Office of Protocol

Ivan Maisel, ESPN, 11-19-08:

It is the time of year when all of college football obsesses about protocol. Making the BCS National Championship Game is neither cut nor dried. It is a mix of performance, opinion and computer magic. The recipe changes from year to year, like flu shots.

Some years, performance is everything, as when USC and Texas romped to the Rose Bowl three years ago. Some years, computer magic trumps opinion, as in 2003, when No. 1 USC didn't play in the BCS title game.

This is one of those years when performance has the lead in the homestretch. If Alabama and Texas Tech finish undefeated, they will play in the BCS National Championship Game. But if either the Crimson Tide or the Red Raiders falter, protocol will be needed. It will be time to measure the desire for a championship against the musty creed of sportsmanship.

It's not just the final score, but how the final score is interpreted by the media, the poll voters and the fans. USC beat Washington 56-0, and the BCS meter did not flicker. That's a dog-bites-man final score. Florida humiliates South Carolina 56-6 and, rather than take the final margin at face value, we parse the play-by-play, trying to decide whether the Gators ran up the score to impress the voters.

(Verdict: No. Florida played that much better).

Gators coach Urban Meyer said two years ago that he worried that pressure to succeed in the BCS would throw "sportsmanship out the window." Meyer said that moments after Florida had beaten Florida State 21-14. Offensive coordinator Dan Mullen had to talk Meyer out of trying to score from the Florida State 8-yard line in the final minute.

Some coaches try to drive around the Mixmaster that is the road to the BCS. Texas Tech coach Mike Leach returned a call Tuesday night as he sorted through his mail. He professed to long ago having given up the idea that he might understand the BCS. He is a playoff proponent. Until then, and especially as the coach of the No. 2 team in the nation, Leach doesn't need to campaign.

But the more he talked, the more he began to entertain the issues inherent in the BCS. For instance, Leach said, "The most important thing we can do is play the best we can." But, he added, that goes for the entire depth chart. Leach doesn't adhere to the belief that a coach shouldn't run up the score. It's not that he wants to embarrass the other team. With Leach, it's not about the other team.

"I believe in trying to play the best I can," Leach said. "If my [second- and third-stringers] are in the game, we are trying to score. Game reps are hard to come by. I don't say, 'Full speed, full speed, work, work, work, unless we're way ahead.'"

USC coach Pete Carroll has said for years that he doesn't understand the BCS. When the Trojans were ranked No. 1, where they spent much of three seasons (2003-05), Carroll could afford not to understand it. This season, when the No. 6 Trojans still are dealing with the effects of an early loss at Oregon State, the circumstances are different. Carroll said two weeks ago of the BCS, "I think it stinks."

Coaches try to calibrate whether, when or how often to mount a soapbox for their teams. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops told me last week that he prefers being a coach to being an advocate.

"If you lost a game, you have to admit there's an argument," said Stoops, whose No. 5 Sooners lost to No. 3 Texas 45-35 last month. "That's what I'm tired of. Then it gets down to who wants to trumpet who. You're subject to all of that."

In college football, as in politics, negative campaigning is seen as beneath the dignity of the process, except when it works.

A minute or so after Leach hung up Tuesday night, he called back.

"I just thought of something," Leach said. "That week we played Oklahoma State, who we massacred [56-20], Alabama barely eked by LSU [27-21 in overtime]. I don't know whether style points or extra touchdowns have any effect or not. If so, we should have popped ahead of them."

Being No. 2 instead of No. 1 doesn't matter. In BCS politics, three is the loneliest number. Texas is currently No. 3, and should the Crimson Tide or the Red Raiders lose, the Longhorns might move up. "Might," because if the two teams ahead of the Longhorns lose, it most likely would be to No. 4 Florida and No. 5 Oklahoma, respectively.

Texas coach Mack Brown, like Stoops, Leach and Carroll in recent weeks, has wished aloud for a playoff. It seems as if more and more coaches are becoming proponents of a post-bowl playoff. That would put an end to the need for protocol. Until then, coaches will swallow hard and sell their team to the public.

All that sweet-smelling salesmanship will dissipate when it clashes with the sweatified air of the locker room. The only people coaches don't want to convince of their players' greatness are the players themselves.