Forget About the Playoffs, College Football Needs Some Major Work

I hate the BCS.

Shocking, I know. I don’t think this statement will raise any eyebrows or cause antagonistic responses.

With that said, I don’t hate it for the exact same reasons everyone else hates it for.

I hate the BCS because of all the attention it draws from the other problems facing college football. In case you haven’t noticed, the 2011 season was one of the worst seasons in college football history for a multitude of reasons.

Before we dive in, let's quickly recap the overt problems of the BCS—the issues everyone focuses in on.

Alabama and LSU squared off in November in what was supposed to be the game of the century. LSU won, and under the old adage of "every game counts," this should have meant something.

What did it mean?

It meant LSU was rewarded with having to play Georgia in the Georgia Dome while Alabama rested. Alabama got back to the championship game regardless, beat LSU and was crowned the undisputed champion.

Every game counts…unless it doesn’t.

Sugar Bowl Fiasco: Michigan vs. Virginia Tech

Next up in the bowl-game selection fiasco was the Sugar Bowl.

Michigan and Virginia Tech made the Sugar Bowl, making them the lowest and second lowest ranked at-large teams in the history of the BCS.

Boise State and Kansas State were passed over and were two teams that would have produced a much better game than what we ended up seeing in New Orleans.

Oh well. Why base anything on merit when you can base it on how much money you can make off of visitors?

You can read Sally Jenkins' fabulous piece on Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan if you want, but I'll save you the suspense: Hoolahan is going to make around $600,000 dollars this year from the Sugar Bowl alone.

As Jenkins points out, that's money from cronyism and support for big-name programs who don't play big-time football.

Why would anyone sitting at home want to watch a good football game?

Throw in a comical number of bowl games, an even funnier list of sponsorships and Nelly singing at you every commercial break and you can see we clearly have a problem on our hands. The final week operated under the guise of tradition and pageantry that the sport once stood for.

Even still, to all that I say, small potatoes.

The BCS is flawed. There needs to be a playoff and there needs to be a re-evaluation of the selection process. There does not need to be a Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, but none of those are the most pressing matters.

What are?

Let's start with Penn State.

The Penn State and Miami Scandals

In November, former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was indicted on sex crimes against underage boys.

It was then reported that in 2002, then-assistant Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky anally raping a young boy in the shower. McQueary reported it to legendary head coach Joe Paterno, who then reported it to athletic director Tim Curley who in turn decided to do nothing...for 10 years.

The allegations came out the week following Paterno's record-breaking 410th win (coincidence?). One weekend he broke the record for all-time wins, the next week he was fired, along with Curley and university president Graham Spanier.

The school put the welfare of the program over the welfare of young boys. Now, the all-time winning coach in the sport's history will forever be associated with acts of pedophilia and child abuse.

We've focused so much on the scandal at Penn State that we've forgotten all about the scandal that broke out at Miami in August.

Is the Miami scandal big? Only if you consider a convicted felon having supplied the team with cash for dinners, parties, women, liquor and abortions for over a decade big news.

You can argue that college athletes will be college athletes. If someone were to offer me $10,000 for an especially strong performance in my discussion class, I would accept. Therefore, I can't blame the players (more on this later).

No, the real criminal is Miami athletic director Paul Dee. You may remember him as the chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions, the one which handed down a two-year bowl ban and probation to the USC Trojans.

When handing down the sentences, Dee stated, "High-profile players demand high-profile compliance."

I suppose that only applies to other schools, as Dee was the athletic director in South Beach from 1993-2008.

And you can't excuse then-university president Donna E. Shalala. Here she is beaming over a check from the convicted felon Shapiro. With her are then-basketball coach Frank Haith and, of course, Sebastian the Ibis. Even Sebastian is trying to distance himself from the proceedings.

A New Level of Depravity

Then consider the ever-growing list of issues involving player safety and welfare.

For one, there has been an ongoing debate of whether or not to pay players for their services in college.

If Robert Griffin III is going to make the university money off his name by increasing ticket sales, travel to Waco, sales of his No. 10 jersey in the bookstore, enrollment in the university and an overall recognition of Baylor University on a national stage, you'd would think he should see something in return.

Recruiting methods and player behavior have hit a new level of depravity. USC had to forfeit Reggie Bush's Heisman and their 2004 National Championship after it was found that Bush's family was allegedly given a home.

Cam Newton's father, Cecil, sold his son to the highest bidder, as he allegedly sought $180,000 from Mississippi State for his son to play there following his time at Blinn College.

Why was such a talent, the future Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft at Blinn? Because he "transferred" from the University of Florida after he was caught stealing a laptop, which he threw out the window of a dorm in an ill-attempt to conceal his crime.

Either that, or he "transferred" after a series of attempts to cheat on exams at UF. Newton won the Heisman Trophy and the National Championship. Is this who we want as the poster boy of the sport?

These scandals are just the tip of the iceberg and I am sure all of you can think of more. That's the point: They're so prevalent that it is nearly impossible to sum them all up in one article.

Yet, for some reason, all of these issues are brought up and then never seriously discussed. What is discussed instead?

Yup. The B-C-S.

A Lightening Rod for Criticism

The BCS is a lightning rod for criticism—It wants to be. The NCAA wants us to argue if there should have been a rematch between Alabama and LSU and whether or not Oklahoma State should have played in the championship.

They want us to laugh at the number of bowls and their sponsors.

The BCS and the bowl games are easy topics for us to understand and they are good fodder for our holiday parties. We'll become contentious with others while discussing them but it will all be in good fun.

While we do so, we'll be ignoring the serious problems facing the sport. I doubt anyone discussed the Miami scandal over their glazed ham these holidays. It's forgotten.

Finally, the NCAA has come out with their new product to distract us: a potential playoff. Word broke hours after the national championship that a high-ranking BCS executive stated, in regards to a playoff, "It gets done."

Talk of a playoff is the proverbial carrot in front of the donkey's face. They'll dangle it there to keep us interested in the sport and distract us from the worst season in history.

Once again, it serves as fodder. Anytime the potential of a playoff is brought up, columnists and fans across the nation come up with their ideas of how to make it work.

That's great. But how about we try to figure out how to keep pedophiles off of campuses and out of programs first? Or figure out how to keep boosters and agents away from the athletes?

Then we can sweat the small stuff.