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Icons Speak Up: BCS System In Need Of Repair

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By JOEY JOHNSTON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2009

MIAMI - There they were on Thursday night, a collection of 10 Heisman Trophy winners, gathered in one room, telling some stories.

So very American.

There they were on Thursday night, two teams playing for a crystal football and a national championship, although most people knew better than to call it an open-and-shut case.

The BCS: So very un-American.

About two hours before the Florida Gators met the Oklahoma Sooners in the BCS Championship Game at Dolphin Stadium, former USC running back Marcus Allen was asked if he felt the Gators and Sooners were the nation's two best teams.

Hint - what about those Trojans?

"Was that a rhetorical question?" Allen said. "I think you already know how I feel about that."

What about one-loss USC and one-loss Texas? What made them different than Thursday night's Florida-Oklahoma winner? And what about unbeaten Utah?

Pretty soon, we learned how all the former Heisman winners, the best and brightest of college football brought to Miami's showcase for a pregame ceremony, felt about the BCS system that determines a national champion.

They think it stinks.

"Utah doesn't get a lot of visibility, but they're undefeated and they took on one of the more highly visible schools in the University of Alabama and you saw what happened," said Tony Dorsett, the former Heisman winner from Pittsburgh. "Everyone should be given an opportunity.

"Now, I don't know how it's going to work out and how they're going to do it. But they have a lot of brilliant people at the head of these universities who should be able to figure it out."

Um, maybe not.

"Obviously, we all think there should be some type of playoff," said Gino Torretta, the former Heisman winner from Miami. "But it all comes down to TV and the contracts and all that."

"Definitely, I'd like a different system," said Doug Flutie, the former Heisman winner from Boston College. "It's not about the kids and how many extra games they're going to play. It's not about whether they're going to stay academically eligible for the second semester. There's a bowl on the West Coast that likes the situation the way it is and will never be a part of the other playoff situation."

That would be the Rose Bowl.

The Tournament of Roses Parade and the bowl's time-honored matchup between the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions will not be compromised.

"That's the steppingstone," Flutie said. "I think 95 percent of the people out there would love to see a playoff of some sort."

Florida's Urban Meyer, who was vocal about the system in 2004 when he coached unbeaten Utah ("The BCS is a failed system," he said then), expressed sympathy for the Utes. But only to a point.

"I work for the University of Florida now," Meyer said.

And Oklahoma's Bob Stoops has grown tired of the endless BCS debate.

But the former Heisman winners, while respecting the seasons of Florida and Oklahoma, didn't like the BCS backdrop of this season.

"Not only are you excluding deserving teams already in BCS conferences, but you're ignoring a Utah team that lined up and beat every opponent in front of them," said Andre Ware, the former Heisman winner from Houston. "The days of an unbeaten team getting the recognition to be a national champion are just about all but gone if you're not in a BCS conference."

The former Heisman winners - the icons of college football - have spoken.

Anybody listening?

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