Once again: The true 2003 national champ

[JohnStOnge]

Note that, on the ESPN telecast of Montana State at Appalachian State, they periodically explain that the Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) champion is determined by the BCS.

Now, who was the national champion as determined by the BCS in 2003?

Hint: It wasn't USC.

[blackfordpu]

Note that, on the ESPN telecast of Montana State at Appalachian State, they periodically explain that the Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) champion is determined by the BCS.

Now, who was the national champion as determined by the BCS in 2003?

Hint: It wasn't USC.

LSU

[UNHWildCats]

yea and that was bogus it should have been LSU vs USC not LSU vs Oklahoma anyway its not fair to call LSU the real national champion, cause the BSC is BS!

[JohnStOnge]

UNH, the system for choosing a national champion for those conferences...including the Pac 10... (plus Notre Dame) was selected prior to the season. The system didn't pick USC as a participant in their championship game. USC was not a "national champion" in 2003. The idea of USC as "sharing" the national title in 2003 was totally a fabrication of the media that wanted to see USC in the title game. But they weren't in the title game.

[UNHWildCats]

Oklahoma lost the Big XII championship[ 35-7 how can anyone justify them still playing for the championship that year ahead of USC who was #1 in all the human polls at regular seasons end. NO ONE! Therefor USC deservingly earned a share of the national championship!

[blackfordpu]

Oklahoma lost the Big XII championship[ 35-7 how can anyone justify them still playing for the championship that year ahead of USC who was #1 in all the human polls at regular seasons end. NO ONE! Therefor USC deservingly earned a share of the national championship!

Sorry, they were the AP champions, not the national champions.

It is because of crap like this that they need to initiate a playoff.

[JohnStOnge]

Oklahoma lost the Big XII championship[ 35-7 how can anyone justify them still playing for the championship that year ahead of USC who was #1 in all the human polls at regular seasons end. NO ONE! Therefor USC deservingly earned a share of the national championship!

If one wants to say the system that was in place before the season needed to be adjusted, that's one thing. But all of the major conferences, including USC's, agreed to that system as the means for picking a champion. The system tabbed Oklahoma. The system looked at the whole season, and not just the last game. It had been intentionally altered so that it would not consider margin of victory or loss. So the fact that OU lost by a lot to K State didn't matter because that's the way they intentionally designed the system.

Also, they intentionally designed the system so that it would not exclude a team that did not win its conference. They discussed excluding teams that did not win their conferences after Nebraska got into the title game subsequent to losing to Colorado in the Big 12 championship game and they opted not to do that. And they opted AGAIN not to do that after the 2003 Oklahoma thing.

The point is, they picked a means of selecting a champion. They established the rules. The Pac 10 was in on it. Then when the rules didn't produce the result the Pac 10, USC, and the media wanted they refused to accept the result.

The result was not unreasonable considering the decisions they made (margin of victory doesn't count, etc.). Oklahoma's one loss was to a 10 - 4 team while USC's was to a 7 - 6 team. Also, the team Oklahoma lost to beat the team USC lost to. Oklahoma, by virtue of having played one more game, had a better winning percentage than USC did.

And "human polls" should be assigned the least credibility among means of picking teams for such things. I don't get why anybody would think the fact that USC being rated #1 in human polls means much. Largely subjective human polls are the LAST thing a system should rely upon.

But none of that really matters. The means they agreed on for selecting a champion is/was the BCS and by that means LSU was the national champion that year.