The Only Way To Have Enthusiasm About The BCS Is To Fake It

I can't imagine anyone other than Iowa and Penn State fans* watched the BCS selection show with particular interest after Oklahoma State's pratfall against Oklahoma cleared up the BCS at-large picture. This is not Selection Sunday, when 65 teams across the country find out not only if they're in, but where they're going and who they're facing. But dang if they didn't use the same script:

That's TCU fans exploding in joy after finding out they'd be... reprising last year's Poinsettia Bowl against Boise State? You mean to tell me not one single Horned Frog fan thought flipping the bird at the powers that be was in order? Do these people not have any idea what's going on?

So the team is there, coach Gary Patterson is there, the Fox camera crew is there and Fox reporter Charissa Thompson is there. According to [TCU baseball coach Jim] Schlossnagle, the producers were there pumping their fists and getting the crowd jazzed with applause signs and all. He said they didn't know which bowl game they were going to play in at the beginning of the taping and even when it did go live, Thompson only told the fans gathered there that they were going to the Fiesta Bowl and not who they would play.

Coach Patterson was finally told it would be against Boise State right before Thompson stuck a mic in his face.

Ah, they really didn't have any idea what was going on. Incomplete information -- the very reason college football needs a playoff more than any other sport -- rears its head again, this time in service of parable. The article suggests that fans were walking away "disappointed" that they only got measly Boise State, which is both obvious and the reason that TCU is at the kiddie table. At least Charissa Thompson was in the house.

Please don't stalk her now, internet. I didn't mean it.

(HT: Doctor Saturday.)

*(Iowa or Penn State was the only question remaining, with the BCS choosing between justice and money. Shockingly, they chose justice, which probably means the money didn't actually differ.)

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.