Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Stanford coach Shaw: BCS system is 'flawed'

Updated: November 22, 2011, 7:34 PM ET

It was a vocal day for Stanford Cardinal coach David Shaw -- who, in his brief tenure leading the Cardinal, has not been known to be overly passionate.

Usually mild-mannered and reserved, Shaw used his Tuesday roundtable meeting with the media as a pulpit for what's wrong with the Bowl Championship Series.

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Bottom line is, the BCS is flawed. ... They themselves know it, which is why they proposed a lot of changes going forward. All I've heard all year is the computers don't like Stanford. Well, the computers haven't programmed themselves.

? -- Stanford coach David Shaw

"Bottom line is, the BCS is flawed," Shaw said. "They themselves know it, which is why they proposed a lot of changes going forward. All I've heard all year is the computers don't like Stanford. Well, the computers haven't programmed themselves.

"To have a one-loss Pac-12 team behind a one-loss ACC team (Virginia Tech) 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 think that's accurate."

Shaw noted that Virginia Tech beat common opponents Duke by four points, (14-10), while the Cardinal beat them by 30 (44-14).

"I keep hearing about quality wins," he said. "Well first off, who decides what the quality wins are and secondly, how does a quality or non-quality loss affect people? Whereas we lost to a very good Oregon team ranked No. 10, (Virginia Tech) lost to a team ranked No. 17 (Clemson). I don't get it."

Stanford moved up from No. 9 to No. 6. in the latest BCS standings. But among the six one-loss teams ranked in the Top 10, Stanford is behind four others.

"Oklahoma State is outstanding, a very good football team," Shaw said. "Once again, we lost to a team that was 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 opposed to where other people are, I'm just saying the explanations I get don't make any sense. Now, there is a lot of football to be played a lot of stuff that's going to shake itself out."

"I felt like it was to a point where I had to say something. I don't understand it," he added. "Most of the people I talk to don't understand it. Most of the people that are explaining it don't completely understand it. The experts have their disagreements. I just wanted to lay that out there. Do with it whatever you want."

Shaw said his team has moved on and is focused on Saturday's game against Notre Dame -- that they "laughed about it" when they got together on Monday.

Asked what he thinks the solution should be, Shaw said his opinion is irrelevant.

"It doesn't matter what I'd like, he said. "That's not where we are right now ... I think those are off-season discussions. We are where we are right now. We have to play good football and see where that puts us."

Shaw's statements came just a couple of hours after he made an impassioned speech about why quarterback Andrew Luck should win the Heisman Trophy. Speaking on the Pac-12 coaches' conference call, Shaw said "it's an absolute joke" that Luck's national perception might be slipping.

"There is nobody in college football that is doing what Andrew Luck is doing," Shaw said. "Don't forget, I spent nine years in the NFL. I evaluated every single quarterback that came out in the NFL during that time and have seen all of the good ones since then. There is nobody that I've heard of that does as much at the line of scrimmage in college football. There are not that many guys in the NFL that are doing as much as Andrew is at the line of scrimmage.

"The guy is running the game at the line of scrimmage. He's controlling the protections. He's controlling the running game. We're calling three, four plays in the huddle, which most guys can't even think about handling and he does that."

Kevin Gemmell covers Stanford football for ESPN.com

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