College Football Bowl Insanity

I've been trying to apply logic to the whole BCS mess.  It's like oil and water, it doesn't mix.

Clearly, I've been approaching this all wrong. It's not about finding out who the true "National Champion" of college football is. It's not about ensuring a deserving team is awarded an equally deserving bowl match-up. It's not even about rewarding teams for having a quality season. It's not any of those things.

It's about money, the ability to draw fans, both in person and for television ratings. It's more about your school's name and conference affiliation than it is how good your football team is. Yes, I finally "get it" but I must say, I don't like what I see. It's long past time to revamp the college football post season!

I've analyzed the upcoming bowl games and some really hard-to-fathom things immediately come to mind.

BCS BOWL GAMES

I've made my feelings known about the BCS is previous rants.  I think it should be scrapped in favor of a fair, just and inclusive playoff system.  However, if the BCS remains in place some changes need to be made, starting with the automatic qualifier bids.

If these are the premier bowl games showcasing the top teams in the country, then explain to me the logic of Connecticut (8-4) showing up in one of those slots.  I know, the BIG EAST "earns" an automatic qualifier slot each season.  That's the problem.  

More often than not, teams from the BIG EAST are not among the premier teams in the country. Not picking on the BIG EAST here, I'm saying automatic qualifiers should be done away with and only the 10 best teams get selected.  If any conference has a down year, a mediocre winner of that conference would not be deserving of a BCS Bowl bid.

WHAT WE'RE THEY THINKING?

TEMPLE (8-4):  Someone needs to explain the logic behind not awarding the Owls a bowl game of any kind. Adding insult to injury is the fact that Temple routed UCONN earlier in the season. How do you send UCONN to a BCS bowl game and leave Temple on the outside looking in?

BOISE STATE (11-1): Kyle Brotzman pushes a short, what would have been a game winning field goal, sending Boise State to a shocking defeat.  A second before that kick, the Broncos were in the National Championship Game discussion.  Now, Boise State is headed to the MAACO BOWL against Utah. Quite a drop for a team most would agree is among the best in the country.

NEVADA (12-1): The Wolfpack did what no other team was able to do this season - beat Boise State. They routed every other team on their schedule (including California) with the exception of a mid-season road game loss to a good Hawaii team.  This is one tough team who has proven themselves on the field.  Their reward?  The KRAFT FIGHT HUNGER BOWL against Boston College (7-5).  Is that really the best we could do for Nevada based on the season they had?

MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE (6-6):  Really?  A bowl game?  Look at their schedule results and get back to me again with how they get a bowl bid.  Then answer the question above regarding Temple. Help make sense of this for me.

6-6 TEAMS: As of right now, there are 13 teams with 6 wins going to bowl games.  Each of them got to the magic six win mark by playing FCS teams. Special mention goes to Syracuse who ended 7-5 but had to defeat two FCS teams to do it. Games against FCS teams should not count toward a 6 win season.

I have a problem with 6-6 teams going to bowl games anyway but if that's what we're going to do, those wins ought to be against competition from the same division.

WHY NOT US?:  

In the end, every "bowl eligible" team was rewarded a bowl game with the exception of the aforementioned Temple and fellow MAC school, Western Michigan. If we're committed to rewarding mediocrity, couldn't we have fit Temple and Western in the mix somehow?  There are already too many bowl games, what's one more so everyone that met the criteria gets in.  Instead, we single out two schools and tell them "too bad".   

WHAT TO DO?

Hopefully, this illustrates some of the many flaws (there are more) with a current system that is crying out to be changed.  A playoff solution would require a lot of thought and there would be many details to work out but it can and should be done!

Start by eliminating all games against FCS teams.  Go back to no more than 11 regular season games and use the "bowl games" as first and second round playoff games.  Seed all conference champions and a similar number of deserving at large bid teams to fill out the playoff bracket.  Let them play and determine who the best team is where is should be decided on the field.

Let the remainder of teams that had winning seasons but didn't qualify for the playoff play in other bowl games as their reward.

Most of all, get rid of the process that selects who will participate in the National Championship Game in favor of a playoff where teams earn their way to the title game instead of being selected by committees and computers.