The BCS Almost Has It Right

With the clamoring for a full blown playoff, I know am in the minority. I want to keep the bowls and BCS.

The BCS is close, and with just a little tweaking, we can keep the excitement of the regular season, give all 119 Division 1 teams a shot at the national title, and still have the feel good stories like the 2007 Florida Atlantic team playing in the postseason for the first time in school history.

I understand the argument for the eight or 16-team playoff. We want an undisputed national champion. They do it in college basketball, they do it in the FCS (formerly I-AA) division, NFL, Major League Baseball, and the NBA. Why would college football want to stay with such an outdated system?

Because that is what makes college football unique. Quick, name an MLB game or NBA game last year, before the playoffs, that you had to see that didn't involve your favorite team.

What about a college basketball game? Well, there was that Tennessee vs. Memphis game, and there's always Duke vs. North Carolina, but that was about it.

An NFL game where your fantasy players weren't playing? Well, the New England Patriots made the last five weeks of the season pretty interesting with their historic run, and then, well, okay, every sports fan watches the NFL every Sunday, no matter who plays. The NFL is a bad example, but you see my point.

In college football, every week is a playoff. Every game matters.

The first week of the season, Alabama beats Clemson 34-10. Alabama catapults themselves up the rankings, and dark horse contender Clemson is eliminated before September. You had games like Ohio State and USC, Texas and Oklahoma, Georgia and Florida, Texas Tech and Texas. Week after week, there's another game with national championship implications.

March Madness in all its glory has rendered the regular season of college basketball meaningless—other than the drama for a few bubble teams trying to get into the tournament.

Even other sports like and golf and tennis are geared around the singular grand slam events, with the occasional national interest in golf's Ryder Cup and tennis' Davis Cup.

Besides, I like the bowls. I agree there are too many, but if you get down to 20-21 games, then up to 42 teams have the opportunity to feel postseason victory.

I may be romanticizing a bit, but when teams like Florida Atlantic or Navy can reward their players for a good season with a nice trip for their student athletes, then we retain the amateurism that college sports should be about. Not a money generating TV free-for-all corporate bonanza.

How can we incorporate the current system, though, to get a largely undisputed national championship?

We keep the current bowl system so college presidents worried about lengthy seasons are taken care of and the nostalgia of the sport remains in tact. You also keep the BCS computer rankings.

But with just a couple of changes, you create a mini-playoff of four teams.

Each year the two semifinal games are rotated amongst the Sugar, Orange, Rose, and Fiesta Bowl, with winners playing in the national title game. You get your four teams this way.

Any team ranked in the top 10 of the BCS that is undefeated automatically gets an invite. This would allow the Utahs and Bosie States of the world a fair shot at a title. With recent BCS victories and several victories over major conference, these "mid-major" schools deserve a shot.

But if you lose, you might be out. A top 10 BCS ranking means you can't schedule softly, and the Utahs and Bosie States of the nation might have to venture out to a road game against a highly rated major conference team.

After the undefeated rule, then you take the highest ranked teams in the BCS. If you have lost a game, then you are at the mercy of the computer rankings. You can seed the teams based on BCS ranking.

Therein lies the beauty; every regular season stays important, with each team trying to earn the highest possible ranking. Conference championship games like the SEC title game, likely to pit Florida and Alabama this year, provide another level of playoff.

Consider if we had a four-team playoff of Alabama vs. Boise State and Texas Tech vs. Utah if the season ended today. Wow, I'd watch that. And I still might get USC and Penn State in the Rose Bowl, and Florida versus, maybe, Texas in the Sugar Bowl, get to treat the Navy Midshipman to a well-earned bowl game, and still have to find time to watch Texas and Oklahoma in the regular season.