BCS Title Game Has Different Look Now

It’s all over, except for the voting.

With its 28-14 victory over Michigan in Thursday’s Rose Bowl, USC likely-probably-almost assuredly clinched at least a share of its first national title since 1978.

No top-ranked team in Associated Press poll history has been demoted after a bowl victory.

“I imagine we won’t change history in that regard,” USC Coach Pete Carroll said.

Of course, college football has never been a sport of absolutes, so check back with us Sunday night, around midnight, after the Sugar Bowl has been played and the last Associated Press voter has been tracked down in his local tavern.

Six years after the bowl championship series was created, ostensibly to end the postseason madness, college football is, once again, fit to be tied.

You call this progress?

In 1997, the year before the BCS was formed, Michigan and Nebraska shared football’s mythical crown. Michigan won the Rose Bowl and claimed the Associated Press title while Nebraska earned the coaches’ share with a victory over Tennessee in the Orange Bowl.

After that split, the major conference honchos huddled and came up with a rankings system to determine No. 1 vs. No. 2.

The BCS has been dodging bullets ever since, none bigger than the one that came down the shaft this season, when USC ended up No. 1 in both the writers’ and coaches’ poll but No. 3 in the BCS standings.

USC was “banished” to the Rose Bowl, hoping to score an impressive victory over Michigan and claim the AP national title.

USC more than did its part, and will likely claim a split share.

In fact, two AP voters interviewed Thursday said they would likely switch their first-place votes from LSU to USC if only to assure the Trojans earn a split in what has become an absurd season.

“With all the stuff that has gone on, I think a split national title is a correct result,” Tony Barnhart, national college football columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said. “This [USC] is a helluva a football team. They deserve at least a share.”

Ryan White of the Oregonian said he, too, would probably switch his top vote from LSU to USC.

“They’ve earned it,” he said of USC. “I think they are the best team in the country.”

The USA Today/ESPN poll’s voting coaches, by arrangement, have agreed to give their title to the Oklahoma-Louisiana State winner in Sunday’s Sugar Bowl.

USC players and fans were initially outraged at losing the No. 2 BCS spot to LSU, by the margin of 0.16 in the BCS rankings, yet it worked out pretty well in the end.

Not only did USC get to clinch a share of the national title in the Rose Bowl, it can now make a serious claim to “split-plus” status no matter what happens in the Sugar Bowl.

Here’s why: In the final regular-season poll, 37 of the 63 coaches in the USA Today/ESPN poll cast first-place votes for USC.

Now, those same coaches will be asked by their governing body, the American Football Coaches Assn., to hand those first-place votes to the Oklahoma-LSU winner.

Jim Welch, deputy manager for sports at USA Today, said recently that his paper might not even print a final coaches’ poll if he did not deem it to be credible.

He also said USA Today will not insist that the coaches cast No. 1 votes for the Sugar Bowl winner; he said that mandate comes from the AFCA.

Welch said coaches could vote their consciences if they so chose. However, the feeling is the coaches will grudgingly agree to follow their agreement, even if it costs them credibility.

Not even Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr will be swayed.

“As a member of the coaches’ association and the BCS, I’m committed to vote the winner of the Sugar Bowl as the national champion,” Carr said.

Fortunately, USC’s Carroll is not a voting coach, so he won’t have to vote against his own team as national champion.

“Guys have to do what they think is right and I respect that,” Carroll said of his colleagues.

The Trojans will have to wait until late Sunday night, or perhaps early Monday morning, to officially become AP champions.

A spokesman for the wire service said the final AP tally should be finished about two hours after the completion of Sunday’s Sugar Bowl.

The AP trophy will probably be presented to USC in Los Angeles, not New Orleans.

If you said this was the craziest finish in the history of college football, you might be right.

Pacific 10 commissioner Tom Hansen is thrilled that USC is likely to become the first Pac-10 team since Washington in 1991 to win a national title.

“It is immensely gratifying,” Hansen said.

Yet, as a BCS commissioner, Hansen has had to defend the system that has produced so much chaos and controversy this season.

“I’m resigned to the reality,” Hansen said of the prospect of split titles, the very thing the BCS was created to prevent. “I wasn’t upset when Washington shared it [the national title] in 1991. I think it’s great if two teams can call themselves champions.”

The big question now is, what do we call the Sugar Bowl?

That game’s winner will be awarded the BCS title trophy, but what does that really mean?

“I hope this does nothing to diminish the game for those two teams,” Hansen said of LSU and Oklahoma. “They did nothing to diminish themselves. They had nothing to do with the system.”

And what about the coaches having to uncrown, USC, their No. 1 team.

“Neither the BCS nor I can change what the football coaches have agreed to,” Hansen said. “That is what it is.”

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The Winners

*--* Jan. 1, 2004--USC 28, Michigan 14 Jan. 1, 2003--Oklahoma 34, Wash. St. 14 Jan. 3, 2002--Miami 37, Nebraska 14 Jan. 1, 2001--Washington 34, Purdue 24 Jan. 1, 2000--Wisconsin 17, Stanford 9 Jan. 1, 1999--Wisconsin 38, UCLA 31 Jan. 1, 1998--Michigan 21, Wash. St. 17 Jan. 1, 1997--Ohio St. 20, Arizona St. 17 Jan. 1, 1996--USC 41, Northwestern 32 Jan. 2, 1995--Penn St. 38, Oregon 20 Jan. 1, 1994--Wisconsin 21, UCLA 16 Jan. 1, 1993--Michigan 38, Washington 31 Jan. 1, 1992--Washington 34, Michigan 14 Jan. 1, 1991--Washington 46, Iowa 34 Jan. 1, 1990--USC 17, Michigan 10 Jan. 2, 1989--Michigan 22, USC 14 Jan. 1, 1988--Michigan St. 20, USC 17 Jan. 1, 1987--Arizona St. 22, Michigan 15 Jan. 1, 1986--UCLA 45, Iowa 28 Jan. 1, 1985--USC 20, Ohio St. 17 Jan. 2, 1984--UCLA 45, Illinois 9 Jan. 1, 1983--UCLA 24, Michigan 14 Jan. 1, 1982--Washington 28, Iowa 0 Jan. 1, 1981--Michigan 23, Washington 6 Jan. 1, 1980--USC 17, Ohio St. 16 Jan. 1, 1979--USC 17, Michigan 10 Jan. 2, 1978--Washington 27, Michigan 20 Jan. 1, 1977--USC 14, Michigan 6 Jan. 1, 1976--UCLA 23, Ohio St. 10 Jan. 1, 1975--USC 18, Ohio St. 17 Jan. 1, 1974--Ohio St. 42, USC 21 Jan. 1, 1973--USC 42, Ohio St. 17 Jan. 1, 1972--Stanford 13, Michigan 12 Jan. 1, 1971--Stanford 27, Ohio St. 17 Jan. 1, 1970--USC 10, Michigan 3 Jan. 1, 1969--Ohio St. 27, USC 16 Jan. 1, 1968--USC 14, Indiana 3 Jan. 2, 1967--Purdue 14, USC 13 Jan. 1, 1966--UCLA 14, Michigan St. 12 Jan. 1, 1965--Michigan 34, Oregon St. 7 Jan. 1, 1964--Illinois 17, Washington 7 Jan. 1, 1963--USC 42, Wisconsin 37 Jan. 1, 1962--Minnesota 21, UCLA 3 Jan. 2, 1961--Washington 17, Minnesota 7 Jan. 1, 1960--Washington 44, Wisconsin 8 Jan. 1, 1959--Iowa 38, California 12 Jan. 1, 1958--Ohio St. 10, Oregon 7 Jan. 1, 1957--Iowa 35, Oregon St. 19 Jan. 2, 1956--Michigan St. 17, UCLA 14 Jan. 1, 1955--Ohio St. 20, USC 7 Jan. 1, 1954--Michigan St. 28, UCLA 20 Jan. 1, 1953--USC 7, Wisconsin 0 Jan. 1, 1952--Illinois 40, Stanford 7 Jan. 1, 1951--Michigan 14, California 6 Jan. 2, 1950--Ohio St. 17, California 14 Jan. 1, 1949--Northwestern 20, Cal 14 Jan. 1, 1948--Michigan 49, USC 0 Jan. 1, 1947--Illinois 45, UCLA 14 Jan. 1, 1946--Alabama 34, USC 14 Jan. 1, 1945--USC 25, Tennessee 0 Jan. 1, 1944--USC 29, Washington 0 Jan. 1, 1943--Georgia 9, UCLA 0 Jan. 1, 1942--Oregon St. 20, Duke 16 Jan. 1, 1941--Stanford 21, Nebraska 13 Jan. 1, 1940--USC 14, Tennessee 0 Jan. 2, 1939--USC 7, Duke 3 Jan. 1, 1938--California 13, Alabama 0 Jan. 1, 1937--Pittsburgh 21, Washington 0 Jan. 1, 1936--Stanford 7, Southern Meth. 0 Jan. 1, 1935--Alabama 29, Stanford 13 Jan. 1, 1934--Columbia 7, Stanford 0 Jan. 2, 1933--USC 35, Pittsburgh 0 Jan. 1, 1932--USC 21, Tulane 12 Jan. 1, 1931--Alabama 24, Wash. St. 10 Jan. 1, 1930--USC 47, Pittsburgh 14 Jan. 1, 1929--Georgia Tech 8, California 7 Jan. 2, 1928--Stanford 7, Pittsburgh 6 Jan. 1, 1927--Alabama 7, Stanford 7 Jan. 1, 1926--Alabama 20, Washington 19 Jan. 1, 1925--Notre Dame 27, Stanford 10 Jan. 1, 1924--Navy 14, Washington 14 Jan. 1, 1923--USC 14, Penn St. 3 Jan. 2, 1922--Wash. & Jeff. 0, California 0 Jan. 1, 1921--California 28, Ohio St. 0 Jan. 1, 1920--Harvard 7, Oregon 6 Jan. 1, 1919--Great Lakes 17, Mare Is. 0 Jan. 1, 1918--Mare Is. 19, Camp Lewis 7 Jan. 1, 1917--Oregon 14, Pennsylvania 0 Jan. 1, 1916--Washington St. 14, Brown 0 Jan. 1, 1902--Michigan 49, Stanford 0

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