BOGUS COMPUTERIZED SHIT NEEDS TO BE DUMPED....
Sword of Troy
As much as I disdain the money-grubbing Bowl Championship Series
format and want the Division I champion to be decided by a playoff
system, it is a sensitive issue.
Both sides of the argument have good points.
On the one hand, the Division I football regular season remains more
meaningful and entertaining than any other in the NCAA. On the other,
there hasn’t been a legitimate national champion in years.
Computers can’t do the trick. The best regular-season teams in every
sport lose in the playoffs all the time.
The system needs to change.
But building the BCS playoffs is thorny. You don’t want to water down
the regular season and you also want to find a way to involve the
absolute best teams in the nation.
In this year’s BCS, it’s nice to see all the undefeated teams
involved. But a Georgia Tech-Iowa matchup? Please.
Here’s one of the greatest flaws. All the major conferences get their
automatic bids no matter how bad the league was this season.
The ACC does not deserve a berth this year. Georgia Tech,
congratulations. You’ve had a dandy season. You also lost to Georgia
two weeks ago. Eek.
Give the ACC an additional prestigious bowl berth and find a way to
work someone else in because running through the league during a weak
year doesn’t seem like enough to me.
In my perfect playoff bracket, the Yellow Jackets wouldn’t be favored
over the likes of Boise State and TCU.
And in my mind, money and money-grubbers aside, the perfect system
would be eight teams and three weeks with the four current BCS bowls —
Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta — hosting the semifinals, championship
and consolation game.
That’d make for a very exclusive field which doesn’t diminish the
meaning of the regular season. The dollars would flow and for once,
the Division I national football champ would be decided on the field.
The lower levels get it right, just like Division I basketball. A
tournament is the right way to go without question. The possibility of
upsets is what makes those formats so interesting.
Here’s a local example. If it was all based on the regular season in
Division III, Centennial Conference winner Johns Hopkins doesn’t make
its magical run to the national quarterfinals.
The Blue Jays upended two heavily favored undefeated teams before
seeing their run end last weekend.
If this was Division I, those two unbeatens are playing in the Rose
Bowl or Fiesta Bowl against another overrated squad while the Blue
Jays are relegated to something like the Holiday Bowl.
If basketball employed a BCS format instead of March Madness, eighth-
seeded Villanova never gets the chance to play Georgetown for the
title and doesn’t come up with one of the greatest upsets in sports
history.
All BCS executive director Bill Hancock and BCS coordinator John
Swofford have to do is look at the money-maker that is the NCAA
basketball tournament.
It seems like the rest of the nation’s sports hibernate for those
three weeks, and the focus turns to the college court for the month
preceding the madness.
Professional football has far surpassed all other sports in terms of
popularity across America.
There’s no reason to think the public would be turned off by a college
football tournament. Football has become this nation’s favorite sport
and it would make sense that sports fans everywhere would be
captivated by the best facing the best for the national championship.
I understand the fear that if the BCS turns to a playoff system, that
it would just expand and grow as the NCAA basketball tournament has.
But that growth has brought success and maybe a change would only be
for the better.
Reach staff writer Josh Land at 410-857-7875 or
josh.land@carrollcounty