I Can't Complain (but sometimes I still do)

During Cal's big win over Texas A&M in the Holiday Bowl, the announcers made numerous references to the Pac10's decision to name both Cal and USC Conference Co-Champions, even though the conference went to a full, round-robin, 9-game conference schedule this year that definitively crowns a champion. Why do I say "definitively"? Because no conference teams are skipped and there was a rule change a decade ago eliminating the possibility of a tie in college football. Therefore, you either win the conference, or you don't. There cannot be a two-way tie (although you could have a highly improbable 3-way tie).

Certainly, the school presidents who approved the 12 game season and 9 game conference schedule were more concerned about other issues. Namely, because numerous schools wanted to make sure they played in Southern California (at USC or at Ucla) at least once a year, to take advantage of the most fertile recruiting ground in the conference. Also, Stanford flat out refused to approve the 12 game season unless all the other member schools agreed on the 9 game conference slate.

Regardless of the motives behind the change, the Pac10 received many kudos around the college football world, including sportswriters and fans, for having a clear cut system to crown a conference champion. One particular proponent that I most remember is ESPN's Ivan Maisel during radio interviews and preseason articles. However, the conference leadership chose to take all this goodwill and flush it down the toilet by screwing up the easiest and most clear cut way to determine a conference champion.

Do I have a problem with sharing? Maybe. Am I being a hypocrite because USC was named co-champs in 2002 with Wazzu, even though Wazzu won head to head? Possibly. It should be noted that prior to 2006 there was good reason to name co-champs since one conference school was left off the schedule each year, thereby creating some doubt.

In this humble fan's opinion, naming co-champs this year speaks volumes about the gross incompetence of the leadership of the Pac10. Tom Hansen should be fired. The Pac10 has arguably the worst bowl tie-ins, the worst television contract, and an absolute lack of self promotion (see the Southeastern Conference if you want a definition of self-promotion). In addition, the Pac10 has bent over and taken the humiliation of USC (2003), Oregon (2001) and Washington (2000) being left out of the BCS National Championship Game, as well as Oregon (2005) and Cal (2004) being left out of the BCS all together. And don't get me started on how little backbone Tom Hansen showed during the Oklahoma/Oregon mess this year (telling OU to stop yer whinin', and threatening to sue if they tried to back out of their series contract with Washington would have been a good start).