Its that time of year when analysts and amateurs alike start in with the complaints and conspiracy theories about the BCS and argue over whether D-1A college football should go to a playoff system as opposed to playing bowl games. I enjoy the argument as much as the next guy, and in an effort to throw out yet another opinion on the matter I submit this brief to the court of public opinion.
The BCS was originally conceived because the national champion was normally declared based on the USA Today Coaches Poll and the AP Poll. The problem came when those two polls didn’t agree who should be number one and teams had to share the national title. Without a doubt the biggest complaint about the BCS continues to be that there is never a clear cut #1 and #2 to play in the championship game. As ESPN’s Pat Forde clearly explains, chaos remains king in the BCS.
The BCS was set up to be more thorough, and conclusive incorporating, those two polls, a number of computer ranking systems that existed and a few other numbers thrown in to make it as accurate as possible. In my opinion, the major flaw is the same in both systems. The human element hasn’t gone away. Let me repeat that so it can sink in. The human element (the polls) still remain. As long as the human element remains its always going to be screwed up and someone is going to be unhappy, particularly since everything starts from rankings that are established when no one has played a game. (preseason polls are dumb, but fun)
The most popular proposal I’ve heard is to institute a playoff system in 1-A like they have in 1-AA. I can’t say that I’m in favor of this and I honestly don’t think its going to solve anything. All instituting the playoff system will do is shift the argument from the top three or four teams to the teams ranked eight through ten, as the most common suggestion is for an eight team playoff. Let’s imagine the regular season ended today and look at the BCS standings as they are right now and you see a perfect example of the argument I’m anticipating.
| 1. Texas 8-0 |
| 2. Alabama 8-0 |
| 3. Penn State 9-0 |
| 4. Oklahoma 7-1 |
| 5. USC 6-1 |
| 6. Georgia 7-1 |
| 7. Texas Tech 8-0 |
| 8. Florida 6-1 |
| 9. Oklahoma State 7-1 |
| 10. Utah 8-0 |
Ranks one through four look fine to me. All have played pretty tough schedules and have come through unscathed except for Oklahoma who lost to the best team in the country. Then you hit USC at five who lost to an unranked, 4-3 Oregon St team. I think Georgia’s loss to Alabam is much more respectable than that loss and should be ranked higher than USC. For that matter. Undefeated Texas Tech has a completely legitimate argument for being ranked higher than USC, as does OK State since their only loss is to Texas as well. But none of that really matters since most of the sports writers are hoping to get a proposal from USC any day now so they can live happily ever after together.
While we’re mentioning OK St., since they would be the ones left out of a playoff at this stage, they could also argue that they should be in instead of Florida since Florida lost to an unranked Ole Miss team, which is laughable in comparison to losing to Texas by four. Utah also has an argument being undefeated, though I’ll admit my personal bias against teams in non-major conferences b/c they don’t play as strong competition as consistently, in my opinion.
My basic point is that a playoff isn’t going to accomplish anything in determining 100% the best team in the country. What if you had a situation where one of the teams that makes the playoff wins the whole thing, but got beat by the number nine ranked team during the regular season? Should we really consider them the best team in the country if they can’t beat the number nine ranked team in the country? Or worse, what if USC won the whole thing? They couldn’t even beat Oregon St.
When it comes down to it, I like the bowls. I’m a little bit of a traditionalist and enjoy all the hoopla surrounding bowl season. If I couldn’t have New Years day with a bunch of bowl games I might get depressed. The worst thing that’s happening to bowls right now is that there are too many of them and its too easy to get bowl eligible now. Leave the bowls alone and stop clamoring for a system that isn’t really going to improve things. If you’re going to make a big change, wait till you have something that is actually going to be worthwhile.
