ABC/ESPN2 Primetime Coverage Map for Halloween

Both of the marquee games of this week are in this time slot. Texas travels to Oklahoma State (46%) with a chance to bolster their BCS resume. USC is also on the road visiting Oregon (54%) hoping to be the team that can sneak into the National Championship game. Both games will be on ESPN2 if you do not receive them on ABC with Texas OKST in HD and USC at Oregon in SD.

This brings us to the topic of the BCS with the BCS rankings having been out for two weeks there are some things that really bother me. First off why is a team like TCU behind USC in the BCS rankings? Losing to a team that is 3-5 should eliminate you from the National Title chase? Why is Ohio State ranked so high after having done absolutely nothing? I’ll tell you why it’s their brand name. Both Arizona and California have almost the exact same resume but are ranked 20th and 24th respectively.

Arizona has lost at Iowa and at Washington. Ohio State has lost to USC at home and Purdue on the road. California has lost at Oregon and at USC which are both very tough games, but somehow Ohio State is ranked ahead of them. I would even say that if you take a look at the teams BYU has played, beat and lost to it is very similar to Ohio State, but because of their brand name Ohio State is #17 and BYU is not in the top 25 of the BCS standings.

Like most of America I would love to have a playoff, but one of the biggest problems is the preseason bias that shows up by leaving teams like Arizona in the dust while teams brand name teams like Ohio State get put ahead because of preseason expectations.

Going along with this, if the NCAA is going to be so hard nosed about player punishments like with Dez Bryant, then I say they need to start putting their fingers in the BCS. It seems very weird to me that they would worry so much about control over player actions and recruiting, but not have one ounce of control about how their national championship is decided in their flagship sport.

Something I found interesting this week was the formation of Playoff PAC a political action committee that is lobbying against the BCS. I do not know how much help they can actually do. But if you want to listen they were on the solid verbal this week.

Anyway I will get off my soapbox, and say that I am really excited for these games and may even go old school with the picture in picture because these games should be great. Last week Texas finally played up to their potential and will probably roll to the National Championship game if they win this one. USC needs someone to slip up, but a big win over Oregon on the road could solidify their position as the best one-loss team.

For the afternoon ABC coverage map and the college football hd schedule follow those links.

Tags: College Football Coverage Maps

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