Time to bounce the BCS

It’s interesting that close to every organized sport on earth involves some sort of playoff system to decide their champion. They actually have the top teams play each other to decide who gets a shot at the title, rather than using a computer and some equations to choose the final two. So why can’t college football catch up?

Their current Bowl Championship System is the most flawed post season system in all of sports. Thursdays game between the #1 ranked USC and Oregon St is a perfect example. USC came in as one of the most highly touted teams ever to play under coach Pete Carroll, who said this is the best team he had ever coached. Its said by NFL scouts that they have 40 professional football players on their roster today. But with one early season loss to a fired up in conference opponent, their title hopes are almost gone. They will move out of the top ten and essentially no longer control their own destiny. They now must rely on other top teams to lose just to get in the conversation for a title shot.

The BCS counts on their being two standout teams at the end of the regular season that obviously should play for the title. But that’s not the case. Ever. Each year there are somewhere around 4-6 teams that arguably should have a chance to play for the title. To deny these student athletes their hard earned opportunity to play for a championship because they come from a smaller market or a computer says their strength of schedule is not strong enough is outrageous. Teams like Hawaii of two years ago, Utah and Boise State must go undefeated to even be considered for a title shot. They come from smaller conferences with weaker schedules so automatically they have a terrible chance of winning a national championship just because of where they started. It doesn’t matter how good they are, which to me seems like it should be the only factor.

Why not use a playoff system? The top eight ranked teams at the end of the year play for the championship. The current BCS system can still be used for the rest of the teams in the way the college basketball uses the NIT. This would allow for underdogs to emerge and have a fair shot at the title. It would get rid of the unfair advantage given to teams in big markets with tough schedules. Bottom line, it would just be fair, and the BCS is not.