Is The BCS a bunch of BS?
What is the most exciting month in sports? Perhaps it is October with the Major League Baseball playoffs, or June with NBA playoffs. You may get juiced up in January with the NFL playoffs, and there is even a small chance that the month of NHL playoffs gets your heart pumping as if a one hundred mile per hour slap shot is heading straight for your facemask. And though I'd rather get hit in the face with a screaming hocky puck than watch the NHL playoffs, the most exciting month in sports is March and the NCAA basketball tournament. The NCAA tournament is a display of raw youthful athletics. The enthusiasm and competitiveness rivals that of any organized sporting event and with 64 teams (ah-hem, 65), the excitement is unmatched. So why am I ranting about the NCAA tournament and how March is the most exciting month of the year in the middle of November? Well, it’s because I’m sick and damn tired of college football.
To me, college football is a week after week display of exhibitions. Sure, there is the occasional dramatic upset that ends in a goalpost or two hitting the ground, but most games I watch are blowouts that don’t mean anything in the first place. Having not gone to a football powerhouse school, I don’t get grand satisfaction out of watching my alma mater beat the crap out of Middle Tennessee St. And really, what are we striving for in college football? A BCS bowl? Big deal. Oh wait, maybe your team will be mathematically calculated as one of the top two teams in the country, and you’ll play for the National Championship. And if you win you’ll be the undisputed National Champion provided of course the Coaches and Associated Press agree.
This BCS deal is nonsense that needs to stop. The only reason people are putting up with it is because there is so much damn loyalty to the system.
So tell me one thing - why can’t we have a playoff system? C’mon, it ain’t brain surgery. You take the top eight teams from your magical formula that decides rankings and play a three round tournament that will (what d’ya know) end right around the same time the National Championship game is held now. Sure, there will be dispute about the last team or two in the tournament, but who cares, they won’t win anyway. Anything’s better than what we have now where Rutgers and Boise St. could go undefeated and still not make the championship game.
Have you ever noticed that pro football games are held on Saturday during the month of December. This is because there is no college football hogging the viewers - they don‘t play in December! Play the damn playoff games in December! And of course you can still have the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose Bowls as part of the playoff system. Then the Bodog.com Bowl and Viagra Bowl can be played as sideline games to the playoff series on New Year’s Day just as they are now. And I’m sorry, I won’t accept any argument about the bowls bringing in too much money because revenue projections of a playoff system nearly double that of the current bowl system.
As much as I’d like to pawn this idea of college football playoffs off as my own, the truth of the matter is that there have been playoff proposals for longer than Joe Paterno’s coaching career (just kidding). Two arguments remain as the foundation for maintaining the current system with good old fashioned tradition topping the list. Anti-playoff folks claim they would be abandoning a rich history of college bowl games in lieu of quick gratification (isn‘t that the American way?). The second and much more practical reason, however less influential, is that college football players are in fact students and the season already takes them far enough away from school.
I could argue those points to some extent I suppose, but the truth is that the time will come when a playoff system exists in college football. Unfortunately that time is right next to never.
Give John Poole a BCS bid at poolejohn@gmail.com
To me, college football is a week after week display of exhibitions. Sure, there is the occasional dramatic upset that ends in a goalpost or two hitting the ground, but most games I watch are blowouts that don’t mean anything in the first place. Having not gone to a football powerhouse school, I don’t get grand satisfaction out of watching my alma mater beat the crap out of Middle Tennessee St. And really, what are we striving for in college football? A BCS bowl? Big deal. Oh wait, maybe your team will be mathematically calculated as one of the top two teams in the country, and you’ll play for the National Championship. And if you win you’ll be the undisputed National Champion provided of course the Coaches and Associated Press agree.
This BCS deal is nonsense that needs to stop. The only reason people are putting up with it is because there is so much damn loyalty to the system.
So tell me one thing - why can’t we have a playoff system? C’mon, it ain’t brain surgery. You take the top eight teams from your magical formula that decides rankings and play a three round tournament that will (what d’ya know) end right around the same time the National Championship game is held now. Sure, there will be dispute about the last team or two in the tournament, but who cares, they won’t win anyway. Anything’s better than what we have now where Rutgers and Boise St. could go undefeated and still not make the championship game.
Have you ever noticed that pro football games are held on Saturday during the month of December. This is because there is no college football hogging the viewers - they don‘t play in December! Play the damn playoff games in December! And of course you can still have the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose Bowls as part of the playoff system. Then the Bodog.com Bowl and Viagra Bowl can be played as sideline games to the playoff series on New Year’s Day just as they are now. And I’m sorry, I won’t accept any argument about the bowls bringing in too much money because revenue projections of a playoff system nearly double that of the current bowl system.
As much as I’d like to pawn this idea of college football playoffs off as my own, the truth of the matter is that there have been playoff proposals for longer than Joe Paterno’s coaching career (just kidding). Two arguments remain as the foundation for maintaining the current system with good old fashioned tradition topping the list. Anti-playoff folks claim they would be abandoning a rich history of college bowl games in lieu of quick gratification (isn‘t that the American way?). The second and much more practical reason, however less influential, is that college football players are in fact students and the season already takes them far enough away from school.
I could argue those points to some extent I suppose, but the truth is that the time will come when a playoff system exists in college football. Unfortunately that time is right next to never.
Give John Poole a BCS bid at poolejohn@gmail.com
posted by John Poole at 9:29 PM
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