The BCS Is Indefensible

Almost all the talk in college football today will focus on three teams: Florida, Oklahoma and Texas. The first two will play for the national championship on January 8th in Miami because a bunch of computers decided a week ago that Oklahoma's 11-1 was better than Texas's 11-1 even though Texas defeated Oklahoma on a neutral field in October.

So much for deciding championships on the field of play.

The Bowl Championship Series -- as any right-thinking person, including The President-elect of the United States knows -- is the worst idea (though a far less important one) to afflict this country since the outgoing President decided it might be a good idea to launch a war against Iraq. Much like the outgoing President, the presidents of the 66 BCS schools, stubbornly and selfishly refuse to admit they're wrong. Even as President-elect Obama was calling for a playoff system they were happily signing a new four-year contract to extend the BCS through 2014.

The defenders of the BCS are so wrong and so off-base it makes me angry. Grant Teaff, the executive director of The American Football Coaches Association told The New York Times' Bill Rhoden last week that he "laughed out loud," when President-elect Obama suggested a playoff system. He went on to explain that the incoming President simply didn't understand how difficult it would be to set up a playoff system.

Oh please.

It would take about 15 minutes of common sense thinking and planning to set up a playoff system whether you wanted eight teams, 12 teams (the ideal number just like the NFL's Super Bowl system) or even 16 teams. Complicated? Sure, and figuring out where the sun will rise tomorrow is also pretty tough in Teaff's world.

Teaff, like a lot of other apologists, also trotted out the old line about how terrible it would be if the bowl system was "eliminated," by a playoff. There is not one person on earth who has said anything about eliminating the bowl system. Let's go through this one more time: a playoff would enhance the bowl system. Seven bowls each year would be sites for playoff games. Let's just look at this year's Orange Bowl (a.k.a. The Peach Bowl South). Do you think there would be more interest in a quarterfinal playoff game between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, Alabama and Southern California, or in the matchup between Cincinnati and a four-loss Virginia Tech team?

Friends and family will watch Cincinnati-Virginia Tech. Alabama-USC would sell out in minutes and draw a huge TV rating as would all the other playoff games.

As for the second tier bowls, they would be un-affected. Florida Atlantic, North Carolina State and Notre Dame could all continue to take their 6-6 records to bowl games. There's plenty that should change about the bowl system (like 6-6 teams not going; like about 10 of them going away; like all the tie-ins made prior to the season) but a playoff would not bring about any of those changes.

The best recent description of the BCS actually comes from a national columnist who was trying to defend it. He made the point that the BCS may be a train wreck, but everyone stops to look at a train wreck. Putting aside the point that more people would stop to look at an actual championship, the question is this: while everyone is looking, how do the people inside the train feel? How do the players at Texas and Texas Tech feel about the train that wrecked their 11-1 seasons and sent them to another bore of a BCS Bowl (Texas's matchup with Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl) and a non-BCS bowl (Texas Tech taking on an 8-4 Mississippi team in the Cotton Bowl).

Let's throw Boise State into that wrecked train too. The Broncos went 12-0 a couple years after proving their program could hang with the big boys when they beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. They finished ahead of Ohio State in the BCS's own rankings. But, because the rules say only one non-BCS team must be invited to a BCS bowl (if ranked in the top 12), sixth-ranked Utah will go to the Sugar Bowl while ninth-ranked Boise State gets to play in the Poinsettia Bowl on December 23. If you are looking for a non-major bowl to watch that game, with TCU as the Broncos opponent, is far more worthy of your attention than Cincinnati-Virginia Tech.

Ohio State gets to play Texas (yawn) instead of Boise State because even though it was 10-2 and didn't beat a team ranked higher than 18th in the BCS poll and played in a two team conference all year, it is part of the Big Ten and the BCS boys take care of their own whenever they can.