The Great College Football Debate

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 recent quote, 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 the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly the Division I-AA), so you cannot say that it is impossible.  (I think 16 is too many.)

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.

Here are some major events that led to the previous systems.

1. The Dickinson System, the first to rank college football teams nationally. This occurred in 1924.

2. In 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 (sportswriters) 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, but 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 No. 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. From 1992-1994 the Bowl Coalition, then from 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.

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