Running up the score is a necessity

I like to blame the Bowl Championship Series for a lot of things, like global warming, the proliferation of big box stores and the existence of Carrot Top. I know, it's irrational. But it makes me feel better.

My current BCS rant is tied to the number of shocking scores turning up these days: Air Force 72, Nicholls State 0; Louisiana-Monroe 58, Texas Southern 0; Boise State 48, Miami-Ohio 0; Fresno State 51, UC-Davis 0; Southern Mississippi 52, Akron 0.

And, of course, BYU 54, Tulane 3.

Oh, the humanity!

Still, none of the aforementioned schools should be blamed for embarrassing their opponents. They're just doing their jobs. A lot of them, such as BYU, even tried to keep the score in check by playing the subs. On the other hand, the BCS is fully culpable. It's the mechanism that caused all this to happen. The system goes like this:

A. Smaller Football School sees itself getting hosed in regards to revenue.

B. Smaller Football School organizes a plan to earn a place in a big-revenue (BCS) bowl game, maybe even play for the national title.

C. Smaller Football School soon discovers it not only must schedule and beat Giant Football School, it must also obliterate any lesser school. That way it can attract national attention, as well as votes in the rankings, and thus appear worthy to play in a BCS bowl. But winning all its games is not enough. Hence, you see scores like Louisiana-Monroe 58, Texas Southern 0.

Smaller School can't just beat another Smaller School, it has to vaporize it.

That point was driven home this past week to the University of Utah. Coming off a perfect season and a final No. 2 ranking last year, the Utes might have expected to be positioned nicely this year. They had lost some great players, but done nothing to make their stock drop, except schedule a couple of lowly regarded teams — Utah State and San Jose State — to start the season.

The Utes won both games, 35-17 and 24-14, respectively. They are now on a 16-game win streak, the nation's longest. But that's not good enough for the voters in the AP poll, because the Utes are dropping even as they win. They started the year ranked 19th, rose two spots after beating USU, then fell to 18th after beating San Jose State.

They haven't been impressive in their wins, but still, it's a cold place where undefeated teams drop in the rankings.