I Still Do Not Like The BCS

We college football fans have had to endure the off season and as one who would not care if basketball and baseball were banned this is always a difficult time for me.  I have had only conference expansion (which in my opinion is only in a pause), police blotter reporting (hoping it is not from teams I like), fickle commitments of high school players and the pseudo scandal of agents (anyone who was surprised agents might be unscrupulous – please just sit down and color).  So now with fall camps opening in just about a week and media days in full swing I thought I would just spend a couple of moments restating that I hate the BCS and toss out an odd aberration of a Division IA playoff that occurred to me while I sat without power for most of this last week in Maryland.

Anyone that knows me knows that I have the same love for the BCS as I do for bird droppings on my car.  The BCS gives us someone to call champion and that team to date is usually at least one of the best in the land but I am not willing to cede that it gives us a true champion.  I personally do not think it is much better than the poll picked champs of the last hundred years.  Also in the realm of full disclosure I do not think my favorite team (University of Michigan) has been cheated of a championship by the BCS though there are some fans who could argue that for their team.  I however do think that the crap tossed out justifying the BCS is just a steaming pile.

The three tired talking points justifying the BCS just make my eyes twitch.  Claims of the season being too long fall aside each year as Division 1AA executes a playoff without any ill effects and lo when dollar signs appears apparently no one in Division 1A blinks at adding a game.  The claim this system is better than what came before is also bogus as the bowl system was not developed to pick champions rather it was started to fill hotels and draw vacation dollars from those tired of Midwestern and Northeastern winters.  Oh and the last of the laughable reasons that a playoff would destroy the regular season, well just give me a break.

While I made it clear I am not a fan of March Madness, it did not destroy the regular season in college basketball that was accomplished by all the little play in mini tournaments each conference holds to choose it representatives.  Why does the team that won the regular season not just get the bid to the dance?   I really do not know but to me this is what destroys the regular season.   20ish preseason games setting up a weekend tournament is just odd.  A playoff in college football would not destroy the regular season unless something as dumb as this was done in the late fall.  The regular season becomes more important as the only way to guarantee a slot in the playoffs would be to win your league.  Eleven automatic bids going out to eleven Division 1A league champions is as logical and fair as it can get.

Some will get a sour taste in their mouth stating that even the number four team from the SEC is better than the champ of the Sun Belt or MAC, maybe yes, maybe no but if the existing governing body for the sport says that these two as well as the WAC, Conference USA and Big East are legitimate Division 1A leagues then their champs deserve a shot.   If that is not the correct then make those leagues not worthy move to Division 1AA.  So that gives you eleven teams and unless you want a weird combination of byes that means you need five more teams to make a smooth playoff.  So the question is how to pick those five other contenders.

Since the bile of the BCS first filled my throat I just thought that you take the five highest ranked teams that did not win their leagues and fill the field that way.  I know that some teams will be ranked high because they started the season high in the polls and just did not fall as far as they should with their performance.  I know some teams not starting the season in the rankings cannot jump high enough regardless of their play.  I know that some teams will be higher than they should be by name recognition.  I know some will be there because they padded their schedule with teams that are nothing more than a speed bump (pay day games).   It is an imperfect world and no matter what is done you will not find a perfect fix.  So my power outage induced aberration is that you take four teams from the BCS rankings or whatever poll is chosen and give them a place in the playoffs but instead of the fifth field team coming from that poll also; why not have a lottery of all teams with a winning record and give at least one Cinderella a chance each year?   The 16^th seed would normally be stomped regardless, so why not just allow a team on the field that may just add something in the way of drama each year?