HC Shaw says BCS ‘flawed,’ makes case for Stanford

All season Stanford coach David Shaw has kept quiet about the Bowl Championship Series rankings and tried to keep the focus on his team’s upcoming opponent. Not anymore. Shaw came ready to rail at the BCS at his weekly news conference Tuesday. He opened his iPad on the table and began with a 2 1/2 -minute opening statement that discussed the system for the first time in his short coaching career.

“The bottom line is the BCS is flawed,” Shaw said. “They themselves know it, which is why they’ve proposed a lot of changes going forward. All I’ve heard all year is the computers don’t like Stanford. The computers haven’t programed themselves.”

Stanford, No. 4 in the AP poll, ranks sixth in the BCS and hosts No. 22 Notre Dame on Saturday night in the regular-season finale. Top-ranked LSU is undefeated and is followed by several one-loss teams, starting with Alabama and Arkansas.

Shaw said No. 5 Virginia Tech doesn’t belong ahead of the Cardinal (10-1, 8-1) because the Pac-12 is stronger than the Atlantic Coast Conference. He also contends No. 4 Oklahoma State doesn’t deserve a higher ranking because it lost 37-31 at unranked Iowa State—which he perceives as a worse defeat—in double overtime.

Stanford lost 53-30 at home to No. 10 Oregon.

“To have a one-loss Pac-12 team behind a one-loss ACC team means that the computer values the ACC more than it values the Pac-12, which I don’t believe is the case. I don’t believe that is accurate,” Shaw said. “You look at common opponents. Virginia Tech beat Duke by four. We beat them by 30. I keep hearing about quality wins, quality wins, quality wins. First off, who decides what the quality wins are? And secondly, how does a quality or non-quality loss effect people?”

“Oklahoma State is outstanding,” Shaw added. “They’re a very good football team. Once again, we lost to a team that’s in the top 10. They lost to a team that’s not ranked. I don’t get it. Not saying that where we should be as opposed to where other people are. I’m just saying the explanations that I get don’t make any sense.”

Join the club. The BCS has been one of the most debated topics in the nation since its inception.

by A.Gonzalez