College Football BCS Analysis

College football has been around for many years, and the BCS part of the bowl system has been in place since 1998. Many could say this was the year that one of the worst post-season sporting systems was put into place. It has done many things good and bad. It has caused a lot of controversy, gained universities tons of money, and frustrated many college football fans around the nation. With good comes bad, it is about outweighing the negatives with positives, and this is not something the BCS system is accomplishing. The BCS system should be changed to implement a playoff type bracket, because it would give a much more equal opportunity for the “best team” to be the champs, end controversy, and still allow companies and universities to make money from games.
Equal opportunity is a big piece of the argument against the BCS system.
Many people believe that leaving the selection process up to voting and computer rankings is incorrect. As of now there are six BCS automatic qualifying conferences. This means the champions from each of these conferences has an automatic berth into a BCS game, leaving out many of the other great teams across the nation. Although it does make sense to take the champions from every conference and place them into games, too many teams are left out due to being smaller and not generating as much revenue. Changing the BCS bowls into a playoff bracket would allow for a better opportunity for many schools. John Ziegler noted, “The BCS conundrum is one of the most frustrating issues because the solution is so incredibly obvious and yet, no matter how close the powers that be get to accidentally finding it, they somehow still manage to only make things worse.” (Ziegler pg 1). He also shares the opinion of having playoffs, but has his own idea of how it should go. Keeping the computer choice as a piece of his
method. The proposed change in the system would still keep some elements of the current BCS system. It would still involve the automatic qualifying conferences, and then an added two at-large teams. These two teams would be determined as the next two best teams from all schools in the nation. They could be independent schools, or even a second place team from one of the automatic qualifying conferences. These teams could be great for mixing up the pot, upsets could happen and this would overall make for a more exciting post season. This would then leave an eight-team bracket. “The system is a mess. A playoff involving the top eight teams in the country would be a great improvement.“ (Gottfried pg 1). Gottfried expressed this in an editorial commenting on the BCS. The tournament would be single elimination and cause the teams to prove themselves throughout three games to be national champions. Ensuring that the best, most consistent, true national champion would be crowned. Arguably the most controversial year of the BCS system was in the 2004 season when five teams ended undefeated. USC, Boise State, Utah, Auburn, and Oklahoma were those teams. This caused a huge problem then deciding which two teams should be playing for the national championship. Rather than being able to take all these teams and put them into a tournament style playoff bracket and letting them play it out to decipher the best team in college football. The playoff would have given all these undefeated teams a shot, and a true championship decided rather than one selected with the ranking system. With the playoff style there would be no ability to complain that your team didn’t have a shot at the championship. In the new system the regular-season would still be important, winning your conference would get your bid into the national championship tournament. One of the most satisfying parts would be that an undefeated team would not have to be left out of the championship game. There is no decision necessary on what teams to put what games, they are all equal and all have to fight to become national champions. Eliminating all controversy over game placement. Another point brought up in this post season mess is the financial aspect. Many companies pay to put their name on the bowl and wouldn’t like to see the bowls go away. The way this would be overcome would be to keep the playoff games called “bowls” and let the companies still sponsor them. It would serve no change, and satisfy that complaint. The other fact is that this new playoff system wouldn’t be like the NCAA basketball tournament, instead of all teams being in a large tournament it would be a small eight team bracket. This makes people think all other bowls are thrown out which is wrong. This new system would keep all other bowls that have little meaning, but businesses need these games to sponsor and advertise their product. The last point is that with the playoff there is more competition and excitement, there may be more interest created and new followers formed. More people watching means more consumers seeing the advertising, thus helping everyone in the situation. Many more profits and popularity would be generated from this change, and it would be an overall win for everyone involved. With any situation there are multiple opinions. Some people believe that the current system works well. They believe the computer ranking system currently in use is the best possible method for choosing the teams. It is unbiased and the algorithm has been updated when necessary to make the system better. They also think that a playoff system would extend the season and make it too long for the college athletes. FavreDollarFootlongs spells out the top ten arguments most have against a playoff “The length of season, study time, playoff would leave some teams out, ends tradition, every game matters, and money issues.” (FavreDollarFootlongs pg 1). These are a few of the ten he goes over. All these proposed points that are said to be flaws in the playoff system seem to have simple solutions and don’t look like flaws at all. The worst of all arguments is that every game matters. This should not be how college football works. Currently losing one game kills your teams shot at the championship game. Why should so much be riding on every single game? Rather than ruining your chances to get selected for the championship, the playoff would allow certain teams the luxury of losing and still getting a shot. Overall the current system just doesn’t cut it. The college football voters should look into changing the way the post season is run, and champion determined. There is no reason to keep the current system when so many fans feel it is the wrong way to go about the post season. Maybe a few things need to be tweaked around with the playoff to make it right, but the playoff system is the best option for them to go to. The BCS system needs to be changed to implement a playoff type bracket, allowing a much more equal opportunity for the “best team” to be the champs, end most controversy, and still allow companies and universities to make money from games. No matter, they need to make a decision soon. No one wants to see another undefeated team not get a shot at the title, or have a team win the championship that doesn’t have to prove themselves against the other top post season teams.