Here's what the college bowl system delivered for the state of Florida to enjoy, what it rewarded teams for their seasons with, what it offered local fans with the coming matchups.
Nothing. That's what.
Florida State plays Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl, instead of Louisville, as it should.
Florida meets Louisville in the Sugar Bowl, instead of Oklahoma, as it should.
Even the heavyweight matchup of the BCS Championship game, Alabama vs. Notre Dame, presents a moral rooting dilemma for South Florida fans. Nick Saban vs. the Irish. Him (to Dolphins' fans) vs. Them (to Hurricanes fans). Pick your poison.
We always hope for the best in bowls matchups, but realize in years like this they often come with all the logic of picking numbers out of a hat. The Northern Illinois Factor was the domino that big problem this year.
Let's frame this properly. This isn't on Northern Illinois. It's a good team from a nice conference and surely is full of good-hearted Midwesterners we all know and love (and don't want to be flooded with e-mails from).
Northern Illinois earned the trip by the rules, too. It's just following directions. But there's no getting around the truth that Northern Illinois symbolizes so much of what's still wrong with this bowl system.
Everyone likes the idea of the underdog school playing with the big boys. That's why there was a furor in recent years when Boise State didn't go to a major bowl despite being undefeated and beating major-conference teams.
But Northern Illinois wasn't undefeated. It lost to 4-8 Iowa. And it didn't play any other major-conference teams, much less beat them. The only ranked team it beat was No. 17 Kent in the Mid-American Conference championship game.
Now, I know the MAC. I even have a degree from a school there (Miami University, B.A., economics, if you want the name-rank-and-serial-number approach).
But if Northern Illinois is an Orange Bowl team off its season, then I'm Milton Friedman off my degree. And that's the problem. It met the two requirements to jump into a BCS bowl by:
1) Ranking 15th to meet the stipulation of being in the top 16.
2) Being ranked higher than at least one conference champion from an automatic qualifying conference. It was ranked before Big East champion and No. 21 Louisville and the Big Ten's unranked Wisconsin ( which with five losses must warm the hearts of Rose Bowl officials).
Here's the larger point of why all questions should be on the system and not Northern Illinois. Kent was coming to the Orange Bowl if Northern Illinois wasn't. Kent wasn't unbeaten, either. It had lost to Kentucky, 47-14.
The upshot is the Northern Illinois domino wrecked the Orange and the Sugar, meaning both Florida State and Florida have lesser opponents than their seasons deserve.
No. 12 Florida State's fans are disappointed here (as are Orange Bowl marketers). Louisville would be a slightly sexier name. But its season isn't any more impressive than Northern Illinois' results. It lost to Syracuse and Connecticut. It didn't beat a ranked opponent.
Third-ranked Florida gets crushed more. Instead of facing No. 11 Oklahoma in what would be a healthy cross-country matchup, it gets Louisville. Or maybe Louisville is the big loser, as coach Charlie Strong won't stand a chance against his former team.
You're going to hear a lot about how college football needs a playoff in the coming month. And that's cute. But a playoff won't solve this problem. The BCS picks the top 10 qualifying teams for its bowls using the criteria that a playoff system would.
The bottom-line is no one out of DeKalb, Ill., is happy with these bowl matchups. Not Florida. Not Florida State. Not the Orange Bowl (or the Rose Bowl), if you got straight answers from them.
The BCS hoped to solve the problems with its new bowl system. All the years later, it's obvious it's just changed the problem.
