Metro Pulse/Sports/Big Orange Screwed

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These Vols can't get no respect

by Tony Basilio

I've heard it time and again from listeners and friends alike, ever since Sunday's ruinous BCS bowl selections were announced: "Basilio, clowns like you who want to perpetuate the bowl system got what you deserve. The Vols were robbed; what do you have to say for yourself?"

Funny they should ask, because I, too, felt that Tennessee was slighted in receiving a Peach Bowl bid to play Clemson University on Jan. 2. It put me in mind of my own time on the Hill, as an undergrad UT student back in the of the late 1980s. We had something we called the Big Orange Screw, a term we applied to any number of arbitrary gestures and sanctions perpetrated by university administration, actions that would from time to time make life a just little more miserable for us as students.

On Sunday, the current bowl system gave Vol football fans its own version of the Big Orange Screw. And much like the various fee hikes, new parking restrictions and service cutbacks that plagued me as a UT freshman back in 1987, it's a screw that keeps on turning.

Perhaps Gary Stokan, Executive Director of the Peach Bowl, put it best, noting the Outback Bowl's cold diss of Tennessee in favor of the home state Florida Gators: "What happened to Tennessee's kids is just wrong. We have a tendency to forget that this is what Bowl Games are supposed to be about. They are a reward for the kids who play the game. Somewhere along the way, those entrusted to bowl games have gotten away from that."

For those of you who haven't been keeping up at home, UT fans are up in arms about Tennessee's post-season destination for the following reasons: The bowl system as conceived under the current BCS guidelines is supposed to send the SEC Champion and perhaps one at-large team to one or more of the prestigious BCS bowls. When the league merits only one BCS-bowl selection (as is the case this season), the second most attractive (not necessarily best) SEC team goes to the Capitol One Bowl (the former Citrus Bowl); the third to the Cotton Bowl, the SEC four to the Outback Bowl, and the SEC five to the Peach Bowl. Got that straight? Didn't think so.

But the point is, with a 6-2 conference record and an overall mark of 10-2, Tennessee merited no worse than an invitation to Florida's Outback Bowl: Fun in the sun in Fla.! What a place to spend the New Year.

Welcome to the politics of Bowl-ing. Perhaps because of the way they sometimes seemed to limp through the season with less-than-impressive victories, this year's Vols are a team that no one gets very excited about—not even their own fans. Did you notice how many empty seats greeted the Vols on that 70-degree November afternoon when they closed the home schedule versus Vanderbilt? As a result, Tennessee is the 7th-ranked team in America, yet they are going to the bowl game reserved for what's supposed to be the league's 5th-best team. The folks at the Outback decided ticket sales and in-state gravitas were more important than the integrity of the system. And this isn't the first time they've done so; in '98 they took a lower-ranked but more proximal Georgia team over 12th-rated Mississippi State, and in '99 they invited an 8-4 Kentucky over a better Georgia squad because Kentucky had a marquee-filler in quarterback Tim Couch. Says Stokan, "They [the Outback] operate as a rogue bowl in this system."

And therein lies the problem, because the "system" of which he speaks doesn't actually exist. Bowl officials have ultimate power to determine who plays in which games (remember earlier when I mentioned the "most attractive" selections, rather than the best?). What happened to Tennessee was a travesty for Vol fans everywhere, but where were we when the deal went dirty for Mississippi State and Georgia a few years back? Will the league finally hold the Outback Bowl accountable for flouting the selection process, or will Commissioner Mike Slive cravenly cower and cover his face one more time? I think we probably know the answer to that one.

As a consolation, Tennessee lands in the Peach versus a streaking Clemson team. The game will kick off at 4 p.m. Jan. 2, admittedly a better time slot than the Outback Bowl's 11 a.m. New Year's Day, which is concurrent with two other bowls, the Gator and the Capitol One. So what Tennessee loses in payout money is partly offset by better ratings and increased national exposure.

Since the Peach Bowl is in Atlanta, Vol fans have only a couple hours' drive to say goodbye to this year's senior class. And lest I forget, the opportunity to stick the Bowden family (son Tommy is currently head coach at Clemson) with a New Year's loss seems as American as Apple Pie.

But more important is the question of who will win the game, and there's where the Screw, Part II, comes into play. Want a tried and true formula for selecting winners in second-tier bowl games? Simple: Go with the school that wants to be there. And this year the small Orange Tigers are bound to be much happier with their lot than the Vols, who expected a bigger, better deal. In the process of getting the Big Orange Screw from the system, Tennessee may get the Little Orange Screw as well. Twist it in.

Tune in and talk sports with "The Tony Basilio Show" each weekday from 3-6 p.m. on the network (670 WMTY-AM, 850 WKVL-AM, 1140 WLOD-AM, 1290 WATO-AM, or 1400 WGAP-AM).