The Painful Truth: The BCS Is Good For College Football

The Bowl Championship Series is the most preposterous idea in all of sports.  As we all know, the college football national championship is derived by placing the number one and number two teams in the country in a head to head match-up in alternating bowl locations each year.  Here is where the problem arises.  The said number one and number two teams are selected by an accumulation of polls which rate these programs on the basis of wins/losses, strength of schedule, style points, and although it is not a technical category in the process, name recognition. 

The entire process of selection is truly about as accurate as throwing darts at a dartboard.  The only thing that the BCS has been truly able to produce since its inception in 1998 is controversy and a public cry for a playoff system.  The cry has risen so high that the last several years, public officials have stepped into the fray of screaming for equal opportunity and the advent of a playoff system.  Yet, university officials, conference officials, and bowl officials scoff at the cries and in unison deliver the standard universal statement which we all can recite:  We have heard your pleas for a playoff system but in the BCS system, every game is a playoff.            

  The statement they present is a very truthful statement, in the sense that if you are in one of the BCS conferences, as one loss severely dampens your chances for a national championship.  This process, as flawed as it is, does make the regular season extremely exciting, especially added with the intense rivalries in the SEC, Big 10, Pac-10, ACC, Big 12, Big East, and Notre Dame (even though they are usually a joke).  But what about teams like Utah and Boise State who have faced the big boys and won, even though they are not in one of the BCS conferences.  The BCS has an answer for that as well, two prestigious at large bids are awarded if you finish in the top 12 and the appropriate dart hits your tile.  If this happens you are awarded a place in one of the BCS games.  Chances of winning the national title though, remain at roughly 1%.  This would happen if every plane for every team broke down on the runway, while each team's hotel flooded, and every player on every team was cursed with the worst case of food poisoning imaginable. 

The bottom line is the BCS is a terrible system which was obviously developed by a mad scientist basing theories on the universal phenomenon known as murphy’s law (everything bad that could happen, will happen.  As evidenced by the 2007 season.)  With this being said, it is quite possibly the best thing to happen to college football since the first Harvard/Yale game.  I know, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.  How could a system as fouled as the BCS be good for college football?  There is a very simple answer…..controversy. 

Controversy is what fuels the media.  It fuels presidential elections, it dominates television, radio, and newspapers across the world.  The simple truth is this, happy endings are very rarely good television, and college football very rarely has a happy ending.  This fact yearly causes every fan and the college football media stark raving mad.  This yearly controversy dominates sports talk everywhere throughout the season, and by the time December rolls around, the college football loving public is in a full fledge uproar. Yet for university officials, conference officials, BCS officials, and Bowl officials; December is a time for smiles everywhere.  This controversy dominates the sports loving media and the truth is: College Football fans everywhere should be thankful.  Thanks to the national controversy, ratings for the sport have skyrocketed, in turn causing ESPN to sign multi-year billion dollar contracts with the SEC and ACC.  A Big 10 network has been formed, and more conference networks will come, namely the Pac-10. 

College Football games are on everywhere every Saturday.  You and I can watch just about any game that we can fathom all in multi-angle high definition.  All of these wonders, unfortunately, are due to the annual cluster known as the BCS championship. This fact allows College Football officials the duty of becoming the villians to the general public and by doing so, will line their pockets by the millions.  This simple fact is why, college football fans should accept the idea that the BCS is here to stay until the cash cow it has created has been bled dry.  There will never be a playoff system as long as the sport continues to grow, and controversy will continue to fill the airwaves. As for College Football, it has it's villian, and it's the villain that you love to hate.