Chatelain: Big Ten could be BCS victim

Jim Delany and Harvey Perlman are titans in the college football world.

Power brokers. Decision makers. They also happen to be two of the most prominent critics of a college football playoff.

Delany is the Big Ten Conference commissioner. Perlman, chancellor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has served as chairman of the BCS presidential oversight committee.

We could debate all day the logic of their talking points.

But one thing is clear after the Big Ten announced its schedules for 2011-12: If Delany and Perlman care about the Big Ten producing national champions, they should change their tune.

I look at Nebraska's 2012 schedule and wonder if the Green Bay Packers would go undefeated:

At UCLA. Wisconsin. At Ohio State. Penn State. Michigan. At Iowa. A potential Big Ten title game.

Then I turn to the bulk of Texas' 2012 schedule:

Oklahoma. Texas A&M. At Mississippi. At Texas Tech. Missouri.

Notice any discrepancy?

The BCS system was based on the premise that the six BCS conferences were close to equal.

The idea that we could establish a pecking order for national-title contenders by looking first at their records.

A 12-0 team in one BCS conference deserved a title shot over an 11-1 team from another. One-loss teams deserved higher position than two-loss teams, no matter the league.

Since 1998, when the BCS originated to match the nation's top two teams, never has a one-loss BCS school received a title shot over an undefeated BCS school. Only once has a two-loss BCS school (LSU in 2007) gotten in over a one-loss BCS school (Kansas).

But we're entering a new era. Equality among BCS leagues is vanishing. The best conferences are getting better, the others are falling behind.

The skill it will take to stay perfect in the Big East or Big 12 — leagues that won't even have championship games — won't compare to the skill required to navigate the Big Ten or SEC unscathed.

That's a serious problem for the system's credibility.

Read what Barry Switzer told me last week about the new Big 12:

“Bob (Stoops) and Mack Brown, one of them will be 12-0, the other 11-1,” Switzer said. “They may both be in the BCS, with one of them playing for a national championship. ...

“Anything after the OU-Texas game the first week of October, it's anticlimactic in this league. Because Oklahoma and Texas are so much better than everyone else.”When Boise State or Utah goes undefeated, coaches and voters have no problem justifying their omission from the national title game based upon schedule strength.

Sorry, your league just wasn't good enough. We're used to that argument.

But what happens when it's not Boise State or Utah in that seat, but instead Texas or Oklahoma?

What happens when Nebraska or Alabama goes 12-1 in a conference designed to make the schedule as hard as possible, while the Sooners or Longhorns go 12-0 in a down year in the Big 12?

What will voters do?

What will coaches do?

I'll venture a guess. They'll welcome Mack Brown or Bob Stoops to the BCS buffet with open arms, because, well, it's Texas and Oklahoma.

As the best conferences expand further — you don't actually think Delany's done, do you? — competition within those leagues will look more and more like the NFL. Even great teams will lose one or two a year.

Meanwhile, half the BCS leagues will be playing by the old rules — no conference title games, just two to three real tests a year.

Delany has benefited from the old rules. Twice Ohio State made the BCS championship game when it wasn't one of the top two teams.

But the Big Ten has remodeled. Beefed up by adding one of college football's premier programs — and a conference championship game.

Now Delany, Perlman and their conference brethren might find themselves on the other end of a BCS mess, victims of the very system they defend so vigorously.

What will they say when their constituents — their neighbors — come to them and say, “Why didn't you prevent this?”

A playoff is coming. Eventually.

It's more profitable and more equitable and more logical than the current system. It's the right thing to do.

The sooner Big Ten leaders recognize it, the easier their lives will be.

Contact the writer:

649-1461, dirk.chatelain@owh.com

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