Dan Popper
Sports Editor
Since the year it was created in 1998, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has been surrounded by controversy. Not only does this corrupt system ridiculously favor the BCS conferences (Big-12, Big-10, Big East, SEC, ACC, Pac-10) over mid-majors such as the Sun-Belt and Mountain West, but in every season since 1998, excluding the ‘99-’00 and 05-’06 seasons, the BCS made decisions that some might classify as illogical.
In 1998, third ranked Kansas State was passed over by the BCS for Ohio State and Florida, ranked 4th and 8th respectively. Even though Kansas was ranked higher, it didn’t get to play in a BCS bowl because it did not win the Big 12 Conference. Now, one would think a higher ranked team would have a better chance at a BCS bowl game. Not in the BCS, folks.
In the 2000-2001 season, Oklahoma was the only undefeated team in the country at 12-0 the undisputed #1 ranked team. Yet, three teams at 11-1, Florida State, Washington and Miami, were battling for the chance to play Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, which was hosting the National Championship game for that season. Florida was chosen to play in this game by the BCS, even though it had lost to Miami earlier in the season. Now, one would think that the BCS would have a process to determine which one loss team would advance in this situation, instead of picking at random. Not in the BCS folks.
Most recently, in the 2008-2009 season, two mid-major teams ended the regular season undefeated, Boise State and Utah, and were both ranked in the top 15 in the BCS rankings. According to BCS rule, one of them was guaranteed a spot in a BCS bowl game. It was assumed that one of the teams would be left out because it would be too hard to justify a mid-major conference winner over a BCS conference runner-up. Utah, ranked 5th, was eventually chosen to play in the Sugar Bowl and 9th ranked Boise State ended up in the Poinsettia Bowl, a non-BCS bowl, against 11th ranked TCU. Yet, in the Orange Bowl, two teams ranked lower than both TCU and Boise State played, 12th ranked Cincinnati and 19th ranked Virginia Tech. Now, one would think that national ranking would mean more to BCS bowl games than conference affiliation. Not in the BCS, folks.
I could continue to give examples of how many times the BCS has screwed up, but that would get college football fans nowhere. My solution is to create a playoff system. One that ignores conference affiliation as well as money and strictly picks the 8 to12 best teams in the country based on the AP and Coaches’ polls.
Not only would this allow for a fairer process in picking a national champion, but also it would finally create a level playing field for the mid-majors. In the current BCS, the BCS conferences get paid excessive amounts of money to participate in BCS bowls in comparison to mid-majors. For example, each BCS conference is guaranteed an average of $18.3 million for BCS bowls alone compared to the Mountain West Conference, which received a total of $8,572,800 in all bowl games, non-BCS included.
As a college football fan, I am fed up with controversies, problems and heartbroken teams. All I want to see is a true champion.
