For Chanukah, Bet Shamai says that on the 1st night we start with 8 candles and each successive night one less. Bet Hillel says we start with 1 and increase each successive night.
Why was there no debate about how to count the days of the Omer, similar to the debate about Chanukah "counting"?
I can see support for both sides. One can view it as, "Wow! It's been so many days since G-d exiled us from slavery in Egypt." Whereas another view is, "Wow! Only X more days until we receive the Torah (so we would count downwards)."
Also, Chanukah is a Rabbinic holiday. I would think that if they wanted to debate counting, they would emphasize Shavu'ot being a Torah holiday.
I am aware that the Torah verse says that you should count 50 days. But, AFAIK, there is nothing specific that says HOW to count, unless I missed something.