How much longer must the college football world be bored and annoyed with the BCS system? Will they change their system after this year? Will it take another two or three years like this one for them to change the format? We will have to see. With both Missouri and West Virginia losing their final games the BCS standings got shaken up a lot. #3 Ohio St. moved up to the #1 spot will LSU, somehow, got bumped up to #2. Is it me or does it seem as though LSU are the people who control the BCS rankings?
There are a couple schools who rightfully should feel upset about the final rankings: Kansas, Georgia, USC, Virginia Tech, and Oklahoma could have all been justified with a national title game bid. This is the case every year though, some teams will be overlooked when it comes Bowl Game time. Maybe for LSU the third time is the charm. We will soon find out though.
Now had there been a playoff system in place, it would be a lot more interesting this time of the year for college football. It would give the BEST team in the nation a chance to prove it. At this time of the year is when the elite teams separate themselves from the pack, in any sport. What would USC do if there was a playoff system this year. I’ll tell you what they’d do, they would run the table. There isn’t another team in the country who is playing better right now than the Trojans. That loss to Stanford really hurt them bad. With Pete Carroll still the head coach, USC should have another shot at the title next year, without a doubt.
I may be a little bias because of my love for USC football, but I just dont understand why NCAA football is the ONLY sport that doesn’t have the playoff system in place. Basketball has March Madness. Baseball has the College Worlds Series. Football has a bunch of computers that numbers are put into, and then they come up with rankings that is still using information from 50 years ago. It just doesn’t make sense. Look at Hawaii. They are in the WAC conference, which by the way is named perfectly, but they still go 12-0. The only undefeated team in the nation. Why don’t they get a shot at the national title? They have certainly earned it, I mean Colt Brennan broke all kinds of records, and is a possible Heisman Trophy winner. The same thing happened last year to Rutgers. But until this system changes, there will always be discussions and complaints, and unjustified rankings of schools.
The following information is something that I read somewhere, and actually I do believe that it is pretty close to how the NCAA is considering structuring this, and also is very similar to how the Div I-AA is doing theirs now. The playoffs would have to be structured the correct way to make it work. It would have to allow for EVERY, yes I said every, conference champion to be automatically in the playoffs. That takes up 11 spots right there. It would have to be this way to keep the integrity and relevance of a regular season. The other 5 spots would be “at-large” bids and would have to be chosen by a committee, like in basketball. This selection process would get grief and flak from the teams that they left out, but with this system those schools would have 2 or 3 losses to justify them being overlooked. The first 3 rounds of the playoffs would be played at the higher ranked teams home field. This would allow the top tier teams to not have to travel to distant places. This would also cause more competition and better games. A lot of the teams now, USC, have the luxury of playing Big Ten teams in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. Picture USC going somewhere cold and possibly snowing. A lot of those teams are built specifically to be able to play through that kind of stuff. Now, corporate sponsors own all of the bowl games, and this playoff system wouldn’t effect them at all. Actually it would probably help them. A lot of the Bowl Games are none BCS so they would still be able to hold them if they wish. Obviously the national title game would be the premier bowl game, and they could even scatter some of the BCS bowl games now over the final couple games of the playoffs.
Again this is something that I just read somewhere. I think this could work really well. Either way something needs to happen, and it needs to happen quickly. College football is hurting because of the BCS system. Do you think this would work? Are there any other ideas on how to save the great sport of college football?
Copyright 2007 – E. Mendez
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