It seems there has been a fundamental rule change for determining the BCS Champion. In thanks largely to ESPN, the new selection process requires a voters to disregard existing rankings and take a fresh look at a team’s entire season and judge its “body of work.” That was the reasoning that applied to the unprecedented shifting in the polls that occurred this past Sunday. In the past, the polls basically posed the following question to voters: “Who is the best team?”The new BCS selection process seems to mirror the NCAA basketball selection committee process. Don’t get me wrong, I am not necessarily against the new process, but if this is the new reality, some major tweaking must occur.

One caveat that the ESPN personalities never stated is that this fresh “body of work” scrutiny only applies to teams with the same number of losses. If a member of one of the six BCS conferences sits alone with one loss, the team gets a free pass on any real scrutiny.

The team that is clearly undeserving of a #1 ranking is Ohio State.

Ohio State deliberately scheduled a weak non-conference schedule to go along with the weakest Big Ten conference games in years. They lost to unranked Illinois while ranked No. 1 in November. They were at No. 5 after playing their last game. After two weeks off, they were back at No. 1.

Ohio State never once took the field against a top 20 ranked opponent. In comparison, every SEC team played at least 5 games against ranked opponents. South Carolina played 8 ranked opponents. Ohio State played 3 teams from Ohio: Youngstown State, Akron, and Kent State (two of these schools had losing records). OSU played Northwestern (lost to Duke) and Minnesota (lost to Div.II North Dakota State, Bowling Green, and Florida Atlantic University and won only 1 game–The Big Ten had an embarrassing loss almost every week this season.)

Consequently, it was a 7 game restful season for Ohio State from the start. Breaking down those 7 Ohio State opponents: Purdue went 7-5 (the wins were from Toledo, Eastern Illinois, Minnesota, Central Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa and Notre Dame); Iowa 5-6 (lost to Western Michigan, beat Minnesota by a field goal); Michigan (embarrassed by non-conference opponents App. State and Oregon but caught a break by finally getting to play some Big Ten teams); Washington (has 8 losses); Penn State (beat 7 cup cakes, then beat Wisconsin, but lost 4 of its 5 legitimate games); and Wisconsin (lost its only tough games against Illinois, Penn State before losing to OSU); and Illinois (beat Ohio State but had 3 overall losses).

This makes Ohio State deserving of a title shot?

A reality check. These seven OSU opponents are about as strong as the bottom half of the SEC at their worst. LSU, Florida, Georgia, Auburn, and Tennessee could equal or better Ohio State’s record with their schedule. So could USC, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and Missouri.

What’s even more outrageous is the new unwritten BCS rule that these football powers from the best conferences, despite facing season-long “playoff elimination” against ranked teams, must first have a title game within each conference to select just a single candidate that is eligible for vote to play against any possible number of teams from the 6th best conference, who may happen to finish with the same record.

Even worse, teams from the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 who fail to win or reach title games, are essentially removed from the BCS ballot. This was Mark Richt’s beef , and he is right. That’s why Georgia was leapfrogged by 3 teams, and Kansas by 5 teams. In being eliminated for BCS championship game consideration, voters (probably unintentionally) put both teams at risk of tumbling completely out of a BCS bowl. This risk does not appear to apply to the Big Ten, Big East, or Pac 10, where they are permitted to have several teams tied.

In the end, Georgia and Kansas had no guarantee of a BCS bid. Had the Pac 10 or Big East been able to put up a worthy candidate, the SEC would have sent only one team to the BCS. Unless the BCS make some changes, the Big Ten, Big East and Pac-Ten are at a huge advantage in landing the coveted extra at-large births and the millions of dollars that go with it.

The Big Ten says it has no interest in a Big Ten Title Game or a playoff format to determine a national champion. Are you chuckling along with me? The Big Ten has the sweetest arrangement in sports. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Play only within the soft conference and schedule no games against the other major conferences. Otherwise, risk being exposed like Michigan against Oregon. The Big Ten realizes it is more likely to win the title by reputation rather than by merit.

When the non-conference games finally arrive at bowl time, the Big Ten is annually embarrassed. Ohio State is 0-8 against SEC opponents in bowls. But all is forgotten by kickoff the following season.

The SEC, ACC and Big 12 need to realize the disadvantage each faces into reaching a BCS title game or getting an at-large bid as compared to the Big Ten, Big East and Pac 10. They need to demand some changes.