Jumping on the Playoff Bandwagon

Since college football is happy to crown their champion based on polls and computer formulas (rather than letting teams decide), my wish each and every season is for the worst possible match ups for the BCS. Any sort of controversy will do. Anything to stir the pot and get more and more people on the playoff bandwagon.

This season did not disappoint. There are no fewer than 10 teams could claim they belong in the championship game.

Ohio State - 1-loss team
Kansas - 1-loss team but didn't make B12 Championship game
LSU - 2-losses and dangerously close to a few more
USC - playing great and is probably best team in the country (arguably)
Georgia - same record as LSU with more dominant wins in common opponents
Oklahoma - best of B12, beat Mizz twice
Missouri - ranked #1 in 2nd to last week but still only has 2 losses
Virginia Tech - also only 2 losses and both to #2 ranked teams
Hawaii - only undefeated team but left out because of weak conference
West Virginia - another 2 loss team, ranked #2 in 2nd to last week

So I am happy that this season has produced some awful bowl games to watch (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta) and I'm happy that controversy may continue. I know that you can quickly eliminate a few of the teams listed above. But you could just as easily make an argument that Georgia and USC are as worthy to play for the national championship as LSU and OSU.

So after some of these bowls have been played you can look back and say Hawaii, Illinois and Oklahoma had no business playing in a major bowl this year. But with the dominating performances by USC, Georgia and West Virginia why don't they deserve to be considered the best team in the country.

The results of this year's bowl games are really meaningless. What matters is that the BCS system fails us more often than not. What is the most irritating is that a sport that is passionately followed and one of the biggest sports in the country doesn't crown a true champion.

So why don't we have a playoff? The most common excuses thrown out there are money and academics. I have never truly bought into those excuses though. Instead of having 1 maybe 2 bowl games of high interest you would have 7 games (in an 8 team playoff) that would generate significantly higher TV ratings, which leads to more ad revenue for TV which leads to monster contracts for the NCAA. The academics excuse I buy a little bit but I think the added weeks of games would be played while most teams are on Christmas break. The NCAA has no problem with basketball teams playing over 3 consecutive weekends and usually over midterms. Football players typically take a light class load during the fall semester anyway so I really don't think the academic futures of these kids will be ruined by a playoff.

After seeing quotes in a couple different articles (one in Star Trib) from high ranking conference, school and NCAA officials I get the feeling that it isn't the power of the BCS preventing a playoff, it is the power of the meaningless bowls. There is a LOT of money that these meaningless bowls get and that money would slowly (quickly for some) dwindle as they would become less and less relevant.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney - “I really think that [the BCS] is intended to create a 1-2 game, and it’s done that. It’s intended to make the games in the regular season more meaningful, and it’s done that. And it was intended to support the bowl system, and it’s done that.

Northwestern President Henry Bienen - "I like the BCS system because it preserves the bowl system."

Fiesta Bowl President/CEO John Junker - said he is intrigued by a plus-one but is deeply opposed to a full playoff because it would undermine the current bowl structure. “The bowl experience is a very valuable part of college football.”

What I don't understand is why school and conference officials are so in favor of keeping the current bowl system. THIS article in the Orange County Register (HT to Lake the Posts) outlines in detail how much money schools lose/waste on these meaningless bowls. Teams are forced into buying expensive hotel rooms for more days than they need and schools are forced to purchase tickets to the event and eat the difference if they go unsold.

"The ticket allocating is killing us," said Georgia Tech's Mayfield. The Yellow Jackets ate $400,180 in unsold tickets for last year's Gator Bowl. "When you have a season-ticket base of 25,000 and the bowl is making you sell 10,000 to 13,000 tickets, getting 50 percent of those season-ticket holders to go to a bowl can be unrealistic."

For a fan (especially a casual fan) these games are worthless and should be done away with.

I know I'm not the first to get on the playoff bandwagon (especially in blogdome), but I REALLY think the biggest hurdle to get over before we get a playoff is the "current bowl structure." Money and academics are not the driving forces here, they are the excuses used to pacify the public.

And don't give me the "plus one" scenario. If the BCS truly thinks thinks this is the best system and it annually gives us a #1 vs. #2 scenario then why add another game? Let's look at two seasons...

2005 - Plus one would have made USC play Penn State after they beat Texas. I think 2005 was a year that the current system worked (maybe the only year)
2007 - So this year you take the LSU/OSU winner to play who? USC? Georgia? Kansas? All three would be deserving of a shot.

Give me a playoff. If you want to keep the relevancy of the regular season then you keep the criteria for selecting your participants, with a little tweaking. 6 automatic bids for the BCS conferences. Then 2 at large for teams for the likes of Notre Dame when they finish .500 or an undefeated mid-major or Michigan after they lose to OSU every year. Or give them both to the SEC because they are so dang fast.

I know this will never happen in my lifetime. I'm sure that in a few years we will move to a plus-one world then after many years of that not really working maybe they'll move to a 4 team playoff which will of course eventually move to 8. But that is decades away my friends.

I Love the BCS

and by love I think that it is an absolute joke and sucks beyond anything college football people can come up with.

I've mentioned before that each and every year I want the worst possible scenario to happen for the BCS. I want the computers to put in a non-BCS school in the top 2 spots or I want a matchup of teams that nobody wants to watch. Unfortunately that will never happen as the system will always be manipulated by the human voters to get the matchup that everyone wants to see.

This year has turned out to be a great scenario for BCS haters. In the last weekend of games you have the top 2 teams both losing. So the next in line is Ohio State, who is probably overrated and from a Big Ten that most consider "down." They are IN.

Next in line you have a team that wasn't even in their conference championship game. So 1 week ago they were "ranked" higher than LSU which by my definition means the voters assumed they were better and all things being equal would probably beat the Tigers. Does that mean Georgia will get a BCS Championship game opportunity? I doubt it (but we'll know in hours).

After Georgie you have #5 Kansas. The Jayhawks are the only other team with only 1 loss. But again they did not even play in their conference championship game. Do they get to move up and play Ohio State in the championship game? Don't bet on it.

Then we have #6 Virginia Tech. The Hokies played today and beat #11 ranked Boston College. Surely if anybody is going to leapfrog Georgia or Kansas it would be the Hokies right? Wrong, they lost in a head to head game at LSU.

#7 is LSU. This will be your OSU opponent in Arizona this January. Why? Because that is the match up people want to see. Are they more deserving than the now 2 loss teams that were just ranked #1 and #2 (Missouri, West Virginia)? Are they any more deserving than USC, Oklahoma, Georgia or Virginia Tech (all 2 loss teams, three of which won today)? No, but that is the sexy matchup and I am certain that when the new BCS standings are released tomorrow they will move from #7 to #2.

This is good for all BCS haters. In the past there is often 1 maybe 2 teams who feel they were denied their rightful spot in the championship game. This year I count no less than 5 teams from 4 conferences who have a legit argument to be the team that beats plays Ohio State.

How much fun would a playoff be this year with USC, LSU, VTech, OSU, OK, Pitt, and a couple at large teams like Georgia and Kansas. Really a semi-final round of USC, LSU, OSU and OK would be amazing this year. But instead you can watch those teams in meaningless random bowl games then watch two teams that were "given" a chance at the national championship (not recognized as an official NCAA Championship).

UPDATE: Add Hawaii to the list of teams who think they should be in the national championship game. The only D1 school who has not lost and they won't get a sniff of a championship trophy. Maybe they should and maybe they shouldn't but they did everything they could and people will them that they'll never get a chance to prove it. Why not let them decide these things on the field?

Bizarro BCS Standings

As I state before, I want nothing more than the worst possible BCS match-up. Last week I called for Kansas vs. Hawaii, but this week I'm having a change of heart. Here is my BCS top 5.

1. Hawaii (8-0) - if they are the last undefeated team (and everybody else has 3 losses)...whatever, it will never happen. But NOBODY would care to watch the Rainbow Warriors, and that is the goal.

2. Michigan (7-2) - They had 2 ugly losses to start the year, including 1 to a 1AA school. I now want the Wolverines to win the BCS Championships and then I want Appalachian State to win the 1AA title (an actual championship by the way). Then the entire 1AA system can hang their hat on having the best team in college football. Wins over Wisconsin and Ohio State, coupled with a few key losses could see Michigan jump up the polls.

3. Kansas (8-0) - Now we are into the realm of nobody would care. I don't think the Jayhawks have massive football following (I could be wrong) and I KNOW the national audience would greet Kansas with a collective yawn. I'm hesitant to move them up simply because they would still have to beat Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game and that would count for something in their favor.

4. Connecticut (7-1) - Who? Another basketball school and currently on top of this basketball conference. The Big East is overrated this year but maybe the Huskies can finish with only the 1 point road loss to Virginia and earn a BCS Championship birth.

5. Arizona State (8-0) - Another school that wouldn't exactly excite the world of college football. But an undefeated Sun Devil team could actually be BCS worthy. They beat Cal last week and now have to run through Oregon, UCLA and USC.

Kansas v Hawaii - Dream BCS Championship

I am firmly in the camp of those who hate the BCS. I think it is unacceptable that the best sport the NCAA has to offer crowns a champion based on arbitrary and subjective voting criteria. It is really ridiculous, short-sighted, selfish and frankly retarded that they can't put together even a small playoff system. I don't care if it is 4, 6, 8 or 16 teams there is no logical reason to keep a system that automatically eliminates about 75% of the participants before a game is even played.

I'm not here to discuss why the BCS is so bad, nor am I here offering a perfect system to crown a real champ. What I'll eventually get to is that I am sad South Florida lost last night, and here is why.

Every year about this time of the season I quit cheering for certain teams (outside of Minnesota of course) or desiring to see the best 2 teams in the BCS Championship game. What I want each and every year is the worst possible scenario for the BCS. I want teams that come from nowhere, teams in non-BCS conferences and anybody else who is not at the Florida, USC, Ohio State level. Essentially want want the worst possible scenario for a BCS Championship game. As long we we get a game like Florida vs. Ohio State the BCS will still be around. NOW if the BCS computers would have given us Hawaii vs. South Florida, THAT would stimulate change.

South Florida is a Big East school, but they have a small fan base and outside of that state they won't bring a national audience to their television sets.

As I hope and dream of a season sans BCS, here is what we have to hope for...

#18 Hawaii - personally I don't think they are very good and should not be ranked. But they are undefeated and one can only hope that they stay that way and sneak into the BCS Championship game. This would be a disaster for the BCS. Currently #18 in BCS so jumping to #2 seems insurmountable but with enough losses above them it is possible. The Rainbow Warriors are really our only chance at creating serious havoc this year.

#25 Michigan - preseason #5, so this wouldn't be a total shocker when all is said and done. And they go against my desire to keep the big name schools out. But lets assume Appalachian State wins the 1AA Championship. How sweet would it be that the 1AA champ could lay claim to being the overall champion of college football. If a big name school has to make it this is what I want this year.

#8 Arizona State or #13 Kansas - these are the last 2 undefeated teams in major conferences who have come out of nowhere. Because in August the coaches and other ranking conglomerates didn't think these 2 teams were on the best 25 (or even 30) teams in the country they likely have no shot at a BCS Championship birth. We need these teams to remain undefeated but are not allowed to play for the championship. Why? Because most people assumed they are not very good to start the year.

Dream BCS Championship Match-up

#13 Kansas vs. #18 Hawaii

2nd best match-up - this scenario means LSU loses once more but lays claim to beating both schools while being left out in the cold.

#11 Virginia Tech vs. #6 South Carolina

Realistically there isn't an "OMG what are we gonna do" scenario this year. Hawaii needs to win their remaining games by 55 points and hope everybody ahead of them loses, twice. Arizona State is yet to play Cal, USC, Oregon and UCLA so should they finish undefeated they'll move way up in the polls and probably deserve to be there.

Time is running short and there has to be a number of upsets along the way but we can all hope and pray.