My BCS Rant!
‘Tis the season when it drives me crazy to watch ESPN and hear about which team deserves to be in the national championship and which one doesn’t, and how it all depends on how the computer looks at it.
This year is even crazier than most because of all of the upsets in NCAA football. In fact, last night both the #1 and #2 teams were upset and now everything is up in the air. This is the perfect opportunity for Division 1-A football to stop being the laughing stock of NCAA sports, design at the very least an eight team playoff system, and let the teams decide the national championship on the field. Anything less is a joke, really. Div. 1-A football is the only collegiate sport (actually, the only sport, period) that does not have a playoff system to determine a true champion.
Yesterday, two talking heads were debating whether the University of Hawaii, who has a perfect record, should be eligible for a major bowl game. Imagine that, having a perfect record, but still not being ranked higher than #12 in the BCS rankings. Hawaii won last night, defeating the University of Washington, and they end the regular season as the only division 1-A team with a perfect record (12-0), yet they play in a conference (the WAC) which is considered weak, therefore their schedule is “too easy” and they have no shot at a national championship -- in fact, they can’t even break into the top 10. In my opinion (and I am right), that is absolutely ridiculous.
So tonight is the big “All State BCS” program where teams are named to their bowl games. My guess is that Ohio State and Georgia will end up in the so-called national championship game, and they didn’t even play this weekend. Which is to say, they didn’t earn the right to play in the “national championship” game. Instead, they backed into it. No team… NO team should be invited to a “national championship” game simply because they were idle that week. That is complete baloney.
Another thing that bugs me, #1 Missouri lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game last night. Why should that game, a post-season game which did not appear on either team’s schedule in September, count in the BCS rankings? Missouri was forced to play an extra game because the Big 12 can’t find a way to decide a conference champion in the regular season. If a conference champion cannot be decided in the regular season, then the conference is too damn big. I would suggest the Big 12, who is already divided into the North and South divisions, should separate into the Plains conference (formerly the Big 12 North) and the South Central conference (formerly the Big 12 South). And that’s just the beginning. You see, I’ve got it all figured out. I will have to post all of my solutions later.
I think division 1-AA football is far more interesting this time of year. It is divided into four regions and 16 teams, and there are games played every weekend (I wish more were televised). I have always said that if division 1-A football didn’t want to give up their computer system, they could still use that system to rank teams 1-16, and initiate a 16 team, four week playoff system and have the championship game played on the first Saturday in January. That’s 15 games… you could even call them bowl games, and eliminate this garbage of declaring teams that are 6-6 as bowl eligible. What a joke. I tell you, a playoff system like this would make March Madness look like child’s play.
The biggest excuse I’ve heard as to why division 1-A does not have a playoff system is because it would interfere would final exams. How novel! Well, that argument doesn’t hold water for two reasons:
1. It works fine for division 1-AA.
2. Division 1-A teams are already playing 32 bowl games from December 20, 2007 to January 7, 2008 (oh smell that money!). Are you telling me that doesn’t interfere with finals? How insignificant must be the R&L Carrier Bowl or the Papajohns.com Bowl or the Emerald Nut Bowl? God, how glorious. It used to be an honor to be invited to a bowl game. Now you have to be the Minnesota Gophers NOT to be invited. I suppose it is a reflection of our society’s mentality of “everyone gets a prize.”
So the question is this, would it be better to have 15 important bowl games, in which every snap takes one team closer to a national championship and brings in an audience of millions of television viewers? Or 32 insignificant bowl games -- most of which feature teams that are barely better than .500, playing in front of stadiums which are 1/3 full -- and a national championship game, in which the match-up has been decided by a computer?
I know which system I would prefer.
This year is even crazier than most because of all of the upsets in NCAA football. In fact, last night both the #1 and #2 teams were upset and now everything is up in the air. This is the perfect opportunity for Division 1-A football to stop being the laughing stock of NCAA sports, design at the very least an eight team playoff system, and let the teams decide the national championship on the field. Anything less is a joke, really. Div. 1-A football is the only collegiate sport (actually, the only sport, period) that does not have a playoff system to determine a true champion.
Yesterday, two talking heads were debating whether the University of Hawaii, who has a perfect record, should be eligible for a major bowl game. Imagine that, having a perfect record, but still not being ranked higher than #12 in the BCS rankings. Hawaii won last night, defeating the University of Washington, and they end the regular season as the only division 1-A team with a perfect record (12-0), yet they play in a conference (the WAC) which is considered weak, therefore their schedule is “too easy” and they have no shot at a national championship -- in fact, they can’t even break into the top 10. In my opinion (and I am right), that is absolutely ridiculous.
So tonight is the big “All State BCS” program where teams are named to their bowl games. My guess is that Ohio State and Georgia will end up in the so-called national championship game, and they didn’t even play this weekend. Which is to say, they didn’t earn the right to play in the “national championship” game. Instead, they backed into it. No team… NO team should be invited to a “national championship” game simply because they were idle that week. That is complete baloney.
Another thing that bugs me, #1 Missouri lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game last night. Why should that game, a post-season game which did not appear on either team’s schedule in September, count in the BCS rankings? Missouri was forced to play an extra game because the Big 12 can’t find a way to decide a conference champion in the regular season. If a conference champion cannot be decided in the regular season, then the conference is too damn big. I would suggest the Big 12, who is already divided into the North and South divisions, should separate into the Plains conference (formerly the Big 12 North) and the South Central conference (formerly the Big 12 South). And that’s just the beginning. You see, I’ve got it all figured out. I will have to post all of my solutions later.
I think division 1-AA football is far more interesting this time of year. It is divided into four regions and 16 teams, and there are games played every weekend (I wish more were televised). I have always said that if division 1-A football didn’t want to give up their computer system, they could still use that system to rank teams 1-16, and initiate a 16 team, four week playoff system and have the championship game played on the first Saturday in January. That’s 15 games… you could even call them bowl games, and eliminate this garbage of declaring teams that are 6-6 as bowl eligible. What a joke. I tell you, a playoff system like this would make March Madness look like child’s play.
The biggest excuse I’ve heard as to why division 1-A does not have a playoff system is because it would interfere would final exams. How novel! Well, that argument doesn’t hold water for two reasons:
1. It works fine for division 1-AA.
2. Division 1-A teams are already playing 32 bowl games from December 20, 2007 to January 7, 2008 (oh smell that money!). Are you telling me that doesn’t interfere with finals? How insignificant must be the R&L Carrier Bowl or the Papajohns.com Bowl or the Emerald Nut Bowl? God, how glorious. It used to be an honor to be invited to a bowl game. Now you have to be the Minnesota Gophers NOT to be invited. I suppose it is a reflection of our society’s mentality of “everyone gets a prize.”
So the question is this, would it be better to have 15 important bowl games, in which every snap takes one team closer to a national championship and brings in an audience of millions of television viewers? Or 32 insignificant bowl games -- most of which feature teams that are barely better than .500, playing in front of stadiums which are 1/3 full -- and a national championship game, in which the match-up has been decided by a computer?
I know which system I would prefer.
