Alabama-Georgia Tech. Texas-Boise State. Cincinnati-Florida. TCU-Oregon. Those would be the playoff college football games this year, in a perfect world without the BCS. Who would not watch every single game of this playoff?
And yet, despite the constant defenses of the BCS and their supporters, I haven't heard a good argument explaining why this shouldn't happen. I'll leave out the possible illegality for now. Here are the most common B(C)S defenses.
"The bowl tradition should continue!" Don't worry purists, I completely agree. The great classic bowls are what make college football one of the greatest things in America. So in this system, the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions will play each other in the round-of-eight Rose Bowl matchup, which will take place in Pasadena, unless one of those teams doesn't qualify, like Ohio State this year. In that case, the team is replaced with an at-large.
"But those at-large teams play such weak schedules!" Well, I can't argue against that without getting into a deep theological conversation, but that doesn't matter. On a related topic, how strong do you consider the recent "Let's not play any strong conference opponents or even semi-decent non-conference teams" schedules of a few conference powers? On another related topic, only two of the above teams (who are the actual BCS top eight) have beaten another top eight team. One is Alabama. The other is Boise State.
And if that isn't enough to consider, there's another statistic to look at. Only four non-BCS teams have ever made it to a BCS bowl. They were all undefeated. Three of them won. Utah beat Alabama last year and Pittsburgh in 2004. Boise State beat Oklahoma in 2007. Only Hawaii, in 2008, lost to Georgia. Wanna know what conference has the best winning percentage in BCS Bowls? SEC? Pac-10? Big 12? Answer: The Mountain West.
"But if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" I completely disagree, but that's another story. Even if that were true, the BCS is broken. Does anyone still believe that the BCS [ahem] "National Champion" is absolutely, undisputably, the best team in the nation? Just look at last year, where Florida beat Texas. How could anyone possibly say that Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, Penn State, and especially Utah did not deserve a shot at the title? I think there's two reasons the BCS does just that, assumptions, and conference prestige.
The BCS hasn't had a team in their national championship that wasn't ranked in the preseason top 10 since 2003. They just assume these top teams are always going to be good. It's why USC was still ranked during the late stages of this year despite having more losses than any other ranked team. There are plenty of other elite undefeated or one-loss teams. Those championship teams haven't proven themselves just because they were ranked high at the beginning of the year.
And the conference issue is just ridiculous. The BCS still believes the Big Ten is the nation's best conference, the Pac-10 only has one good team, the Mountain West is useless, and the Big East is awful. Newsflash, BCS: the Big East was better than the Big 12 this year! Even though I'm a Big East guy, this is not a biased statement. It's true. The Big East has three top 25 teams, compared to the Big 12's two. The Big East also have three other teams close to cracking that top 25. After Nebraska, who is good in the Big 12? Missouri? Texas Tech? 7-5 Oklahoma? I don't think so. But since the Big 12 has always been much better than the Big East, Texas is in the national championship.
The good part is, my words won't matter soon. After the public university of his home state got screwed out of a national championship game and a few million dollars, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch passed along a measure to Congress, basically saying the BCS violates antitrust laws and is illegal. A few days ago, that bill was passed by the House subcommittee and will now appear on the floor of Congress, to be debated and voted on.
And unless a BCS conference school can vote against it, it looks like the BCS will most likely be declared illegal. So goodbye, BCS, but I can't say I'm sorry to see you go.
-Tucker Warner
How would you like to see the Bowl matchings made? What would make it fair? Indeed, it's sad that financial issues are driving the issue of the life or death of the BCS, but that was part of what went into its creation years ago. Schools and Bowl cities know there are millions (if not more?) at stake. In my opinion, this is where sports have gone so wrong--instead of being focused on the pinnacle of whatever sport, it seems almost everyone (but the fans) is focused on the almighty $$$. This is why I was so very proud to be teaching at a college that won a D-3 Championship in football--all guts, all glory, no money at stake. Just pure sport for the love of sport.
ReplyDeleteFairness in the Bowl or quarter-final matchups would most likely be determined in the same way bowls have always been- conferences will match up against the same conferences they always have been, and the at-larges will fill in as necessary.
ReplyDelete-Tucker
florida is ranked over boise State even though boise state is undefeated. just because florida is in a better conferencd!!!
ReplyDeleteP.S. boise state averages 42 points a game