The conclusion of the 2008 NCAA Division I baseball season took place June 25th in Omaha Nebraska. One of the most unlikely teams to ever win the championship came together and completed a run that will be talked about for years to come. 

Fresno State University Bulldogs Win!!! 

Bulldog Fans Celebrate in Fresno Pub                  Steve Detwiler is wired on right...

There were references during each broadcast of the games the Fresno State University Bulldogs played during the NCAA Regionals, Super-Regionals, and finally during the College World Series itself that tried to describe how low the Fresno State seeding into the tournament actually was. Fresno was compared to a thirteenth seed in terms of the NCAA National Championship Basketball Tournament regional of 16 teams, and then as the team continued to progress from one regional to another, they were finally said to be the lowest seeded team to ever reach the College World Series. The Bulldogs had a preseason ranking in the nation’s top 25, but a shaky start left this team scrambling the rest of the season to win their Western Athletic Conference championship. Winning the WAC championship was the only way the Bulldogs could make it into postseason play, where this unlikely championship run began 35 days and 18 games ago. They had to go undefeated in the WAC Championship Tournament, and they pulled it off. The newly crowned WAC champions sported a record of 37 wins and 27 losses (16-16 in non-conference games) as postseason regional play began. They found themselves as the fourth seed in the Long Beach Regional. 

Georgia's Powerhitting Shortstop, Gordon Beckham

Fresno State's winning pitcher Justin Wilson

Fresno's College World Series Outstanding Player Tommy Mendonca receiving award

The team played and won 6 elimination games, including two against the eventual runner-up Georgia Bulldogs, as they ended by hoisting the NCAA National Championship Trophy.

I hope this helps to put what the Fresno State Bulldogs’ baseball team accomplished into perspective.

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So what exactly is the beauty of all this? Well I’m here to tell you… This, my friends, is the beauty of a tournament. Just as we’ve seen the moniker of “Cinderella” laid on this FSU Bulldog team that would not quit, and just as we’ve seen that name applied to many different teams year after year in the NCAA National Basketball Tournament, this is the stuff of a playoff. The championship being won on the field of play in an equitably seeded tournament is the essence of sports. All of the major sports’ champions in the NCAA as well as in the various major professional team sports are determined on the field of play in a tournament format with one exception. Why must we, as sports fans in America, be submitted to the antiquated bowl system in Division I college football?

There is an elitist element in college football that has, over the years, wedged itself into place by waving bushels of dollars in front of the universities involved in supposedly amateur athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association spends thousands of hours and I suppose millions of dollars each year to insure the amateur nature of collegiate athletics, but they have allowed the bowl system to usurp their authority when it comes to Division I football. I also believe this system is supported by the “major” and “traditional” Division I football “powerhouses”. I liken this to nothing short of pure greed on their part as they continually attempt to corner the market on high school recruits while jealously excluding the so-called “minor conference” schools as they attempt to assemble competitive football teams. The bowl system, their elitist backers, and the elitist “powerhouse” teams in Division I have formed an alliance designed to be unfair and inequitable. The fact that the Bowl Championship Series has worked to exclude 51 schools in five Division I conferences and three schools not affiliated with a conference from eligibility in the national championship process is all you need to know. How in the world did we get here???

There won’t be any Cinderellas in Division I football this year or at anytime in the future so long as the current BcS system continues to line the pockets of the “major” schools and conferences in Division I…

Congratulations to the National Champion Fresno State Bulldogs baseball team. You have done something I hope to someday see in NCAA Division I football. Your team is a true champion as it won the right to be called champion on the field, not because some pollster thought they should be in the championship game. The Fresno State Bulldogs have given hope to all the schools around our country as any can point to what they did and say “Why not us?”

If a BcS type system had been used in NCAA Division I baseball, the Bulldogs, also now known as the “Wonderdogs”, wouldn’t have even been in the game and all of the sports fans around the country would have missed out on a truly wondrous occurrence.

Isn’t the BcS a great system?