The Problem With The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) – The Aftermath

Well folks, the big game is over and the Florida Gators are the ‘champion’.  (Read the pre-Gator’s Victory post). Congratulations to them as they pretty much had their way with the vaunted Buckeyes.    Outside of the winning margin, it reminds me of a couple other BCS title games that didn’t quite go according to plan (Texas/USC, OSU/Miami, FSU/Oklahoma), which brings me to my first point on the day after.

If not for a great defensive play by UCLA against USC, the Gators would have in all likelihood been watching the game last night.  The problem with that is not even that a team as deserving as the next guy would have been sitting at home but that they would have been excluded by ‘voting’.   There is just something inherently wrong with a system where coaches have to lobby to get into a game and some guys choose to do it and some don’t.  This just should not be an election, a popularity contest, or based on television exposure (how many of the voters watch these teams week in and week out?).  What is this, American Idol?  Why don’t we set up 800 numbers and text message systems and give fans 2 hours to vote after the completion of the regular season?  Remember fans, you are voting to include your team in the championship game, not send them home.

Isn’t there also something wrong with a team going 50 days between games?  I think the Buckeyes might agree with that at this point.  Did they lose their edge?  Who knows.

In a perfect world (at least that of the playoff proponents), here’s how I would do it.  I’m sure there are other ideas or flaws in my system but we have to start somewhere.

1.  The season is 10 games.  If you are a BCS conference, you MUST have a conference championship game as your 11th game.

2.A. The 6 BCS conferences get 6 playoff spots.  6 at-large teams get in based on some formula similar to what we have now.  12 spots total (if #13 gets hosed, so be it).  In this scenario, the screwed teams, if you want to call them that, would have been Arkansas (#12) and West Virginia (#13).  Although being #14, Wake gets in based on winning the ACC.  Much more preferable than say, screwing a 13-0 Auburn team or a USC team ranked #1 in both polls, wouldn’t you say?  Top 4 get byes.  In this scenario, the maximum games a team would play is 15 games, the same as the other college football divisions.

2.B. Some say 12 is too many.  Hey, I’m flexible.  Let’s go with 8.  Under this scenario, the 6 BCS conference champions get 6 bids.  2 at large bids would be based on BCS rankings as they exist today.  Under this scenario, we handle the ‘every week is a playoff’ scenario.  Win your conference or you’re out.  Some have said under a playoff, teams like Ohio State and Texas won’t play each other anymore.  Well, you better not schedule too many creampuffs because if you slip up and lose your conference you may not get a second chance. 

3.  The playoffs start the second week of December, which would have been December 9th this year. 

4.  Games rotate through the biggest bowls year to year.  Efforts are made to do regional matchups where possible.  It doesn’t really matter if one year the Sugar Bowl plays a week before New Year’s.  With all the movement of bowl dates already, there is no tradition lost.

The bowls would still be the bowls, with just a little tweaking.  All other teams could still go to the multitude of other bowls, such as the Ronco Set It and Forget It Bowl or the Real Estate Late Night Infomercial Bowl.  No one is saying take those bowls away.  They will be exactly the same as they are now.

The regular season is still going to matter.  If you lose your last game, you may not get in the conference championship.  If you are going for an at large bid and you lose, you may drop too far to get in.

I’ve read arguments recently about how you can’t match the excitement of Boise vs. Oklahoma, etc.  Imagine if they played the same game and it was loser go home, winner advance to the title game.  Rachets up the old excitement level a bit, doesn’t it?  I’ve also seen the argument regarding how teams like USC got to celebrate their win as opposed to getting ready to play another game in a playoff.  Hmm.  Kind of like a team might celebrate winning their basketball regional and heading to the final four the next weekend?

There would still be some flaws but in my opinion, this would be light years more favorable than what we have now.  The bottom line is I just don’t understand why it’s good for every other division of college football (not to mention high schools all over the country) but not the big boys?  Those other universities travel for playoff games.  They have students who go to class.  What is the thing that makes the systems so different in the end?

Here is something to ponder.  Which will we see first – a playoff system or Nick Saban fulfill a contract?

Rant away.