Today, it's Joe Walljasper's turn to talk about how stupid Orange Bowl officials are:
Orange Bowl officials’ reasons for that decision were as such: Kansas (11-1) has one fewer loss than Missouri (11-2), and Kansas didn’t lose badly to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. Then again, the reason Kansas didn’t have one more loss is that it didn’t have the chance to lose badly to Oklahoma, because, hello, it lost to MU on a neutral field one week earlier.
Now, that was simply the most obvious flaw in the Orange Bowl’s logic. It also was worth considering that the Tigers were ranked ahead of the Jayhawks in the final BCS standings, that the Tigers played a far superior schedule to the Jayhawks and that the Tigers’ head coach would look better in a Speedo on South Beach.
But I promised myself I wouldn’t get worked up about this. The worst thing to do in these situations is moan about playing in a lesser bowl against a lesser opponent, because in those cases, the moaning team generally loses. Then it really has something to moan about.
The Cotton Bowl is a fine New Year’s Day game, and Missouri hasn’t played on Jan. 1 since 1970. Dallas is an economical travel destination, which should ensure a large fan following. The matchup with Arkansas features two of the nation’s best offensive players - Razorbacks running back Darren McFadden and Tigers quarterback Chase Daniel - which should make for an exciting game.
Beyond all that, you simply have to understand that the BCS system wasn’t created to reward the best teams with the best bowls. It was created to pit the best two teams in a national championship game while still keeping the bowl system intact. Bowl officials are interested in creating the most well-attended game, not the best game.
The system wouldn’t have so much wiggle room for bowl officials to ignore the BCS standings and use their own criteria if anyone really cared that every year a team like Missouri gets shafted by silly men in fruit-colored blazers. I sometimes wonder if the whole BCS system wasn’t concocted by the powerful polyester lobby, but that is a conspiracy theory for another day.
Why the Orange Bowl thinks KU fans would travel better than MU fans is the unsolved mystery.
Mizzou continues to say the right things, however. And besides, Jason Whitlock told them to get over it ("The Orange Bowl is going to be ignored. Virginia Tech is no draw this year. Va. Tech-Kansas is a terrible matchup. The handful of Kansas fans who pony up to fly to Miami will have a great time at South Beach and plenty of elbow room at game time"), and they have to listen to him. I will say that, when it's time to evaluate the "Karma" part of my Mizzou-Arkansas preview, I will be pretty damn torn. This will just SCREAM "Hangover Game" for Mizzou after a month of hearing how badly they got screwed, however can you really see Chase Daniel letting his team play poorly in Dallas?
Big 12 coaches talk about the BCS in general. So does Blair Kerkhoff. Kudos to a) Kerkhoff for a well-written piece and b) whoever Photoshopped that Truman-in-the-eye-of-the-storm picture.
SI writers talk about their "fixes" to the BCS problem...
Danario officially has a torn ACL, a more specific diagnosis than yesterday morning's "similar to Maclin's injury".
For those of you who are wondering who will actually be coaching our Cotton Bowl opponent come January 1, this is a pretty interesting article. I wouldn't have expected this name to emerge at the top of the list.
Leave it to Vahe to point out the elephant in the room: that Mizzou's continued success will mean we'll really have to shell out to keep Pinkel.
For PowerMizzou members who read last week's Chamber and thought, "Who the hell is DJ Woods?", this is DJ Woods.
Finally, to other sports (seriously, it's going to be really hard to wean myself off of football this year...I'm trying...):
The Trib's Steve Walentik talks about the "bad trends" developing (and continuing) for Mizzou Basketball.
Missouri’s own defense struggled as it has for much of the season. The Bears were the third team - along with Michigan State and Arkansas - to shoot at least 50 percent from the floor against the Tigers. Four of MU’s opponents have managed at least 76 points, three have topped 80 and Missouri ranks 10th in the Big 12 in scoring defense, surrendering an average of 71.1 points.
The Tigers will tighten things up, because the schedule doesn’t ease up much the rest of the way. The Tigers still have nonconference games against Big Ten foes Purdue and Illinois and Southeastern Conference squad Mississippi State before opening Big 12 Conference play.
Finally, if you're a fan of MatChats, Mutigers.com has your fix, this one with Mizzou heavyweight Mark Ellis. I mean, he's actually a heavyweight...literally, not figuratively.