B.S. B.C.S.

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Bryan Rosenbaum

In the past couple of years, with all the coalitions and alliances, I soon started losing respect for bowls. The bowls soon started to be named things like the FedEx Orange Bowl, Micron PC Bowl and the Insight.com Bowl, and they weren't producing exciting games or national champions. Television stations were lobbying for teams because they had the rights to show those games, and the best teams weren't necessarily playing in the best bowls.

This season, the Bowl Championship Series was created to guarantee the top eight teams playing in the top four bowls, producing a true national champion. It sounded good, but there was a lot of small print that the BCS didn't tell anybody else about. As the season went on and the faults became more evident, I had my doubts about the system.

Further decisions made yesterday confirmed that the BCS is, indeed, all B.S.

Let's take two random teams, and just for fun, let's call them both the Wildcats. For more fun, let's take these two "Wildcats," make them 11-1 and have them play before New Year's Day.

Then, include a certain orange-clad squad (the No. 18 team who won the powerhouse conference known as the Big East with an 8-3 record) and a bunch of cheeseheads (10-1, winners of the Big Ten's three-way tie even though they didn't beat either of the other two) in the Orange and Rose Bowls.

By now, you've pretty much figured out that the two "Wildcats" are Arizona and Kansas State, this year's winners of the "I Got Screwed Over by the Bowl Championship Series" Award. The two winners of the "Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, I got into a better bowl than I should have" Award are, of course, Syracuse and Wisconsin.

By now, Arizona fans think as highly of the BCS as they do ASU. The football team did almost everything it could to get itself into the BCS picture, and had nothing to do with the decision process.

Arizona wasn't picked because its 11-1 record wasn't good enough, it was because the Sugar or Orange Bowl would make more money because Florida has more of a following than Arizona.

And Kansas State? I guess it proves that you have to have a somewhat difficult schedule, but they got shafted even more than Arizona. K-State finished No. 3 in the BCS poll, yet still wasn't picked for a BCS bowl. Their consolation? The Alamo Bowl against Purdue.

Once again, my congratulations and condolences to the Arizona football team, and I'll even extend that to K-State. Maybe playing Nebraska in the Culligan Holiday Bowl isn't so bad, but it isn't a just reward. I guess it wasn't a season to be named "Wildcats."

Bryan Rosenbaum is a sophomore majoring in journalism and can be reached via e-mail at Bryan.Rosenbaum@wildcat.arizona.edu.