College Football: Is It Time To Go Back To The 3 Headed Monster Called The Polls

Okay, okay, okay—I can hear the haters from the six automatic qualifying conferences screaming (especially the SEC fans) "ARE YOU STUPID" or "ARE YOU ON CRACK?" 

Well, I'm starting to think that supporters of the Bowl Championship Series might want to look in the mirror when they say that in support of the sham the BCS has become. 

To be brutally honest, it is apparent that the BCS has developed into exactly what the automatic qualifying conference presidents were hoping for.  A cash cow for their respective conferences with the ability to pretty much control that the BCS champion will come from one of the "Major" AQ programs. 

Let's look at why the Bowl Championship Series was created in the first place.  By the way, it was not to crown a true National Champion, as they would have you believe.  The BCS was created to generate more revenues for the SEC, Big East, PAC-10, Big-10, ACC, Big-12 and Notre Dame. 

This was acheived by locking up all of the major New Year's Day bowl games into the BCS format.  Via this format, with the exception of four years all of the ranked mid-major programs have effectively been locked out of a BCS bowl game. 

Last year a one-loss Texas team went ahead of an undefeated TCU team, which many in the country felt was more deserving.  Earlier in the system, a one-loss Nebraska team, after losing to the Big-12 conference champion Colorado, went to the the BCS championship game. 

And to be honest, I think the system is so rigged that even if Auburn were to lose to South Carolina, they or another one-loss AQ team will jump TCU into the Bowl Championship Series championship game. 

Of course "THE Ohio State University" president, who admits to knowing nothing about football, would agree with this.  Why?  Because his conference stands to make tens of millions of dollars with this format.  Boy, now that is one thing all of the AQ university presidents understand, MONEY.

Now let's look at what would happen if they went back to the poll system as far as crowning a "National Champion".  By using the Harris, AP and USA Coaches polls, there could be a national champion crowned based on the final polls. 

The polls would not be issued prior to the seventh week of the season, and the previous season's results could not be used for ranking a team's success.  This would be fair as almost all of the schools in D-1 would have completed 50 percent of their season. 

I personally believe this would be definitely better than using any criteria for establishing a preseason poll.  As many AQ fans (especially SEC fans) have stated in their arguments against the TCU's and Boise State's of the world, past performance should not be used to determine the current standing for a team in the polls. 

So, eliminate any preseason poll used to determine a team's ranking.  The final polls released after the last bowl game is played, would determine the National Champion. 

With three separate polls, invariably two of the three would have the same team as No. 1, so this would determine the champion.  If they are all different, then you have a three-way tie and people can argue who was the best. 

Actually, that's no different than today with the current system. Heck, people are going to argue no matter what format is used and who wins.  But that's for a discussion in another article.  

Another positive result from this system would be the out-of-conference scheduling.  Under the current system, with the preseason polls having an impact on how teams rank, many AQ schools schedule FCS and weak FBS teams to insure they don't lose their position in the polls. 

Since the previous season's results would be null and void, every team wanting to vie for a national championship would have to improve their strength in out-of-conference scheduling.  This would give a better picture of just how good teams really are prior to entering conference play. 

Would this mean more results like Utah defeating Alabama and Pitt, and Boise State beating Oklahoma and VT? That is a possibility and would not necessarily be a bad thing. 

This would also provide a format for the AQ programs to prove that they are truly better than the mid-major programs (can you hear me "THE Ohio State Univ." president and all you SEC fans).  I believe that you would see more competitive games being played at the beginning of the year, and that is a good thing for college football.

As far as the amount of money being made by the bowls, nothing would really change, except that those not locked into agreements with an AQ conference would be free to invite who they wished, based on what would be best for their bowl. 

So it would be possible that a couple of the mid-major programs could play in a January big money bowl. The only losers here are the six AQ conferences, and I don't believe anyone is going to be crying for them because they have made their millions.