How I Can Fix the Terrible BCS

I hate the BCS. I despise the BCS.

What I want out of a computer: the ability to find my porn in under a minute, the ability find the Jersey Shore preview on You Tube where one of the “guidettes” gets cold-cocked in the face, and the opportunity to waste endless hours looking up random things on Wikipedia.

What I don’t want out of a computer: it having the ability to decide the fate of young men ages 18-22, who dedicate everything to make it to a national championship game. I’ve screamed about this very topic since the BS’s (oops!), BCS’s inception back in 1998.

How can a collegiate sports system that has March Madness, the Frozen Four, and the College World Series to look at for guidance, completely biff it so badly to where Congress is now throwing its two cents into the fold.

(On that topic, dear Congress, something tells me that you have better things to do than to speak about college sports. Seeing that we’re owned by China, unemployment is high, our boys our getting killed in Afghanistan, and your cracker jack Transportation Security Administration team inexplicably allowed their screening management procedures to be posted on the internet, you might want to think about your priorities... Just throwing it out there.)

Where was I? Ah, yes. The BCS STINKS ! (I use that word instead of sucks because right now I’m listening to a Tony Kornheiser pod cast and that’s all he says. I will go on record to say that Tony Kornheiser is The Man ).

In a sport where young men create Lost type drama every regular season from playing their hearts out, how can you let a non-human decide the postseason. And as far as a non-human is concerned, no, I’m not talking about Red Sox owner John Henry, face it Nation, he looks like whatever a “non-human” is supposed to look like.

But fortunately for all college football fans, I have come up with a play-off system that I believe appeals to all parties involved; the money hungry Bernie Madoffs who are worried that a playoff system won’t bring in as much money as the bowl system does, the people who actually decide the games on the field (the players), and most importantly, the fans.

Out of anger and rage, I really wanted to call my system "The Way That College Football Was Intended," but using the acronym of TWTCFWI was too long, hard to pronounce, and it looked too much like the Roman Numerals that’ll be used during the Super Bowl in the year 3578.

Instead, I’m going to call my system the NCN; No Computers Needed. This system will make college football better than ever, put more money into the pockets of everybody, and lastly, will add 10 years onto the life of Mike Lupica of the New Daily News because he can stop screaming about the BCS every Sunday on the Sports Reporters.

The NCN will be a combination of two current postseason systems. To quote Abe Simpson, the NCN will take “A little from column A, a little from column B” with column A being the current BCS system and column B being March Madness.

The Column A idea (BCS) that will be used is the idea that all BCS conference champions (ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Big East, SEC, Pac-10) get to play in the postseason. The Column B ideas (March Madness) that will be used are that the NCN system will be an eight-team tournament system and there will be two at-large teams invited to the play-offs.

Once the season is completed and all the BCS conference title games have been played, the six teams who win their respective conferences will automatically receive an invitation to play in the NCN tournament. To complete the eight-team playoff, there will be two at-large teams also invited to play in the NCN tournament. There will be guidelines for the NCN committee to adhere by when deciding whom the at-large teams will be for the 8-team tournament. They are as follows:

1.  Any undefeated non-BCS school which has won their conference title outright or undefeated independent team who doesn’t play in a specific conference (Navy, Notre Dame, etc.), will be invited to the tournament.

(For example, Boise State and TCU this year, and Utah from a couple of years ago, would be automatically invited under this play-off system)

2. If there are more than two undefeated non-BCS or independent schools left, a decision will be made on which two teams have the best “body of work” to enroll them into the eight-team tournament.

“Body of Work” will include things like non-conference opponents, Coaches Poll, and Media Poll Rankings, average win margin, difficulty of conference (or schedule for independent teams), and quality of wins. The teams who best exemplify these characteristics will be invited into the tournament.

3. If there are no more undefeated teams left, all one-loss teams will be considered (BCS conferences, Non-BCS conferences, and Independent schools). Items that will be considered for the one-loss teams are strength of schedule (or conference), average win margin, Coaches Poll and Media Poll rankings, and if they won their conference title.

(For example, if a one-loss TCU or Boise State team won their conference titles, and a one-loss Florida or Ohio State team did not, that would be taken into consideration. However, that wouldn’t be the only thing that the committee would consider).

4. If there are no more one-loss teams available, then all determining factors in number three will be considered for two-loss teams.

Now once the eight teams are established, the NCN committee will determine the seeding for the tournament. There will again be guidelines for the seeding. They are as follows:

1. A team who has won a BCS conference title cannot receive lower than a No.6 seed. The two at-large teams will receive the No.7 and No.8 seeds. This avoids the lower seeded teams playing each other early, leaving one of the potential Cinderella stories in the starting block.

Like when the BCS committee matched up Boise State and TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, which might be one of the dumbest things ever done in collegiate sports. There’s a reason why the term David vs. Goliath was created, we like to see underdogs take on the big boys, not underdog against underdog. Once again, the BCS Cartel misses the target.

2. Seeds No.1-6 will be determined based upon strength of schedule, strength of conference, average win margin, and Coaches Poll and Media Poll rankings.

Once all the seeds are determined, this will be the playoff format:

No.1 seed (BCS conference champion) vs. No.8 seed (At-large bid)

No.2 seed (BCS conference champion) vs. No.7 seed (At-large bid)

No.3 seed (BCS conference champion) vs. No.6 seed (BCS conference champion)

No.4 seed (BCS conference champion) vs. No.5 seed (BCS conference champion)  

Once the match-ups are set, the top four seeds will then be entered into a lottery to determine where their first round games will be played. The Sugar, Fiesta, Rose, and Orange bowl locations will used as sites for first round games, keeping the tradition intact of these bowls being important during college football’s postseason.

The semifinals and finals will also be played at a neutral site, but it will be the same site for both the semifinals and finals. For example, after the first round games are played, the remaining four teams will travel to the new Texas Stadium where the Cowboys play. One semifinal game will be played on Saturday, and one will be played on Sunday. Then in two weeks, the National Championship game will be played at Cowboys stadium. Now while I was in college, I needed an example of a new concept in order to remember it and understand it to the best of my abilities. Well have no fear, if the NCN were established; this is how it would look with this year’s teams.

Top eight seeds in 2009-10 NCN Tournament: 

No.1- Alabama Crimson Tide

No.2- Texas Longhorns

No.3- Cincinnati Bearcats

No.4- Oregon Ducks

No.5- Ohio State Buckeyes

No.6- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

No.7- TCU Horned Frogs

No.8- Boise State Broncos

So then here would be the match-ups and locations of the first round games:

(So this was my highly technological way of determining the locations of the first round games. I took the names Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, and Oregon and put them all into a hat, and then put the words Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar into another hat. I then pulled a name of a bowl from one hat, followed by a school from the other hat to determine where teams would play in the first round.)

Sugar Bowl

No.1 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. No.8 Boise State Broncos

Rose Bowl

No.2 Texas Longhorns vs. No.7 TCU Horned Frogs

Orange Bowl

No.3 Cincinnati Bearcats vs. No.6 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Fiesta Bowl

No.4 Oregon Ducks vs. No.5 Ohio State Buckeyes

So in a perfect world where Guinness was free, Heidi and Spencer wouldn’t have a career, Brett Favre would stay retired, and my NCN system would actually be a reality, the Sugar and Orange Bowls would be played on December 12, and the Rose and Fiesta Bowls would be played on December 13.

Now again going with the “In a perfect world theme,” I would have the neutral site location for the semi-finals and finals be in Municipal Stadium: the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium. I would have it there because it would hopefully give Jacksonville a boost they desperately need because right now the interest in their NFL football team is pretty lacking. They’ve had some blackouts this year and this would be a shot in the arm to the city. The semi-finals would be played on December 19 and 20; here are the match-ups that I think would occur:

December 19

No.4 Oregon Ducks vs. No.6 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

December 20

No.1 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. No.7 TCU Horned Frogs

Then, finally on January 4, the National Championship would be as follows:

January 4, 2010

No.1 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. No.4 Oregon Ducks

National Champion: No.1 Alabama Crimson Tide

I picked a couple of pretty big upsets, so I guess I’ll explain myself.

I’ll start first with my national champion Alabama; I think Alabama is the best team in the nation right now. They absolutely beat down the second best team in the nation (at the time) Florida 32-13, and the game wasn’t even that close. Alabama would run definitely run the gauntlet in my play-offs and be National Champion.

Now I’ll explain upset No.1; Georgia Tech beating Cincinnati. The man who led Cincinnati through 12 games this year, their coach Brian Kelly, left his team high and dry when he replaced Charlie Weis at Notre Dame early last week. I know Cincinnati came out and said that it wouldn’t be a distraction and they would play on without him. But in my opinion, it most certainly was a distraction due to the amount of people that came out and said that it wasn’t a distraction. In addition to that, they’re playing a team in Georgia Tech who runs the ball like it’s 1920 all over again and Cincinnati can’t stop the run. They proved that when they gave up around 200 yards to a freshman running back in their last game against Pittsburgh. Distraction + huge hole on defense = upset.

Now onto upset No.2; TCU beating Texas. This one might be a doozy for all you college football fans. I believe that Texas is highly overrated and I thought that going into last week’s game against Nebraska that Nebraska’s defense was going to punch Texas in the mouth and Texas wouldn’t know what to do. Check that one up in the “I was right” column. TCU has the same, if not better, smash mouth defense that Nebraska had and I think they would be able to stop Texas. It would definitely be a low scoring game because Texas has a tough defense also, but I think TCU would pull it out. Probably would be a 9-6, or 6-3 game. 

I believe that this system would be the best of both worlds; definite and debate. You would have the definite teams who win their conferences entered in the play-offs, and the element of debate with the at-large teams.

In addition, this system would make more money because the college football post-season would be extended, making the NCAA, the teams involved, and stadiums more money from ticket sales and advertising. The NCN would not get rid of all the other bowls that happen around or on New Year’s Day. They would have the same impact that they do now; they’re not as important as the BIG bowls, but they are a way for .500 teams and above to show off their talents to NFL scouts and get a feel of the bowl atmosphere.

Lastly, this system would make the college football postseason about the teams, not about a computer system. Ultimately, championships need to determined on the field, not by a computer. There needs to be no debate, if there are undefeated teams who don’t get a chance to play for the national championship, that’s debatable. What if this team got a chance? What if that team got a chance? The NCN gives teams a chance, so there is no debate, and most importantly, no computer deciding it.