Florida will play for the BCS' fictional title once again.
Another college football season has passed, and the Boston College Eagles once again found themselves in position to play in a BCS bowl game.
But in an all too familiar scene the Eagles fell short at the end of the year and instead will find themselves playing against Vanderbilt in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 31.
But who cares? Really? In this dreadful system, is the Music City Bowl any different from these so-called major bowls? In the end it is just a glorified exhibition game that has no bearing on the NCAA’s fictional “National Championship.” Would anyone actually feel better about their season if they beat Cincinnati instead of Vanderbilt?
But while the Eagles were thinking about what could have been, the train wreck known as the BCS was running its course off track and into the darkness that is the “championship” game. As it once again derailed completely it became as clear as ever that we need a playoff.
A playoff? What a noble concept. If only someone could inform the NCAA that every other sports league on the face of the earth actually has their championship decided on the field of play.
But wait, they are already aware of this concept. So how can they possibly be against it? BCS defenders claim it is because the current system makes every game of the regular season like a playoff.
Well if that is the case then all but two teams have been knocked out. If the regular season is actually a playoff the “championship” game should be Utah against Boise State. Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas are long gone. The last real threat to the Utes and Broncos, Alabama, was eliminated on Saturday.
But that is not what happened. Instead we see two teams who have lost a game placed into a pseudo-championship game. Utah and Boise have been eliminated. Who cares if they didn’t lose, the NCAA doesn’t want to let them play.
In the end it all comes down to politics. Teams with the sexy name get in while other squads, some more deserving, get left out.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that Utah and Boise State are better than Oklahoma and Florida. The problem is that they had a better season. They never lost a game, yet they can never be champions. That is just plain wrong.
Instead of getting a shot at the title the Utes play a glorified exhibition game against Alabama in another one of the BCS bowls; the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
It is even worse for Boise. They do not even get a BCS game, despite not losing a game. There was one at-large spot left, and that went to Ohio State. The Buckeyes will bring their two losses to Glendale, Ariz., for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, where they will likely suffer their annual January beating, this time from the Texas Longhorns.
Sadly, college football has no interest in awarding great seasons. Instead they throw their rankings out the window after the “championship” game is determined and then the bowls are allowed to choose their participants unless they have ties to a specific conference. That is how Ohio State got in. They were selected by name only.
But there are 10 spots, how can the Ohio State selection keep Boise out? That is simple. Yet another flaw in the BCS is the ties it has to these “major” conferences. Now instead of getting what may be the most entertaining BCS game of all with a potential match-up between #7 Texas Tech and #9 Boise State we get #12 Cincinnati against #19 Virginia Tech.
What? How did this happen? It is simple, the BCS considers the ACC and Big East major conferences. These two less than spectacular teams are now going to be forced down our throats on New Years Day while two top 10 teams sit home and watch.
So to sum it all up, this system has cheated every player on Utah and Boise State out of playing for a title. It has cheated Boise State out of a major bowl game and the money and recruiting ability that would come from it. It also cheated the fans of college football out of an exciting shootout between two top 10 teams.
But worse than all that is what it did to college football. It cheated everyone out of a national champion…again!
The Bowls will come and go and someone will be crowned “champion,” but there will still be debate about who SHOULD have been crowned “champion.” Does that really sound like a system that works.
These games need to be played on the field, not in with a computer and some polls. We need a true champion, but that will probably never happen. Why not? Because it makes sense. College football is clearly against that.
The players want it. The fans want it. Even the President Elect wants it! Please…give us a playoff and clean up this train wreck once and for all.
Houston Sports Examiner Fred Faour has an intriguing solution, you can read about it here.
Comments
You're an idiot.
I don't want to see Ohio state and Texas. Boise state got cheated
I agree, even in the NFL the worst team in the world sometimes makes it to the Superbowl. For all their play until there is a real playoff this is NO Championship series. Every game is part of the playoff....what a load of bunk. BCS shouldbe changed to IBS, The Invitational Bowl Series because that is all it is. If the #9 pick cannot make it into the 10 teams in the bowls....the BCS is just a waste of a name.
Mark Nailed it !!! This was the best article i have read in a long time regarding this horrible college ranking system.Boise deserved to be in the Fiesta Bowl and for the Record I personally think USC is the Best team in 2008 without a doubt and they will be in the BORING rosebowl AGAIN.Nice article Mark :)
He's an idiot? Why? He make several great points. Like, why does Texas get in over Texas Tech? The BCS rankings broke the 3-way tie and sent the OU Whiners to the Big 12 Championship game. After that, the BCS at-large team should have been based on the head-to-head match-up. Just becuase Texas lost and had 3 cupcake games left to work its way back up the schedule, they get the nod. Tech never had a chance even though they beat Texas. The lost so late in the season and had no opportunity to work their way back up. And why is Utah and USC ranked above Tech? Tech would blow Utah off the field and USC beat teams that had a combined 72 losses. It is a flawed system that puts too much stock into the high profile teams.
check out www.collegefootballsolution.com
This is the best college playoff I have seen.
I'm a Boise State fan and am furious about the bowl placings. I don't object to BSU not getting a BCS bowl game, I didn't expect it. But what I also didn't expect was getting shafted out of a bowl game against a BCS conference opponent. Time and time again the lie is told that "Boise should schedule tougher opponents" when the reality is, BCS teams won't sign on to play, the PAC 10 excluded. The only other time Boise can actually get a BCS opponent (and thus gain credibility) is in a bowl game, so I was looking forward to seeing Boise State play Texas Tech, the top two teams not going to a BCS game, and I was expecting TCU (10-2, #11) to be evenly matched with Oklahoma State (9-3, #13) in a regional rivalry that would attract a lot of attention. Instead, both Boise State and TCU were screwed over, sent to sit at the children's table because the greedy pigs at the BCS wanted to sit at the buffet table and hand out scraps they had already drooled over. It's time for another lawsuit by non-BCS teams, this time arguing collusion, a deliberate attempt by BCS conferences to avoid playing non-BCS teams, both in the regular season and in bowl games. Five BCS conferences (10/12/East, SEC, ACC) played 51 games against Div. I-AA and II teams, so don't tell me there isn't space on their calendars to play Boise State, Utah or other teams that might beat them.
The easiest near-term, no-brainer issue to be addressed is the automatic bid for the "BCS" conferences. If you're gonna do auto bid, teams need to at least meet certain qualifications to earn that bid...e.g. minimum top 10 or 12 ranking in the final BCS standings, etc. No offence to a rebuilding VA Tech, but that slot belongs to BSU. If you go further and allow more than 2 from the "BCS" conferences, than TTU would be in there, but this restriction doesn't bother me as much as the auto conference champ bid.
P, scheduling might be more complex...to prove themselves, BSU would have to consistently be willing to play away from Boise for games with the big programs, who prob aren't going to give them home&home arrangements....and not sure of BSUs willingness for that. Not that teams won't play in Boise because of competition, but (yes, it's about $) the revenue prob just isn't close. E.g Ohio Stadium @ 105,000 capacity @ cheapest seat $66, plus Club Level seats, plus concessions, etc....maybe +$10 Mill rev/game - more than a season for many programs = they offer non-BCS programs big money to come to Columbus to play....and teams say yes.
Boise isn't afraid of playing 50% or 60% of their BCS teams on the road, they're just not willing to play 100% of their BCS games on the road. The problem is, BCS teams are afraid to play on the road - it has NOTHING to do with the size of Boise's stadium or audience size. Would anyone take the New York Yankees seriously if they demanded 120 of their 162 games be played at home? No, they wouldn't, so why should Boise or anyone else have to put up with p*ssiness of BCS teams wanting 8 home games out of twelve because the BCS teams are too afraid of travelling? And for the record, I only posted my first comment once, this site's script screwed up and posted it three times. The problem isn't money, it's cowardice - Boise State and many others would show up, but the BCS teams won't. Cripes, even I-AA teams like Appalachian State are getting turned down by BCS teams AT HOME because of what happened to Michigan. And you don't consider that to be a matter of fear and gutlessness?
Isn't Boston College the team that fled to the ACC so they could take advantage of a league championship game and win their way into a BCS bowl game? Now they are unhappy. Poor babies. Maybe if they had stayed in the Big East they would be playing in the Orange Bowl. I suppose the football playoffs would consist of league champions as well as at large bids just to give BC, and schools like Boise State who plays a cupcake schedule, more opportunities.
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