BCS Playoff Scenario
Written by Nolan Thomas, Friday May 08 2009
I have been pondering what the best way to solve the college football National Championship because the current system is unfair, a popularity contest, and all about the money.
Wikipedia describes the college postseason as; “The postseason consists of a series of bowl games that showcase the top 64 college teams. Bowl games generally match two teams of similar standing from different conferences. Division I Bowl Subdivision (still widely known by its former designation of Division I-A) football is the only NCAA sport which does not decide its champion with a playoff. In the past, the unofficial national champion was determined by various polls, such as the AP Poll, Coaches Poll, and the United Press International Poll. This system was problematic because two polls often named different champions and the two highest ranked teams after the regular season were not guaranteed to meet in a bowl game.”
“Since 1998, the National Championship has been determined by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). This formula, incorporating numerous computer rankings and human polls, is used to determine the top two teams in the country. From 1998 to 2005, the two teams competed in one of the four BCS bowl games in a set rotation. Starting in the 2006 season, the BCS National Championship Game, was added. The game is played after completion of the BCS Bowls and the site rotates every year between the four BCS Bowls: the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Sugar Bowl.”
Personally, I think that the current system is highly flawed and still problematic. Who programs the computer ranking system that decides the winners that get an opportunity to play in a BCS bowl?
Why is a team that plays mostly big name schools given a higher ranking because of the supposed “strength” of schedule? Just because a small school who just happens to be undefeated in their division, but did not play against schools such as USC, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Florida, or Michigan type schools of notoriety, they get instantly eliminated from the BCS. That is a bunch of bull in my book.
In addition, concerning the “human polls” also used to determine the two schools that will play for the National Championship, again, popularity and money!
What happens when the top five ranked teams in the country are all undefeated? Three of them will get the shaft, that is what!
I think that it is about time that the BCS gets its head together, joins every other sport in college sports, and has a playoff for college football. It should not be as difficult as some people perceive it to be.
People always claim that there are two many games to be played, or that locations are a problem, or December graduations for certain seniors, or playing fields etc etc etc.
Te bottom line is that the current system is unfair and it needs to be changed pronto!
Therefore, here is my proposal, and I am sure some of you will not like it or come with numerous excuses as to why this would not work. Well this is
Here is a playoff bracket for what I feel would solve the current never-ending controversy surrounding college football.
You take the top eight teams in college football by their records and records alone, at the end of the regular college football season. The season usually ends in early December, so you start the playoffs on the third Saturday of the month and it continues through to the first Saturday in January. Then a true and well-deserved National Champion, who has truly earned the title on the gridiron and not through a popularity contest can claim victory for a job well done.
With a system such as this, there will no longer be any controversy, shared titles, or multiple teams claiming to be the number one team in the country. Only the one true champion will have the ability to hold their fingers high in the air and claim:
We’re #1”!
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10 comments
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i agree, i do love a good discussion...still looking for one though...:(
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Luke is doing the equivalent of pulling my pig tails Nolan. :) But I can't wait to hear your reponse. I love a good disucssion.
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Luke and Bama, are you two married? Because you sound like the Bikersons. LOL I am doing a follow up article and you can both read my answers to your comments there. Thanks for playing! :)
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But once again you are drawing attention to me like you normally do because you can't help yourself and once again I saw THANKS!
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once again hun, i'll point out this is not your article.
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Luke if and when you ever become an Editor here which I doubt, then I'll take your advice. Like I said before keep drawing attention to my work and away from yours because that's all you are doing helping me promote my articles.
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okay, first of all his name is Kirk Herbstreit, if you're going to try to use him to back up your lame argument you should at least get his name right hun. On a related subject, I think all of your comments perfectly illustrate the point you tried to make here, just because one has a brain, doesn't mean they know how to use it. That's actually the first comment I've seen you post that you were able to back up and prove correct, of course that was likely inadvertent as it was proven before you posted this sentence, but good call, and I'll try to take that point into consideration when replying to you, as you're right, you clearly don't use that brain God gave you hun. I don't know that my solution is the best, and actually, as far as this particular article is concerned, we're not even talking about my solution sweetheart, look at the author of the article we're talking about Nolan's solution aren't we? Give credit where credit is due. As far as the little insult at the end, you have once again proven your inability to hold up your side of a debate without falling back on second grade insults. The truly sad thing is, once again your little insult, assuming that's what it was supposed to be, doesn't make any sense. I have to ask you, is English your first language? If not, and I'm assuming it's not, good for you, you're doing fairly well with it for a foreigner, you should just let people know ahead of time you haven't yet figured out how to properly use all those words, that way we don't expect to much when reading your ranting and raving. On an off sports subject, you remind me a lot of the bartender in Boondock Saints, lots of sayings to type here, just none of them seem to make as much sense when typed and reread as they did in your head eh? You should try reading what you type out loud hun, you might catch all the errors. With all that being said however Bama, when I consider everything, stick to trying to fix the insults and your problems with the English language, you're a lot closer to mastering both of those than you are to getting a grip on any sports concepts.
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Luke just because you have a brain doesn't mean you know how to use it. Just because I happen to not think a playoff is needed which by the way is supported by people like Kirk Heirbstrat on ESPN dosen't make your solution the right one or even the best idea. YOu know what they say about opinions they are like well you know what that is you have one in your case two cause your mouth is the other hole.
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Seriuously bama, you should have your head checked. Okay, here's the problem with your pissing and moaning. It doesn't make sense. If the top eight teams in the country get into a playoff, or top ten, or top 16, or however many, and Hawaii, BYU, or Utah can fight their way through the bracket and win, then great. The same as if Davidson could have fought their way to the championship a few years ago, or USC could have held on this past March or whatever, they'd have earned that shot at the title. If the top teams are so great then they should be able to hold it together against these poor teams you're describing in a playoff scenario shouldn't they? As far as the sites and such, they could be the same sites as the current top four bowls are played. As far as the other bowls, they can continue playing them if they want to, just they have very little meaning, as they currently do. As far as the small towns and whatnot that depend on them, well this system isn't being designed to keep your friend's stores open, it's designed to make a more fair NCAA football postseason/championship structure. Also, Nolan, what are you gonna do about the December graduates? LMAO Bama won't let you forget that we simply can't do anything in January because like, 1% of kids in college might graduate in December, lol. Oh wait...aren't some of those bowls already played in January Bama? This plan looks solid, sure there will still be problems with it, as Bama here is showing people can find a reason to bitch about anything. As far as all that goes, well she clearly doesn't know what she's talking about to begin with, a fact made obvious by her other posts and comments. I'd love to see some good points made on the other side of this argument, but clearly that isn't going to happen anytime soon with Bama being the sole person on the other side of the argument.
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Nolan you know I'm going to pick this apart right? But unlike other people I'll be nice about it. First of all you still going to have to use "human" polls along with strength of schedule to determine who gets in this thing. And you still are going to have to determine what to do with the other bowls out there and teams 9 and 10 who will be bitching why they aren't in. There are a lot cities including two in my state who host bowls in Dec and Jan who depend on these bowls to bring money to their town. Secondly, being in the SEC the best conference in the country,the BSC was design to get the best teams in the country to play for the national championship. Not for BYU, Hawaii, TCU to sneak in because they played a weaker schedule therefore they deserve a shot at the title. It suppose to benefit the SEC, PAC-10, BIG 10, ACC, Big East and Big 12. Most of the country does not want to watch another Georgia/Hawaii match up for a national championship or for that matter Alabama/Utah. If you and a few other people had your way Ball State and Utah may played for the national championship.OOOOOOOO how exciting. lol As we found out later on Ball State wasn't as good as people thought and Utah caught Alabama after they lost their chance for a national championship. Had Bama done their job and beat Utah, you wouldn't hear a word about this. So, I blame them for all this trouble.