NCAA Football Formulas: Putting The BS into BCS

For those not in the know, there are a few rules to the BCS system.

The top two teams, no matter who they are, play in the National Championship Game. 

Six out of the final 8 slots in the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and Rose Bowl are guaranteed to BCS Conference Champs (ACC, Big East, BIG-10, PAC-10, SEC, BIG-12). 

What many people don’t know is that from the last two “At-Large” bids, one and only one Championship team from a Non-BCS Conference (MAC, WAC, Sunbelt, C-USA, Mountain West) can be selected for a BCS bowl, rankings be damned.

The BCS was implemented to produce a “true champion” and provide rankings based upon every factor, this conference nepotism does anything but.

These formulas are based on everything, therefore if everything is calculated then shouldn’t the rankings speak for themselves?

Why the need for conference affiliations and favoritism? If the BCS ranks Boise State higher than Cincinnati, Boston College, and Ohio State based upon every factor shouldn’t Boise State be playing in a BCS bowl instead of all three of these schools (one of which isn’t even a conference champion)?

Ohio State is also ranked No. 10 and Texas Tech is No. 7, but Ohio State goes to the Fiesta over Tech just because of conference affiliations! Tech v. Texas or Oklahoma would be much better than having them blowout overrated OSU! But, they don't want rematches in bowl games either, another problem in itself!

The same goes for a team such as TCU who is ranked higher than Cincinnati and Boston College; however, TCU is not their conference champion.

The rule in the BCS states that if a “non-BCS conference champion school in the top 16 of the BCS standings is ranked higher than a BCS conference champion then the higher ranked school will play in a BCS Bowl".  But, like stated above, this only applies to one team!

Does the fact that Utah had such a great season, mean that Ball State, Boise State, and TCU are less talented?

The BCS is essentially saying that the only way Boise State could possibly deserve a BCS bowl would be if Utah had lost a Mountain West game. And even then, Ball State and TCU would still be getting screwed. It’s impossible to distinguish these teams in that manner; they play completely different schedules and (for the most part) are in wildly different conferences!

To help clarify, this is exactly the same as saying that since the SEC has two top ten schools, only one team is allowed to play in a BCS Bowl.

Or, since the Big 12 had such a great season, that two SEC schools don’t deserve to play in a BCS Bowl. Texas Tech is being left out and has the same record as Texas and Oklahoma against the same teams? (That’s another travesty in and of itself, but it’s a whole other battle.)

Because their schedule has almost arbitrarily been determined to be the most difficult, Utah will go to the BCS and represent the Mountain West. This will leave out Boise and Ball State, both of whom are undefeated (just like Utah) and both of whom are also in the top 12 of the BCS standings. However, the automatic bid conferences will get their teams in no matter what, despite the fact that the Pac-10 had a losing non-conference record, and that the Big Ten and Big East are clearly having down years.

In fact, I would guarantee you that If you match up the top three teams from the Big East (Cincinnati, Rutgers, Pittsburgh), Big Ten (Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State), and Pac-10 (USC, Oregon, Oregon State) against the top three teams from the Mountain West (Utah, TCU, BYU) and MAC (Ball State, Central Michigan, Western Michigan), that the Mountain West and MAC would have better results against two of these three conferences!

We can even go back to Texas Tech again. If you are saying Big10/Big East/ACC are better than MAC/Mountain West. Then lets say the Big 12 is a exponentially better than the Big East and Texas Tech deserve a BCS bowl much more than Cincinnati!

The whole thing is just ridiculous!

Lastly, if this system is set up upon formulas to generate the best possible rank of teams, then we should just follow the rankings, never mind anything else.  Boise State is No.9 in the BCS; Ohio State is No.10, Cincinnati No.13, Boston College No.17.

However, Ohio State, Cincinnati, and Boston College are all getting a BCS game and the highest ranked, Boise State, is not!

Weird huh?

Ball State No.12 in the BCS, Cincinnati No.13 and Boston College No.17.

But, yet again, the highest ranked Ball State is not going to a BCS Bowl. The others are, simply because they play in a conference that is not “proven” better, but “perceived” as being better. But clearly isn’t this season as stated above!

If the system worked they would select the top 10 teams in the BCS Standings to play in the 10 slots for the BCS.  But, the truth is it doesn’t work, thus, why they are taking teams that are No.13 and No.17 over teams that are No.7, No.9, No.11, and No.12.

Does anyone really feel that Cincinnati or Boston College deserves the Orange Bowl over Texas Tech; or even for that matter, Boise State, Ball State, or TCU?

The truth is they don’t, as evidenced by the rankings that we keep every season because they are working so well.

The answer is that we need a playoff! College football needs to organize a little better, I love the game but it needs fine tuning. 

How about we get all 120 teams to start the season on the same date and then make it a 12 week season. If every team started on August 30^th and had one bye week in the season, even with Championship week, it would be finished no later than November 29^th! The first round of the playoffs could be beginning this weekend December sixth.

Let’s use a 12 team format for example.  We will take the top 12 teams in the BCS Standings, still using the BCS as a form for seeding the teams! Give the top four teams a bye week. Then seed the other eight teams 1–8.

USC v. Ball State (No.1 v. No.8), TT v. TCU (No.2 v. No.7), PSU v. OSU (No.3 v. No.6), and Utah v. Boise State (No.4 v. No.5).

Play all four games on December sixth (Week No.1); that will leave you with four winners and four other teams who got a first round bye, bringing us to eight teams total. 

Next, we re-seed those eight teams. BCS No.1 v. lowest ranked winner, BCS No.2 v. 2^ndlowest ranked winner, BCSNo.3 v. 3^rdlowest ranked winner, and BCSNo.4 v. 4^th lowest ranked winner. Play all four games in same weekend (Week No.2)(December 13^th). 

Also, to keep making money for the Universities they could associate the major four bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar) with the Quarter-Finals, for example: No.1 v. No.8 could be the Fiesta Bowl, No. 2 v. No.7 could be the Orange Bowl, No.3 v. No.6 could be the Rose Bowl, and No. 4 v. No. 5 could be the Sugar Bowl, with the seedings rotating every year.

All the other non-BCS bowl games would be played too and still make a ton of money for universities!

Now we  have only four teams left after week No.2 of the playoffs and it's still only December 13^th. 

We could still give the college students two to three weeks off to prepare for their finals, thus eliminating the "academics would suffer" argument, from the 13^th to the 31^st. 

On the first of January,the third round / Semi-Finals could start. (No.1 v. No.4) (No.2 v. No.3) And you could even have a consolation game for the losers of the semi-finals to be played on the seventh.

Then the winners play each other in the National Championship game on January eigth, the same way we always have!

This would still give us everything that is needed. Universities get money from Bowl Games, possibly more with this, because there are more games being played!

College students aren’t forced to play through their finals, they would have almost three whole weeks off just like they do now, if we started the season for everyone at the same time, and ended on the same date as well. The season would just have one to three extra games for just 12 teams!

January first is when the BCS Bowls start, January eigth would be the National Championship Game. Therefore, if the season ended on November 29^th and the playoffs started December sixth, there would be plenty of time to have a playoff within the time frame stated above.