Most coaches would say they don’t pay attention to rankings, but if you’re Ohio State’s Urban Meyer, it's difficult not to take notice.
In the past few weeks, Ohio State has crushed its opponents and instead of getting rewarded in the BCS standings, it’s seen its lead as the No. 3 team shrink to just .001 points over undefeated Baylor.
So Meyer couldn’t hold his tongue when asked about the BCS, which is in its final year of existence.
“Without spending much time on it, because it's not fair for our team to do that. I will say this: I think it's a flawed system,” Meyer said. “When you logically think about it, what the BCS people have done, which obviously we're all part of it, I think it was great for a while. I think it took an imperfect system and did the best you can without a playoff.
There's going to be controversy in playoffs, too, now. There's not a 64-team playoff. You're going to have four guys. What is that fifth team going to feel like?”
While Meyer is right -- the BCS is a flawed system, which is why it is going away -- this is an argument of convenience. Meyer wasn’t beating up the BCS when his Florida teams were winning national championships and it’s probably fair to assume he wouldn’t have been complaining a year ago since his team likely would have made the national title game had it not been for a postseason sanction.
So yeah, now that Ohio State has the nation’s longest winning streak and is probably going to be on the outside looking in, the BCS is a flawed system.
While Meyer is pointing the finger at the BCS, he needs to be pointing the finger at the underachieving Big Ten Conference. Point the finger at Michigan and Northwestern. Give a glare to Purdue and Illinois. Curse out whoever scheduled Buffalo, San Diego State, Cal and Florida A&M as the Buckeyes’ nonconference opponents. Heck, even send some hate mail to the Pac-12 officials who ruined Wisconsin’s season. All of those have had as much of an impact in Ohio State’s current lot as the BCS system.
Make no mistake, Ohio State is a good team. It’s a team that has proven it deserves to be among the upper echelon of college football this year. Some might argue it’s done enough to be above Florida State (I am not one of those people). But to be a national champion, or play in the national championship, you need everything to align perfectly – a star player, a difficult, but not-too-difficult schedule, voters on your side and ranked opponents down the stretch. At the beginning of the season, Ohio State had all four of these things in its favor. Now, it maybe has two of the four and voters are going to lean toward Baylor if the Bears beat No. 10 Oklahoma State this weekend.
However, all of this jostling for position at No. 3 will be a moot point if Alabama and Florida State win out. There is no real consolation prize for third place. If Ohio State wins out, it goes to the Rose Bowl. If Baylor wins out, it ends up in the Fiesta. It doesn’t matter who’s No. 3 and No. 4 at that point.
So, is this BCS a flawed system? Yes. Few would dispute that. Is it the reason Ohio State isn’t going to play for a national title? No, not the only one.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!Follow @YahooDrSaturday