How 2001 Oregon forced progress toward playoffs
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Way back in the 2001 college football season, I was on-site in Tempe, Ariz., with a Fiesta Bowl media credential in my name for the Oregon-Colorado Fiesta Bowl.
This was about five years before State Farm Stadium was built across the valley in Glendale, back when the Fiesta Bowl was played at Sun Devil Stadium adjacent to the Arizona State campus.
Back before my Japanese-American spouse, before Oregon Ducks 4 Life! 🦆 evolved from my print newsroom background, and before my on-site, credentialed coverage of this Fiesta Bowl earned me Honorable Mention in the Oct. 2002 Football Writers Association of America awards.
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The January 2002 Oregon-Colorado Fiesta Bowl was also before any on-field FBS playoff.
At the time, the Bowl Championship Series formula was all the progress college football could stomach. The BCS was a notoriously flawed computer ranking formula launched in 1998, the last line of poll-championship compromise before the College Football Playoff era finally began in 2014.
Late-2001 BCS rankings pushed BCS No. 4 Nebraska to the championship game instead of AP No. 2 Oregon.
"I understand it's a system trying to accommodate all. I do think now that I'm much more in favor of a playoff system," former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said, during Dec. 2001 Fiesta Bowl practices in Phoenix. "It was very difficult at the time to explain to my players when you're No. 2 in both polls, and you're the Pac-10 champion, why we're not going to be (in the Rose Bowl)."
