When Lincoln said, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedication to the proposition that all men are created equal," it went down in history as one of the most memorable quotes in American history. While all men are created equal, all football teams are not (Notre Dame vs anyone). President-elect Obama, in a not-so-famous quote said recently said that it is time for a playoff; "If you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear decisive winner. We should be creating a playoff system."
Now I’m not here to talk about Obama’s policies and I'll leave it at that. I do, however, believe in an eight-team payoff, or at least a plus one game. Unfortunately people like John Swofford, the BCS commissioner and captain of the “no fun police” are in the way. In responding to Obama’s remarks Swofford said, “I am glad (Obama) has a passion for college football like so many other Americans. For now, our constituencies -- and I know he understands constituencies -- have settled on the current BCS system, which the majority believe is the best system yet to determine a national champion while also maintaining the college football regular season as the best and most meaningful in sports ... We certainly respect the opinions of president-elect Obama and welcome dialogue on what's best for college football." I believe that a college football champion playoff would be a solution to this dialogue. A 16 team playoff format already exists in Football Championship Series (formerly the Division I-AA), so you cannot say that it is impossible.
President-Elect Obama wants it, maybe he'll make it happen.
First, let’s do a background of the BCS and processes that determined the so-called national champion. The NCAA, who recognizes all other collegiate national champions, does not recognize the college football champion and it is the only college sport that does not formally declare a champion. This is some major events that led to the previous systems were:
1. The Dickinson System, the first to rank college football teams nationally. This occurred in 1924.
2. In the 1936 the Associated Press began polling sportswriters to rank the teams.
3. The United Press created the first coaches poll in 1950. The first few years, the AP and UP had consensus national champions. The first split was in 1954 and many consider this to be the start of the controversy in college football. The AP (sports writers) selected Ohio State and the UP (coaches) selected UCLA as national champions.
4. In the 1964 season, the AP voted for the champion before the bowls like they had been doing, then Alabama lost to Texas in their bowl game and were still considered national champions over Arkansas, who was the only undefeated and untied team. Alabama benefited the following year from the new change when top ranked Michigan State lost to UCLA in the Rose bowl and Alabama beat Nebraska, vaulting them to be the top of the AP poll (Michigan State was rated #1 in the UPI poll who voted before the bowls). The AP officially changed to awarding the national championship after the bowl game in 1968 and the UPI poll followed suit, several years later in 1974.
5. In 1992-1994, the Bowl Coalition, then in 1995-1997 Bowl Alliance. These were both doomed from the start. They did not include the Pac-10 nor did they include the Big Ten because they were contractually obligated to show up in the Rose Bowl.
6. The UPI poll basically was replaced in 1996 with the USA Today/ESPN poll in 1996.
7. Fast forward to 1998 and the creation of the BCS.
The BCS
In 1997, a legal document was signed by all 119 Division I teams to chose the BCS and declared that it: "...is managed by the commissioners of the 11 NCAA Division I-A conferences, the director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame, and representatives of the bowl organizations," and basically went on to say that this will match the two top-rated teams in a national championship game. The conference tie ins are as follows, with the Big East taking one of the at-large spots.
- Rose Bowl - Big Ten champ vs. Pac-10 champ
- Fiesta Bowl - Big 12 champ
- Orange Bowl - ACC champ
- Sugar Bowl - SEC champ
There have been a few major changes, most notably for the 2006 season when, after several controversial (call it selecting for money not for the best team), adding another BCS game (to five games – yay more money). The commissioners have also tweaked the computers involved as well as other various trivial things that have been reactive and not really made a difference. We all know how the BCS works, well let me take that back, the BCS is terrible. We all have the grand idea of how it works, or is supposed to, but do not completely understand computers and humans rating teams as we do now. Basically, special cases are made for the top four teams, Notre Dame, if in the top 8, and one top 12 non BCS conference team (likely Utah this year).
Let’s quickly list the three worst happenings of the BCS
- Auburn is left out of the championship game. They beat Virginia Tech in the bowl game and the two teams in USC destroyed Oklahoma 55-19 in a game that was not even that close as the score was. Auburn was not given a piece of the national championship from the AP poll.
- USC is left out of the championship game in 2003 despite being ranked #1 in both polls. Oklahoma, who lost in their championship game, lost again to LSU in the national championship.
- Ohio State in the championship game the past two years. Some would argue this should be higher.
The problem with the polling system is the humans are subjective, while the computer programmers disagree on what should be used to categorize each team. There is a very high level of constancy in the voting by humans and a prime example is Notre Dame. Generally a one loss Notre Dame team will be ranked higher than almost every other one loss team because of history, not what they’ve accomplished against a lackluster schedule. This year and last year are exceptions to this rule due to Notre Dame’s incredibly poor play. This consistency is part of the reason Notre Dame has lost so many bowl games in a row; they are consistently over-matched and overrated. Speaking of potentially over-matched teams, here are some degrees of defeat separation this year:
Utah beat Wyoming (40-7), who beat an embarrassing Tennessee (13-7), who beat Vanderbilt (20-10), who beat Ole Miss (23-17), who beat Florida in the Swamp (31-30).
Boise State beat Oregon who beat UCLA who beat Tennessee, who beat Vanderbilt, who beat Ole Miss, who beat Florida
Ball State beat Navy who beat Wake Forest who beat Ole Miss who beat Florida
You can do the same thing with USC, which is another that team that the pollsters are saying is one of the best. While no one doubts that Florida would likely beat an over-matched Utah, Boise State, or Ball State team, didn’t everyone say the same thing about Boise State a few years ago against a "superior" Boomer Sooner team? We can only find out if they settle it on the field. It is difficult to compare each teams wins and losses. A prime example is going on now in the Big 12 south. Who should win? Is it Texas, who lost in the last second after a grueling stretch of games and beat Oklahoma on a neutral field? Texas fans would proclaim that they beat the competition and ignore the Texas Tech loss. Is it Oklahoma who, just so recently, destroyed the same Texas Tech team that beat Texas? I do not know, and I would say that most do not (unless you are partial to one of the teams). Texas certainly was the better team a few weeks ago, but now, who knows. The team who wins it is likely going to be decided in 5th tiebreaker through the BCS, similar to the way Georgia won the SEC east a few years ago after a three way tie with Florida and Tennessee.
My contention is that I would like to see them Oklahoma and Texas in the championship playoff, both are certainly in the top eight. I would also like to see USC in there as well, why don’t you throw in Penn State, Florida\Alabama winner, Utah, and the ACC winner and the Big East winner to play too. I want to see an eight team playoff just like President-Elect Obama. And why not? Those games would be nuts. The buildup would be huge and the excitement around the sport would only heighten. Football inherently will always have an exciting season because there are only 12 or 13 games per year. Why not add a few more for the truly elite teams. Last year, the craziest year in the history of college football, wouldn’t it have been nice to see Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia Tech, USC, Missouri and Hawaii play in a championship series? All I can say is I’m getting excited thinking about it. You cannot argue that college football would lose its entire regular season luster with the addition of an 8 team playoff. Every game would still matter. I certainly would have watched the Texas/Oklahoma game and the Georgia/Florida game either way. I am going to watch the Iron Bowl this weekend even though Alabama already has the SEC west wrapped up. I would still go to the football games, regardless of the playoff. You could still finish the regular season on the 10th of January. Championship Saturday is at the end of November. Why not have the first round of games on the 27 of December, the semifinals on the 3 of January, and have the championship game on the 10th of January. Play the semifinal games as you would for the current BCS games, in the Rose, Tostitos, Orange, and Sugar, and then have the championship game at a rotating site like the BCS has been doing. They would generate the more revenue and be done two days later. This would lead to a true championship game that even the NCAA could recognize. Imagine, the first recognized NCAA College Football Championship Playoff. That would be the most exciting event in all of sports that all could get excited about.
My College Football Five Rant
- No, Ohio State v Michigan is not the best rivalry ever, not even the best in College Football (See the Iron Bowl)
- Yes, Tommy Tuberville is a good coach, be happy Auburn, you're not getting anyone better
- No, Notre Dame is not back, they haven't beaten a team with a winning record.
- Michigan made a big mistake with Rodriguez
- Why can’t Texas and Oklahoma play during the last week of the Season
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