Tom Osborne Goes Recruitin'

It was not surprising that the University of Nebraska fired former AD Steve Peterson or former football coach Bill Callahan when the Big Red Machine stumbled mightily this fall. What was surprising was former coach Tom Osborne getting the post of interim AD to right the ship in Lincoln and then naming himself interim head coach. Osborne is soon ceding the role of head coach to Bo Pelini, but not before he hits the recruiting trail for the first time in more than a decade to pitch the Nebraksa program to the nation's finest high school ballers. Here, then, is a list of five advantages that Osborne has over other coaches when he hits the recruiting trail.

1. Saves the university money by qualifying for discount senior rates at hotels and restaurants.

2. Circumvents NCAA limits on phone calls and text messages by sending telegrams to recruits. Take notes, Kelvin Sampson!

3. Think Dr. Tom is too goody-goody to relate to today's youth? Osborne has huge street cred from signing such quality individuals as Christian Peter, Lawrence Phillips, and Abdul Muhammed. That kind of cache doesn't disappear overnight.

4. No one impresses a recruit's great-grandparents like Tom Osborne. He can work the room at a nursing home like no one's business. Urban Meyer has no leverage among the geriatric demo.

5. Unused "Osborne for Senate" campaign signs make for a heckuva business card.

Goodbye, Hawaii

The shortcomings of college football's Bowl Championship Series system have been well documented and discussed in recent days, to excess in many circles. But there's one problem with the system that I haven't heard anything about - at least not on the U.S. mainland. Hawaii got screwed.

The circular logic used to pair Ohio State and LSU in this year's national championship game is confounding. LSU had a tough schedule and came through it with two hard-fought losses and a conference championship. So the first test for teams aspiring to make the title game is to play a tough schedule. But Ohio State didn't play a tough schedule and still made the title game. In fact, Ohio State failed to beat a single ranked team (according to final polls) and lost their only game to a ranked team (Illinois) on their home field. So why is Ohio State in the title game? Because they only lost one game, even with a weak schedule.

So, according to BCS logic, teams can get in the BCS championship game by playing a tough schedule or a weak schedule. Or, they can lose less games than other teams in the country and might want to win their conference. What part of that formula leaves Hawaii out of the mix?

Hawaii is the only undefeated team in Division I (or whatever they're calling it this year), with one fewer loss than Ohio State and two fewer than LSU. They won their conference (the WAC), as did LSU and Ohio State. The only argument left against the Warriors is that their schedule doesn't compare favorably to Ohio State or LSU. While the WAC doesn't boast as many good teams as either the SEC or Big 10, Hawaii's win over Boise State has to be considered comparable to Ohio State's wins over Penn State or Michigan. And while Hawaii's non-conference schedule of Northern Colorado, UNLV, Charleston Southern, and Washington is no great shakes, neither were Ohio State's games against Youngstown State, Akron, Kent State, and Washington.

The real issue at hand is what more Hawaii could have done to impress BCS pollsters and computers. Schedule a tougher non-conference foe? The didn't hurt Ohio State. So the real knock against Hawaii is that it played the bulk of its schedule in the WAC. While we've already acknowledged that the WAC isn't the SEC, it is a Division I conference. And didn't we learn last year that undefeated WAC schools can compete with the bullies from the power conferences (think Boise State over Oklahoma). What more could Hawaii have done to earn a title shot?

Nothing. The sad truth is that Hawaii (like Boise State last season)was locked out of title game consideration before two-a-days ever started back in August. And that's the problem here. Fifty Division I teams play in the MAC, WAC, Mountain West, Conference USA, and Sun Belt conferences. That's over 40% of the teams in Division I. And, under the current system, they will never get a chance to play for the national championship. So there's really only one of two things that can be done to solve this problem.

1. Apologize to Hawaii and immediately award them a shot at the BCS title this season (in the current title game or a "plus one").

2. Admit that the "non-power" conferences will never have a chance to play for the title and split Division I into two separate divisions.

Choosing option one would of course be impossible because it violates the existing BCS structure, would cause five other teams to immediately want in on the party, and would possibly make Kirk Herbstreit's head explode. It would also force the BCS big wigs to take Florida's crystal football from last season and carve the thing in half to share with Boise State. Choosing option two doesn't exactly solve anything this season, but would at least give players on 50 schools a real championship dream.