BCS — Boatloads of Carnage Spewed

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So its official then. The BCS now stands for Boatloads of Carnage Spewed.

Okay, maybe thats a little untidy for this late at night (or this early in the morning), but college football has decided in its unconscious wisdom to take everyones mind off Penn State and Syracuse for a moment and blow its championship picture to bits.

Typically, we would be focusing more on the Big Game and Stanford and Cal doing battle for the honor of octogenarians on both sides of the watery ditch. Tradition, and all that.

And truth be told, this will not go down as a great Big Game. Stanfords 31-28 win over a stubborn but sodden Cal team had its share of moments, but not enough of them to stand out on a college football weekend that will not soon be forgotten.

But the Big Game is almost surely going to October next year, so tradition is something that happens only in the Ivy League now. That means everyone lives in the moment, including Stanford, and this was such a moment.

Or series of them, more like.

First, lets discuss what is left standing nationally. LSU, Alabama and Arkansashalf the SEC Westin the top three spots, with LSU playing Arkansas next week in Baton Rouge in a winner-take-all before the winner-take-all before the winner-take-all.

That happened because Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Oregon and Clemson all lost this weekend, the 2,4, 5 and 7 teams going down in spectacular fashionovertime, the last eight seconds, a missed field goal after three-touchdown comeback, and a horrible loss to a team with six losses.

In short, this looks a lot like the national championship will be decided by LSU and Alabama, in a rematch nobody wanted five minutes after LSUs 9-6 overtime win over the Crimson Tide two weeks ago. It just shows that when in doubt, bet the SEC to get what it needs.

And somehow, Stanford is still in fluxeither a Rose Bowl, a Fiesta, or an Alamo Bowl awaiting them after a shambolic week in which some one-loss teams weigh less than two-loss teams, and everything about the sport remains the same old real estate conundrum.

Location, location, location.

This is the classic BCS argument in a nutshellpeople hate its chaotic nature, until they are reveling in its chaotic nature. Its failure and its success is its essential unfairness, and now the week ahead will essentially be reduced to four teams out of 120. FourLSU vs. Arkansas, and Alabama vs. Auburn. Everything else is Bowling for Dollars.

And why can we say this with such certainty given the events of the weekend? Because you wont get another weekend like this for a good long time. From here on out, the surprises are pretty much used up, LSU will almost surely play Alabama in the title game unless Auburn wins next week, and everyone else is jockeying for whats left.

Stanfords world is dramatically simpler. If Oregon beats Oregon State in Eugene Saturday, the Ducks will go to the Rose Bowl and Stanford will probably end up in the Fiesta Bowlunless the Fiesta Bowl falls in love with a two-loss Oklahoma team, a one-loss Oklahoma State team andor a three-loss Nebraska team. You wouldnt think so, but those schools travel well. Stanford, to put it politely, doesnt. And the Fiesta Bowl is trying to atone for its years of rampant corruption by giving the largest number of people what they want.

Is this fair? Please. Fair has nothing to do with college football, the Austro-Hungarian Empire of sports. With a win over Notre Dame next week, Stanford will be 11-1 and may not get a BCS bowl game.

Not only that, quarterback Andrew Luck (20 of 30, 257, two scores, one pick) went from Heisman Trophy lock three weeks ago to part of a three- or four-way screaming match with Matt Barkley of USC, Trent Richardson of Alabama, and Robert Griffin III of Baylor. America wanted Luck to grab games and make them statistical festivals, but his year wasnt that kind of year. It was steadily superb, but never effervescently brilliant numerically, thus leaving the windows and doors open for the kind of regional voting that vexes of the process.

It short, Saturday was a triumph of normalcy for the Cardinal, on a day when normalcy was not rewarded . . . in a year where the horrifying and hilarious ran neck and neck. It was the Big Game, which did its best. And thats just going to have to be good enough for the folks who drenched themselves enduring it. The Axe was held and presented to a mostly empty stadium because the rain was so persistently obnoxious.

And the Axe will stay Stanfordsfor another 11 months. Now thats tradition.

Ray Ratto is a columnist for CSNBayArea.com

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