The Problem with the BCS (Bowl Championship Series)

Here we go again.  The travesty that is the BCS is once again exposed for it’s lunacy.  Opinions abound all over the place – television, sports talking heads, print media, the internet, coaches, administrators, fans.  So of course, I am going to give my opinion as well.  This is going to be one of my longer posts due to the multitude of problems associated with this circus.

Suffice it to say, this pseudo championship system has been an utter disaster.  Just a short while ago, as we wound down toward the final weekend of the college regular season, the University of Southern California was the supposed designated #2, provided they didn’t lose to UCLA.  They were being annoited as #2 ahead of other contenders – the Florida Gators and the Michigan Wolverines.  Well, lo and behold, the Trojans could not deliver and went down to the Bruins. 

So then the debate became Florida or Michigan.  The Gators won the SEC title game over Arkansas while Michigan sat idle, the possible victim of a conference with no championship game and also a regular season completed earlier.  Idiots blathered on (present company excluded of course) about who should get to play Ohio State.  Let’s look at the ‘body of work’, some said. Holy crap, how I hate that term.  It’s right next to the ultra annoying ‘trickeration’.  No, let’s look at who has the toughest conference.  No, let’s look at who only lost to the #1 team.  No, let’s look at who saved what should be counted as a loss anyway by blocking a last second field goal.  Can anyone say ‘this system sucks’?

So we are mostly through the bowl games with the bogus title game to come on Monday night. Let’s take a look at the big games.

1. Southern Cal routs Michigan. Where are the whiners now about how Michigan got robbed? So maybe they weren’t too motivated for their consolation prize. But according to the talking heads, the Grandaddy Of Them All, the Rose Bowl, is supposed to be motivation enough. Apparently not, or maybe they just weren’t as good as advertised.

2. Boise State defeats Oklahoma in a thriller for the ages. Undefeated Boise State will move how high in the polls? Not to #1, even if Ohio State loses. I think the Associated Press voters should opt to make a point about how silly the BCS is and vote for Boise State. They deserve a share of the title, no matter what happens on in that other game.

3. LSU CRUSHES Notre Dame. How many more times do we have to watch these overrated clowns in a BCS bowl? Every top team they played this year destroyed them. They could have just as easily lost 5 or 6 games this year and yet they continue to be granted favored status. Who does Notre Dame have pictures of? They have lost 9 bowl games in a row and have not won a bowl game since 1993. Since 2000, the Irish have not been closer than 17 points in any of their bowl games. Take away their favored status and if they want to play with the big boys, they should join a conference.

So what have we learned here?  Let’s dissect all the ridiculous arguments against a Division 1 college football playoff.

The college presidents argued that there were just too many games required to have a playoff. I guess that the ‘too many’ definition does not include that 12th game that was added to most schedules or those conference championships that keep popping up. The only reason for doing that is the almighty dollar. An extra home game means more in the coffers. A championship game means big bucks.

The media talking heads keep saying ‘Every week matters’ and ‘Every week is a playoff’. Ummm, no. Florida lost a game and still is in the title game. If every week was a playoff, that loss would have eliminated them. The same was true of USC.  It took a SECOND loss to eliminate them.  Michigan lost their LAST regular season game and still was being touted as the likely opponent until seemingly smarter voters prevailed.

The playoff naysayers like to say the debate makes college football unique. It is truly unique in that respect, being the only major sport without a playoff. If you believe the presidents then the student athletes in other football divisions apparently are not important enough to be allowed that time off for whatever it is they need it for. Maybe the presidents are admitting that those other student athletes are more intelligent and thus do not need that time off for finals. At this point it’s hard to decipher what they mean.

And finally, we come to the ‘Bowl Tradition’ argument. Is that the same tradition that now has something like ‘American Port-A-Potty’ in the name of every bowl game? If tradition were that important, the games would not have been whored out to the highest bidder. The same tradition that keeps adding games so that every 6-6 team has somewhere to go over the holidays?

The fans need to take control of this situation and boycott the bowl games for a season. It would be fun to hear Brent Musberger describe the scene. “You are looking live at a nearly empty Orange Bowl.” That would probably never happen as I believe the networks would prohibit their camera crews from showing it. It would be a little disheartening for a few teams to play in empty stadiums but they should realize they would be taking one for the team, so to speak. One season of empty stadiums and you could bet the folks in charge of this fiasco would find a way to get a playoff done in record time. All the bogus arguments would magically disappear.

Let’s hope the Boise States continue crashing the party until someone gets this thing right.  Read the post Gator’s Victory Aftermath post.

Rant away.