There are a lot of things that I think we could do without in this world. Things like welfare, Poverty, Liberal media. but if there is one thing that really gets my goat, its the travesty that is NCAA college football.
Since 1997, the top two teams have been paired in a final game to determine the national champion. To determine thse teams, a scoring system is used factoring your average in the polls, strength of schedule, computer rankings etc.
Here is where the problem lies for me. Although the committee in charge of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has claimed success in determining a national champion, there have been two instances where all it did was cause an even bigger mess:
2003- Going into the last week of the season, LSU, USC, and Oklahoma all have only one loss on their record. USC, finishes number one in both voting polls so hey, they are a slam dunk for BCS the national championship game right? Wrong. Oklahoma, even though they lose to Kansas State in their conference championship game, ends up playing LSU, who won the SEC title. USC and their fans are left screaming and pulling their hair out. So they decided to take their frustration out on Michigan in the Rose Bowl 28-14. LSU plays Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and wins 21-14, thus creating a split national championship between USC and LSU.
1997- Michigan, champions of the Big 10 conference, defeat Washington State in the Rose Bowl 21-16. At the same time, Nebraska defeats Tennessee 42-17 in the Orange Bowl. Michigan was number one in both polls until after the Rose Bowl when they slipped to number 2 in one of them, thus creating ANOTHER split national championship.
Of course the biggest mess took place last year. USC, Auburn,Utah and Oklahoma all finished with undefeated records. Even though all 4 had perfectly valid claim to being in the national championship game, when the numbers came down, USC and Oklahoma got to play for the "national championship". USC runs Oklahoma out of the Orange Bowl 55-19, Utah crushes Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl 35-7 and Auburn defeats Virginia Tech 16-13 in the Sugar Bowl. To make matters worse, Texas somehow leapfrogged Cal-Berkeley and made it into the Rose Bowl (where they defeated Michigan 38-37)and many point to Mack Brown (coach of Texas) appealing to the voters in the polls after their last game as being a catalyst for that. As mad as that sort of thing makes me, I will save my thoughts on that for a later date.
In my summation, all three of these situations could have been averted by a playoff system. Here is how I propose said system should work:
16 teams (comprised of the 11 Division 1-A conference champions plus 5 at large teams)
4 weeks
the 5 at large teams would be determined by a combination of conference record, overall record, strength of schedule, strength of opponent's schedule, record against top 25 teams (which would also be used to determine the 5 at large), and a little used (in college football anyway) number called RPI.
To accomodate this within the confines of the new schedule, each team would get 2 off weeks but the season would start one week earlier.
And for those of you who cry financial stability, I also propose that we eliminate 14 of the bowls and combine their payouts into a single fund for the 16 playoff teams with a lucrative payout structure.
In all honesty, anything has to be better than this mess that we have now. ESPN has cut its affiliation with one of the polls, and the Associated Press poll isn't even USED in the formula anymore because of their disgust over the system. That's just my opinion...what's yours? Do you like the BCS? Why? Would you rather have a playoff system? Why? Do you have a whole nother idea in mind?
