Until last Friday night, the worst idea in college sports, the Bowl Championship Series, almost had its perfect match up in the national title game, LSU and Oklahoma State.
Both schools were the last two undefeated teams out of the BCS conferences.
Each of them had tough opponents coming up, but most experts and the computer standings had the Tigers and Cowboys penciled in for the BCS title game in New Orleans in early 2012.
However, the games are played on the field, not on paper or on the computer.
At the same time, the polls will now have to figure out who will play for the national championship since OSU was upset in overtime by Iowa State.
Also, the computers do not take in account, the unfortunate situation the Cowboys were in coming into the game.
Earlier in the day, the school lost two of its women’s basketball coaches in a plane crash, so the football team was playing with a heavy heart.
With all of that being said, it still counts as a loss.
Now, the BCS is in a situation were they have to figure out which teams to put in the title game, especially with so many deserving one loss teams.
It should not be this way, and here’s how I would fix the system.
Let’s admit it, most of the pundits and fans do not like the current system and want to see changes.
However, a bunch of college presidents and the people who run the bowls, including the BCS are more worried about making several million dollars than doing what is best for the sport.
They seem to think they are better than the NCAA, who runs all of the other tournaments in each of the sports, which the organization sponsors, including the other football divisions, I-AA, II and III.
The NCAA needs to step up and take control of the postseason for the highest level of college football, instead of a bunch of people that have been caught for cheating the system like the former president of the Fiesta Bowl, which is part of the BCS.
A few weeks ago, I read an excellent book called “Death to the BCS” that was co-written by three authors including Yahoo’s top college football reporter, Dan Wetzel.
I suggest you pick it up for the holidays; it lays out perfectly why the BCS needs to go.
Here are a couple of changes that need to be made for the postseason.
First, the NCAA needs to take control of it, take the bowls from the people who could care less about the sport – they just want to make a quick buck – and implement a tournament.
Also, the tournament needs to expand to 16 teams that includes all of the 11 conference champions.
All of the other NCAA postseason tournaments in the other sports have automatic qualifiers for each of the league titlists.
Why can’t football, regardless if the conference is solid or weak?
So that leaves five at-large berths.
Instead of computer, media or coaches polls deciding who gets those spots, the NCAA needs to come up with a selection committee like in basketball, that consist of former players, coaches or others that have been around the sport, but are not working with a school at the time in order to give everybody a fair shot at the berths.
Also, the first two rounds of the tournament need to be held on the campus of the highest seeded team.
After those rounds, four teams will be left.
Everybody likes the Final Four format in basketball. Let’s do it in football too.
The “Final Four” could be held at the traditional cities that usually hold bowl games like Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix or others on a rotation like in basketball.
The games would be played with a Saturday-Thursday, or Sunday-Friday format. I know its two games in a week, but some teams either in college or the NFL already play this format on occasion during the regular season.
What makes the playoffs so perfect is the title is decided on the field with everyone getting a shot at it, instead of a select number of schools in certain conferences that raise the most money like in the current BCS system.
Right now, it is a popularity contest to decide who plays for the national championship.
Some people focus on the past success of a school and the amount of fans that follow the team in determining who plays for the glass football trophy.
Instead they need to look at the body of work on the field by the team, regardless of how popular the college is around the nation.
Let it be decided on the field, instead of a bunch of people that probably do not care about the sport except for the dollar signs. |
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