BCS Could Force a No-Mercy Rule

USC made mashed potatoes out of Washington State on Saturday night in what turned out to be a comedy routine at (Lewis and) Martin Stadium.

It was hard to fathom this was the same Washington State squad that won 10 games each of the last three years and beat Texas last year in the Holiday Bowl.

The Cougars couldn’t even win the first 10 seconds of Saturday’s game, botching an opening on-sides kick attempt and handing USC its first of several touchdowns.

The final score was 42-12 and yet you wondered: Was it enough?

In college football these days, is anything ever enough?

Was it enough Friday night when Boise State, desperately trying to prove it is a legitimate contender, hammered Hawaii, 69-3?

How do you know when enough is enough in a sport that has judges, just like boxing and figure skating?

Last week, USC defeated Washington, 38-0, and lost one first-place vote in the coaches’ poll.

You read that right. A coach saw 38-0 and took his USC vote and switched it to Oklahoma. And this coach got to do this anonymously.

So when USC raced to a large lead Saturday and then respectfully took its foot off the gas, you thought: Was that really a good idea?

“When it’s 42-0, you don’t want to embarrass anybody,” defensive lineman Shaun Cody said. “But the BCS is looming in your mind. It’s a catch-22.”

How do you draw the distinction between soundly defeating an opponent and trampling the rules of sportsmanship?

“It’s definitely a weird position,” Cody added.

Given the beauty-contest realities of the sport and what happened to USC in last year’s BCS points race, you could not have blamed USC Coach Pete Carroll for trying to score 60 against Washington State.

Nothing personal, just business.

Carroll, however, says he will never see it that way.

“I could care less about putting points on the board,” he said. “I could care less about that. The score isn’t important to me at all. I like the win however the win comes.... To me, that has nothing to do with the game.”

Yet this is where it gets dicey.

Carroll pulled starting quarterback Matt Leinart with six minutes left in the third quarter and the Trojans up by 42 points.

Matt Cassel, the backup quarterback, fumbled the first snap from scrimmage at USC’s 24-yard line, leading to a 24-yard scoring pass from Alex Brink to Michael Bumpus.

That cost USC the chance to post consecutive shutouts for the first time since 1971.

Soon after, a tipped pass by Cassel was intercepted by Pat Bennett and returned 28 yards for a touchdown.

Suddenly it’s a 42-12 game and Carroll puts Leinart back in the game just to restore order and manage the clock.

As much as the game was over, Carroll was absolutely right.

He didn’t want to beat Washington State, 70-0, but neither could he afford to have people think it was a close game.

As a result, Leinart took a vicious hit on a blind side rush on a play that could have knocked him out for the season.

“We did what we had to do,” Leinart would say later about protecting the lead.

It is beyond wrong that a win isn’t just a win in college football -- but it is the reality.

If you had a playoff in college football, a coach wouldn’t face these ethical decisions.

In a sport in which the title-game participants are selected based on a primarily subjective ratings system, however, you should never take today’s poll position for granted.

The BCS honchos thought they addressed the sportsmanship problem a couple of years ago when they asked the computer operators involved in the BCS standings to remove margin of victory as a part of their equations.

Those who did not comply were asked to leave the BCS.

Yet, in reworking the BCS this year and giving more poll power to subjective voters, the power brokers actually increased the incentive for teams to run up scores.

Last week, Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops deplored the fact a late touchdown scored against Kansas might have served as eye candy to the pollsters.

Beating the tar out of your opponent has never been more important than this year, where six teams remain unbeaten in the first week of November (Miami dropped from the ranks after Saturday’s shocking loss to North Carolina).

If form holds, there could be multiple unbeaten teams at year’s end, and that might make last year’s BCS chaos seem tame by comparison.

While only the top two teams in the BCS advance to this year’s Orange Bowl to play for the national title, others might be staking championship claims.

Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville has started bemoaning the fact his team might win the SEC with a 12-0 record and not make the BCS title game.

Wisconsin could be 11-0 and playing in the Rose Bowl.

It’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which USC wins out and does not earn a berth in this year’s national title game.

Just to be safe, though, USC might want to hang a “50” on someone.