BCS Football: In the Wake of Selection Sunday We Defend the Red-Headed Stepchild

I'm sure that most of you did the same thing I did Saturday night. You watched the Big XII Championship game. Whether you watched it with a big group, a few good friends, or just at the bar, the conversation ultimately moved to Texas and how they're getting screwed (they are) and how a playoff would remedy all of this. One night later, Texas' injustice was confirmed.

In the past, I've argued, often rather strongly, against the BCS and in favor of a playoff. The same can be said for Lisa, BabyTate, Dan Wetzel, and almost every other person who has ever watched or written about sports in any sort of capacity, paid or otherwise.

What everyone has said in their arguments for a playoff are, at least in theory, still true. Yes, far fewer people would be screwed. Yes, the increasing stakes would make it thrilling. Yes, it would help cut into the rampant nepotism that's ever so prevalent in college football.

It's too bad that it's totally impractical.

The more I talked about it, and then the more I looked into the real logistics of a playoff, the more I realized that it would help alleviate, but not eliminate, many of the problems we have with the BCS and still manage to present an entirely new set of issues.

We have to understand: A football playoff would be nothing like the basketball tournament we have each March. Ahead I will lay out a point-by-point case against a playoff; not because I don't want one, but because upon further inspection, it is just not possible.

First, it would have to be no fewer than 16 teams. An eight-team playoff is great on the surface, but it poses some significant issues when looked at more in-depth. The most immediate issue is with the Division I Conference Champions.

There are 12 D-I conferences. The basketball tournament, which everyone seems to reference when arguing for a playoff, includes all conference champions. An eight-team playoff tournament automatically eliminates at least four, if not several more, of those teams. The question that arises is: Who is to decide which conference winners are not deserving?

Having established that there are too many teams to build the playoff via conference champion, we must move to the next suggestion: have a selection committee conduct it, as with the basketball tournament. Again, this is easier said than done; and again, it raises some real questions.

Who determines who is on the committee? What criteria will they use to judge teams? How do we know that the rampant nepotism in the current system wouldn't permeate into the new system? A new way to have the same problem isn't a solution.

It's been suggested that the top eight BCS ranked teams be placed into the tournament, but again there are issues. Nobody is going to argue that the Sun-Belt Champion is going to need to be included, but this season we actually have a case study in how the “BCS Rankings” idea is grossly flawed: Boise State.

Boise State is ranked ninth in the BCS. They've won all of their games, convincingly. They won their conference, in dominant fashion. Every time they've faced a traditional BCS team, they've won and done it in rather spectacular fashion.

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