BCS is no way to pick a champion
It appears the Bowl Championship Series will not work out again this season.
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Oklahoma slipped past Texas this week in the standings. By doing so the Sooners will play in the Big 12 title game against Missouri and, with a win over the Tigers, will play for the national championship.
This is the case despite the fact that Oklahoma lost to Texas on a neutral site earlier this season. The Longhorns' lone loss came on the final play from scrimmage on the road at Texas Tech.
What is it going to take for the college presidents to get their heads out of the sand and decide their champion like every other team sport does: with a playoff? Every other level of football uses a playoff format to declare its champ. High school, junior colleges, Division III, Division II, Division I-AA, the Canadian Football League, arena leagues and the NFL all use a playoff and things seem to work out just fine.
It is all about green, as in the dollar bills the schools get from the bowls to help pay for all the other sports that lose money annualy, which is nearly every sport besides football and men's basketball.
This bullheaded stance is so short-sighted. A playoff system could be employed with little change to such elite bowls as the New Orleans Bowl. What would football fans do without getting to see Louisiana Lafayette play Memphis? How can we not let all those 6-6 teams not be rewarded for their mediocrity by keeping them out of a bowl match-up?
Notre Dame will be in a bowl this year despite a 6-6 mark and only one win against a team with a winning record (Navy). The Fighting Irish could not even muster a first down until late in the third quarter against Southern Cal, and they lost to two-win Syracuse.
The BCS just keeps going year after year, praying that its flawed system will get lucky and work out at the end of the year.
I am beginning to think the college presidents would prefer to not even keep score in the games and let everyone go to a bowl. We wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, would we?
Think about this scenario for the playoffs. I am all for a 16-team playoff, but even an eight-team match-up would be great. It could go something like this:
SEC Champ: Alabama
ACC Champ: Virginia Tech
Pac 10 Champ: Southern Cal
Big 12 Champ: Oklahoma
Big 10 Champ: Penn St.
Big East Champ: Cincinnati
At Large Bid: Florida
At Large Bid: Texas
Round One:
- Alabama vs. Cincinnati (Sugar Bowl)
- Oklahoma vs. Va. Tech (Fiesta Bowl)
- Florida vs. Penn St. (Orange Bowl)
- Texas vs. Southern Cal (Rose Bowl)
I know this makes too much sense to actually decide the champion on the field of play. No system would be completely perfect, but this would be much better than the chaos we have now.