Proposed BCS Semifinals: Dome Sweet Dome Is the Only Way to Go

Last week we discussed the idea of using the BCS bowls to host semifinals, but there are other options. One such option is allowing sites to bid on hosting the semifinals, opening up the games to locations that have not traditionally hosted the biggest games on the college football radar.

Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big Ten, is pushing this agenda hard, with the goal of getting games into the Midwest for the semifinal and the championship.

Great plan by Delany—if they are talking about playing in a dome. Ford Field and Lucas Oil Stadium make perfect sense. Those stadiums and cities both host events, they understand how to put on a show and they are indoors. Heinz Field and Soldier Field should be out of the running based strictly upon the fact that they don't have a top on stadium.

Let's be honest here: being cold is not fun. Being out in the cold, for all the chest puffing and posturing of Big Ten fans, is not something that should play a role in deciding a game. A lower-seeded team traveling to play a game is a concept that we all should be in favor of; snow, wind and cold should not be.

This is not being about being man enough to play in the cold. It is not about who is tougher because they can go out in the sleet and not fumble the ball away. Simply put, this is about the top teams in the nation, playing a game, to decide the national championship.

You want to see both teams play their best games, not which team is built to slog it out in the snow or the muck. Just the best teams playing their best football to decide who is the better team.

Playing in a dome will give you that scenario—both teams playing on a stable track, cutting out the elements to play a ball game that should be their best. Since they are not doing home sites, and home-field advantage, all that should matter is allowing the best teams to play their best football.

The dome is the way to go, folks. I'd never recommend playing a game in September at noon below Virginia, and I most certainly wouldn't recommend a game above the Mason-Dixon Line after mid-November.

There's a reason the Big Ten does not play night games once November hits; no one wants to deal with that. It doesn't make the teams or fans tougher because they get after it in 100-degree-plus temperatures. It doesn't make the Big Ten tough because they do it below freezing. Neither one of them give you the best football that you can have.

College football can make the smart play here: give fans the best football. Play the games indoors or at a weather-friendly location and keep the football as the star of the show—not the weather.