Win and you're in; lose, and it's chaos

#1 Missouri and #2 West Virginia are both underway -- against Oklahoma and Pitt, respectively -- each needing only a win to earn a trip to the BCS title game. Meanwhile, all across the state of Ohio, they're flipping frantically back and forth between ESPN and ABC, hoping against hope that either the Sooners or the Panthers can make something happen.

Of course, if both the Sooners and the Panthers win, then we have some serious mass chaos on our hands. Georgia, LSU, Kansas and Oklahoma would all be arguing over a spot in New Orleans opposite Ohio State, with Virginia Tech, USC and Hawaii on the periphery of said argument. My guess: it'd be either LSU or Oklahoma. But the pollsters would likely be so divided among themselves about how to rank the entire Top 10 that the actual results might be unpredictable.

Anyway: GOOOO CHAOS!!! BEEEEAT ORDER!!!

UPDATE: Oklahoma and Missouri are tied 14-14 at halftime, and Pittsburgh leads 10-7 late in the third quarter. Chaos!! CHAOS!!!

UPDATE 2: Barring overtime, the Pitt-WVU game will end well before the Oklahoma-Missouri game. If Pitt wins, will the Sooners realize when the score is announced that it means Missouri is no longer the only team at the Alamodome potentially playing for a spot in the BCS title game?

P.S. It's 13-7 Pitt with 6:17 left.

Suppose WVU comes back and wins, 14-13. Lots of people are presumably watching this game at this point, so it's not like the Mountaineers' narrow escape against the lowly Panthers would go unnoticed. Is there any chance the voters think about jumping Ohio State ahead of West Virginia after a thoroughly unimpressive WVU win?

UPDATE 3: Gee, do you think the referees want West Virginia to play for the national championship? Good freaking grief. I am so sick of saying, this season, that "these refs are horrible" -- but THESE REFS ARE HORRIBLE.

UPDATE 4: Pitt leads 13-7, and has the ball, with 49 seconds left! And Missouri is down by 14!

CHAOS!!!!! CHAOS!!!!!!!!

UPDATE 5: PITT WINS!!!!! PITT WINS!!!!!!!!

Comments

[Jim Hu]

Pitt just got robbed of a TD on a marginal holding call - and then missed the FG attempt. 10-7 Pitt. Meanwhile, in the game no one in their right mind is watching (i.e. I'm watching it) Stanford leads Cal in the 4th 20-13.

[Brendan Loy]

That call was terrible. TERRIBLE. Then again, Pitt got a freebie field goal at the end of the first half, thanks to an equally horrible "personal foul" call.

I know refereeing is hard, and refs' mistakes are always in front of a microscope... but my impression is that the referees in college football have been absolutely AWFUL this season, across the board, in terms of making numerous high-profile bad calls. In fact, ever since the Oklahoma-Oregon debacle last season, it's seems like it's been one horrible, HORRIBLE mistake after another. I'm so sick and tired of games being decided or heavily influenced by blatantly incorrect, terrible calls. Something needs to be done about it in the offseason. Whether it's beefing up the replay system or firing bad refs or something else, I don't know, but it's gotten completely intolerable IMHO.

[Jim Hu]

Stanford tries to give the game away by fumbling, but Cal gives it back on an INT in the red zone. Stanford gets a questionable completion to almost run the clock out. Cal can't do anything on their last shot.

Stanford wins! We get the Axe and possibly knock the Bears out of a bowl on the 25th anniversary of Cal knocking Elway out of a bowl bid.

[David K.]

Shoot, even if WVU wins I don't think i want to see them in the NC game the way they are playing against PIttsburgh...

SOMEONE PLEASE PUNCH THESE REFS IN THE FACE. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCK!!!!! Excessive celebration??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

FIRE EVERY REF IN THE COUNTRY. I am so sick of this God damn bullshit.

[JD]

Isn't there a rule now that a team at least has to win its division? If so, that knocks out Georgia, and brings us to...Virginia Tech.

[Brendan Loy]

No, there is no such rule.

But I don't think the voters will allow either Georgia or Virginia Tech to finish ahead of LSU. I think it's LSU or Oklahoma.

That said, in this situation, it's particularly foolish to think of "the voters" as if they are a Borg-like collective consciousness. If Missouri loses, there will be massive variations among everybody's Top 10s, and the result will be very unpredictable. A team like Kansas might sneak in as "everybody's second choice."

[Brendan Loy]

Oops - I actually missed your comment, David. But yeah. Hawaii won't get the shot, but they should. What's sad is, if there was an undefeated mid-major team that had played a decent schedule (and as I always point out, it's not Hawaii's fault the played a bad schedule; no one was willing to play them, even when they offered the maximum possible payout), they actually MIGHT get a shot!

[Scientizzle]

Playing God with the Colley Matrix suggests that LSU gets a huge bump from their win. If Missouri can't pull it out (and it doesn't look good...), the LSU Tigers could jump to #1, with VaTech, OSU, & UGA making up that top-4. (USC doesn't move up much at all by beating the bRuins.)

Hawaii over U-Dub only moves the Warriors up to #13.

[Andrew]

I can't remember seeing so many bad calls in one single Saturday. The two bad holding calls against Pitt, the lame PI calls against Oklahoma, the BS offsides call against Stanford to give Cal another chance in the 4th quarter, and the OSU TD that was ruled an incomplete pass (even after a review in the booth). I was so ready to throw the remote at the TV, it was infuriating.

[Brian Foster]

Re all the bad calls --

That's what happens when we encourage adjudicators to go with their gut based on subjective perception and individualized assessment of factual distinctions, instead of faithfully applying and rigidly adhering to the rules of the game.

:)