Please blow up the BCS - now

Some notes on a scorecard...

Can we please blow up the BCS now. There have been two culprits in the lousy games we've been stuck with when it comes to the lousy BCS bowl games we've received that nobody has really been talking about.

The first is the addition of the fifth BCS game, which is now the BCS title game. The misconception is this game was added for the mid-majors. This is not true.

Even under the old rules with just four BCS bowl games, Utah, Boise State and Hawaii all would have qualified for a BCS bowl, anyway. The fifth BCS bowl was added for the BCS conferences because they knew in most years they would likely lose one spot out of eight to a mid-major team. Now instead of having just seven slots, BCS conferences are virtually assured of nine slots every year.

The second culprit was West Virginia. Because West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh, two-loss LSU was vaulted into the national title game against Ohio State. In defense of the BCS organizers (and this is likely the only time I'll ever defend them), this is a contingency that no one could have expected.

If West Virginia had beaten Pittsburgh, it would have played Ohio State for the national title. Then, LSU would have fallen back down to the Sugar Bowl where it would have likely played Hawaii (which would have still be an ugly game). But then the Rose Bowl would have been able to take Georgia and obviously a USC-Georgia matchup would have been a much better game than the USC-Illinois dud we received.

Because the Sugar Bowl lost LSU to the national title game, under the rules as they now stand, it could not also lose Georgia to the Rose Bowl, even though the Sugar Bowl also is really the host of the national championship contest. The Rose Bowl could have asked to receive Georgia, but there was no way that the powers-to-be in the Southeastern Conference and the Sugar Bowl were going to give up Georgia.

Let's say USC routed Georgia in the Rose Bowl and LSU barely slipped by Ohio State in the national title game. Then the Associated Press voters would have been tempted to split the national title by voting USC No. 1, thus creating the exact same situation that happened at the end of the 2003 season. There was no way that the SEC was going to let that happen.

The bottom line is had the old format with just four BCS bowls still been in place it would have been LSU-Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and USC-Georgia in the Rose Bowl. Instead we got the USC-Illinois and Georgia-Hawaii clunkers.

• As a USC alumnus, I still have trouble picturing Ken Norton on the sidelines as a USC assistant coach. I was a USC student when Norton played for UCLA and I can tell you that no one hated USC more than Norton. He once said that the only thing good about USC was the band.

But now I'm thrilled that Norton could be staying at USC. With DeWayne Walker staying on as UCLA's defensive coordinator under new coach Rick Neuheisel, that increases the chance that Norton will stay with the Trojans.

Washington was also courting Walker, but in the end he decided to stay at UCLA. If Walker had gone to Washington, that could have opened the door for Norton to become UCLA's defensive coordinator. There's still a chance that Norton could join Neuheisel's staff, but it's unclear if Norton would take a lower position.

* As a USC alumnus, it's also reassuring to hear Trojan linebacker Rey Maualuga say he's "100 percent" certain he'll return for his senior year at USC.

* WNC baseball fans should maintain perspective when it comes to the team's No. 5 preseason ranking by Collegiate Baseball. The publication went virtually by last year's results. Chipola, Fla., was ranked No. 1, New Mexico was ranked No. 2, San Jacinto, Texas was No. 3, Spartanburg was No. 4 and WNC was No. 5. This is exactly how those teams finished in last year's JUCO World Series.

WNC has an inexperienced team with an unproven (and thin) pitching staff. The Wildcats have just 11 pitchers on their current roster and that includes first baseman Andrew Reid and outfielder Logan Odom. Plus the Wildcats have a brutal schedule as they play their first 28 games on the road.