to run the football. But if you don't run the ball well, the hardest thing for a quarterback is third-and-10.

"When you have balance, it's a good thing for everybody."

Murray picked up 6 yards to give the Cowboys a first down on the Miami 29-yard line at the two-minute warning. This is where the Cowboys have struggled in recent seasons.

Not now. The rookie running back came back with a 9-yard run. Then 3 yards. Then 4 yards. Then 5.

You get the idea.

Given how Miami quarterback Matt Moore victimized the Cowboys secondary deep in the second half of Thursday's game, this was essential. Murray allowed the Cowboys to consume the clock, keep the ball away from the Dolphins and turn the outcome over to Bailey's reliable right foot.

"To me, this is probably more meaningful and says more about him than the 150-yard games he's had in previous weeks," Witten said of Murray. "It takes a tough running back to understand what he needs to do there. Eat the clock, stay in bounds, get the hard yards, know where the weakness of the defense is.

"They had nine guys in the box, and he made some big runs when there wasn't a whole lot there. That's a sign of a really good back."

Bailey took the field with three seconds left for a 28-yard field goal.

Was there every any doubt? The rookie hasn't missed since Week 2.

"He's great," Newman said. "The guy has saved our butts two weeks in a row.

"The poise that he has is unbelievable."

The same can be said for Murray, who picked up 27 yards on the final drive and finished with 22 carries for 87 yards.

"This is a stretch where we needed to get going," Romo said. "We had some tough losses earlier in the year.

"At some point, you've got to get on a roll and stack wins together."

The Cowboys have done just that.

Now they have a few days to breathe.

David Moore

McClatchy News Services

Looks like an all-SEC championship game

And so it's come down to this.

Third-ranked Arkansas is at No. 1 Louisiana State. Maybe all of the upsets are out of the way. Or it could be a repeat of 2007, when two-loss LSU wound up getting into the national-title game after every contender took a late dive (including LSU).

That doesn't figure to happen this time, though some form of chaos could still ensue if certain things do go down. And one of them obviously would be an Arkansas win on Friday.

Should that occur, and should No. 2 Alabama get payback at Auburn for last year's implosion, there would be a three-way tie in the SEC West. And it would come down to the seventh tiebreaker, which in this case is your BCS standings. Who do you think will end up where in that scenario?

Arkansas lost by 24 at Alabama in late September and LSU won by three at Alabama in overtime earlier this month. November road wins are never a bad trump card. It could all depend on Friday's margin.

Yet that only eliminates the third, or lowest-ranked, team from the equation. After that if the two remaining teams are within five spots of each other, which likely would be the case, it reverts to head-to-head. So who's third is more important than who's first.

Or how about this? Let's say LSU beats Arkansas, but loses presumably a real close one to Georgia in the SEC title game in Atlanta. What does that do? As a voter in the Harris poll, one of two used in the three-pronged BCS formula (along with computer average), I might have a tough time dropping LSU behind Alabama. I'm a body-of-work kind of observer. And LSU's resume, even with a closing blemish to a club that might bring a 10-game winning streak into the Georgia Dome, could still be worthy enough. And neither LSU nor Alabama would be a conference champion.

If LSU and Alabama both win this week, Alabama would actually seem to benefit from not playing in the SEC final, since LSU could only hurt itself while 'Bama would be pretty much locked in.

In the BCS race it doesn't matter whether you finish one or two, only that you're not three.

I'm not big on rematches. Yet I think most would agree that LSU and Alabama have been the two strongest teams. If the objective is to get the best onto the ultimate stage, then it's hard to object if it turns out that way, regardless of how what's left of this oft-bashed elimination process unfolds.

But Stanford, Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech might have a dissenting opinion. Someone usually does.

Mike Kern

McClatchy News Services

Wolves would be worth watching

The NBA lockout continues, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fans acting like they care.

Well, I happen to be one who does. After the Minnesota Timberwolves have starved me for so many years, this season had some actual promise of providing something intriguing to watch.

That starts with two promising newcomers, point guard Ricky Rubio and forward Derrick Williams. Rubio is the possibly dazzling guy from Spain, and Williams is none other than the second guy taken in last summer's NBA Draft. Both are gym rats who play with a flair.

Then there is the slimmed down Kevin Love, who was the NBA's top rebounder last year and made the All-Star team. Love has dropped 30 pounds, and figures to be more mobile and even more effective than before. He figured to get significant time at center, moving over from his power forward spot to accomodate Williams.

And there is the apparently more movitated and slimmed down Michael Beasley, who showed all kinds of potentially offensively last year, but not much on defense. A more movitated and quicker Beasley should be much better.

There is also Wesley Johnson, the Wolves' No. 1 draft pick from two years ago. He's long and athletic, and figures to be much better than the guy who played in fits and starts last year.

And finally, there is a new Wolves coach, likely future Hall of Famer Rick Adelman. Finally — finally — the Wolves have a guy who is a proven coach and a proven winner who is known for getting the most out of his players and playing a fun, up-tempo style.

Let this lockout end. I want to see this Wolves season play out.

— Pat Ruff

Penn State students fail to get it

The flocking of students at Penn State, defending Joe Paterno in the wake of the legendary coach being fired, is sickening.

There was only one move to be made, and that was to remove Paterno from his position. This is a man who'd been told of an assistant coach sexually abusing a young boy, yet never reported it to the police.

That the Penn State students don't seem to understand the magnitude of Paterno's ghastly silence on this sex-abuse issue is alarming.

There is silence from Paterno's fans, of course, if they were among the abused. Then, they get it.

The surprise is all those folks who fail to get it without having experienced sexual abuse first hand. There seem to be a whole bunch of those types roaming around at Penn State.

— Pat Ruff

Golf failed its own racism test

Now we know: Golf is a sport where you can aim a racial slur at Tiger Woods in front of a room of people and not get punished for it. In fact, in certain company, when the audience is in a party mood and thinks the world is not watching or listening, you might even get a few laughs.

If golf really and truly had "no place for any form of racism," which is what the heads of the PGA and European tours said, then Steve Williams wouldn't be working this week. Instead he would be suspended or lying low somewhere.

If golf really had no place for racism, then the sport would have required that the caddie sacked by Woods in July do more, far more, than simply apologize, which he has done both to Woods in person and to the wider world in a begrudging, three-line statement. Why not, for starters, insist that he attend courses on race relations and respect before next stepping onto a fairway?

If golf had zero place for racism, there would be fewer apologists for Williams quickly turning the page. There would be more golfers like Fred Couples who were not prepared to dismiss Williams' comment at a caddies awards party as an ugly attempt at humor that failed. The U.S. captain for the Presidents Cup was reported as saying that if Williams was his caddy, he'd have fired him.

Woods said he and Williams "met face to face and talked about it, talked it through" Tuesday. Greg Norman, captain of the Presidents Cup International side, employed Williams in the 1980s. Both golfers said the New Zealand caddie is not a racist. "No doubt about that," Woods said. "No, not at all," Norman said.

Which is somewhat reassuring but also irrelevant here. That Williams, as far as ex-colleagues can actually know these things, does not hate people because of their skin color or ethnic background does not erase what he said. Suggesting it was out of character, that Williams doesn't habitually say such things, that the comment was reported out of context or that those who weren't there aren't qualified to have an opinion, does not make such slurs right or less painful to people who have long been on the receiving end of them. Woods called the remark "hurtful" and "a wrong thing to say."

 Some said Adam Scott, his employer, should have sacked Williams. But Scott was a victim here, too, unwittingly placed in the middle by something hateful someone else said.

This was a problem for the whole of golf, represented by top administrators, to take a stand on. The sport needed to make it loud and clear that racial slurs will have punitive consequences, to dissuade others from making them, too.

Golf has myriad rules to govern the minutiae of what to do, say, when the wind blows the ball or when it lands in water. But on this issue that mattered, it let itself down.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and European Tour chief executive George O'Grady condemned Williams' slur as "entirely unacceptable in whatever context."

But they took no action.

Golf has no place for racism, they said.

Williams put that to the test.

Golf failed.

— John Leicester

Associated Press

Crawford-Tufts a Gophers bright spot

One very recent bright spot for the Gopher football team has been the play of freshman receiver Devin Crawford-Tufts.

The Edina graduate, who is one of the fastest athletes ever out of Minnesota (once ran a 10.4 100-meter dash), showed on Saturday how he can spread the field for the Gophers offense. He caught two passes in the surprising 22-21 win over Iowa, good for 100 yards.

Crawford-Tufts figures to virtually always be the fastest player on the field. That's a heck of an attribute and is obviously scary for any defense, fearing his ability to strike quickly. Two other things to like about Crawford-Tufts is his size (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) and that he is apparently becoming better and better at catching the ball. Minnesota coach Jerry Kill praised him recently for his progress in becoming a "hands" catcher than a guy who catches with his body.

Looking ahead to next year, Minnesota has a chance to have a decent bevy of receivers. One of them could be four-star recruit (as ranked by ESPN)  Jamel Harbison, a highly-regarded athlete from North Carolina who has verbally committed to Minnesota.

And another is a local guy, Caledonia's Isaac Fruechte. Fruechte, who played one season at Rochester Community and Technical College, certainly has the right physical attributes. He's 6-foot-3, 210 pounds and runs a speedy 4.4 40-meter dash. Another thing to like about him is he is known as a tremendous worker.

Crawford-Tufts, Harbison and Fruechte could be a nice alignment in a year or two.

— Pat Ruff

Lourdes alum, Steve Fritz, adjusts to life as a fan at St. Thomas

WINONA — After being a part of every game that the University of St. Thomas men's basketball program has played since 1967 — as either a player or coach — Rochester Lourdes grad Steve Fritz found himself in unfamiliar territory Wednesday night. One of the most decorated coaches in Division III history was relegated to a hard, unforgiving bleacher seat just like all the other fans.
    Fritz couldn't help but crack a smile as he stiffly descended from his perch in the fourth row at McCown Gymnasium after watching the Tommies — his Tommies — fall 84-52 to Division II power Winona State University in an exhibition game. It ended a streak of nearly 850 straight games he'd been involved in since leading Lourdes to the state title 44 years ago.
    "If I was smart I would have decided to go to California instead of Winona," Fritz deadpanned shortly after his former players filed into the locker room, referencing the team's upcoming regular season opener on the west coast.
    Fritz, who was voted into the Lourdes Hall of Fame earlier this week, retired in May shortly after leading the Tommies to the Division III national title; he stayed on as the school's athletic director. However, he plans to cut back on attending games after posting a 594-246 record in his 31 years at the helm. The 62-year-old no longer moves as spryly as he once did, but it's also a decision to make room for the new coaching staff — which includes another Rochester native.
    When long-time assistant John Tauer was promoted to interim head coach, he hired Mayo grad Jim Hayes to be his top assistant. That was enough to lure current Mayo boys basketball coach Shaun Lang east to take in the game; Lang and Hayes were teammates at Hamline University in the early 1990s.
    Lang, who actually coached my youth traveling team a century ago (approximately), watched Wednesday's game with conflicting emotions. He wanted to support Hayes, but St. Thomas has been a prickly point for him ever since the Tommies — Fritz's Tommies — hit a half court buzzer-beater to beat his Pipers nearly two decades ago.
    The Spartans head coach was eying up a large bin of cookies when I left the gym, one of which might have been enough to fully convert him to Hayes' side.

                                                                                                — BRETT BOESE

Souhan and Mackay on a stadium

Strib columnist Jim Souhan agrees with Minnesota entrepreneur and author Harvey Mackay about a new stadium for the Vikings.

Mackay was a key figure in the talks that led to the construction of the Metrodome. Souhan caught up with Mackay in his Wednesday column:

We agree that: Big-time sports offer immense tangible and intangible benefits; the Vikings are the most popular entity in the state; losing them would be an embarrassment to our cities and state; the price of building a stadium only goes up every year; building a stadium creates jobs and stimulates at least a portion of the economy; if we lost the team we eventually would pay three-fold to replace it.

"The most powerful argument is the creation of 7,000 to 8,000 jobs," he said. "That's a really big number. I'm a believer that you have to invest during difficult times. ...

"If you can look at the whole picture, I think the decision becomes much easier. Every time the Vikings are on TV, the numbers are enormous. The last time I checked, Minnesota was mentioned 237 times on a three-hour broadcast. Last week I called up an ad guy and, holy cow, he told me that upwards of 40 percent of the entire state was reached by the Vikings game. That's pretty awesome.

"You've got two million USA Todays reporting on the Vikings, plus the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, all the national publications. There are not enough zeros to measure the number of people made aware of Minnesota through the Vikings.

"I believe the stadium is a jobs issue and a lifestyle issue. I travel everywhere, and you can tell the difference between the cities with big-time sports and those without."

Mackay told Souhan he recently hired a president for his company, and that if Minnesota had not possessed an NBA team, the Celtics fan he lured out of Boston would not have taken the job.

"We're competing with adjacent states for jobs," Mackay said. "All these other states want me to take my factory and move it, to find a cheaper place, to pay lower taxes. I think the legislators know what kind of market we're in. It's dog-eat-dog and rat-eat-rat.

"Having major league sports separates us from many other places. And here, we're talking about an owner who's willing to invest $400 million in a stadium that is an asset for our state. If you went to another state and said, 'Here, we want to invest $400 million in your state,' what do you think the reaction would be?

"Put the word 'stadium' in there and everything changes...

"Imagine our state if we had never had the Vikings or the Twins," Mackay said. "Where would be truly be? I believe this: You can't fill all of the key jobs at Medtronic and Honeywell and 3M and Dayton's and Target with just St. Thomas and U of M grads.

"You have to offer a lifestyle for people to come here and work at the kinds of jobs that make a difference in our economy. Especially in this economy."

Souhan's conclusion:

I believe that the urgency of the Vikings' situation shouldn't obscure what will be best for the state for the next 30 years. I believe we would all be best served by a stadium near Target Field that would serve as a boon to tourism and the local economy. But if Minneapolis can't compete with Ramsey County's offer, so be it.

What everyone should remember as the debate turns risky and complicated is that the costs of building a stadium will be far less than the costs of losing the team, and far less than the costs of replacing the team.

This isn't a "sports" issue. This is a competitive market and quality-of-life issue.

Mackay adds:

"We can't put this state asset at risk. "You have to understand that the team will leave if we don't act."

What do you think?