The BCS is AWFUL

by Coast
New sabres podcast

This is my one and only college football blog of the year. Everyone who reads this blog is a football fan. We all love watching football, talking about football, and everything else that has to do with the sport. Division I College Football is the second best league that we have in the sport. It makes me so mad that something that could be so exciting has a post season system that is so terrible. The bowl season this year was awful. I remember one and only one exciting bowl game (Michigan vs. Florida) and who really cares about the Cotton Bowl?

The real disaster is the BCS. This year is a perfect example as to why it is a complete joke, even more so than when Auburn went undefeated in the SEC and didn't even get a chance to play for a championship. How do you go undefeated in the SEC and not even get a shot?

This year, the first BCS game on New Years Day, the Rose Bowl, featured USC vs. Illinois and then later that day Georgia played Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. These games were barn burners with final scores 49-17 and 41-10 respectively in favor of USC and Georgia. Who thought Illinois even belonged in a BCS game in the first place? They didn't even win their conference and their conference is the Big 10. I know Georgia didn't either, but let's face it, there are probably 3 or 4 teams from the SEC that were way better than Illinois and could have even won the Big 10. Then in the Fiesta Bowl, West Virginia routed Oklahoma 48-28 in another game that was essentially over at half time. Kansas beat Va Tech in the Orange Bowl 24-21 but it was 24-14 until a late garbage time touchdown, another bad game. This brings me to another point. Kansas did not win the Big 12. They did not even play in the conference championship game. Missouri easily beat Kansas and only lost to Oklahoma this year (twice) including in the conference championship game. Yet, somehow Kansas gets a BCS bid and Missouri doesn't. Explanation?? Finally, the BCS National Title game. Ohio State embarrassed yet again 38-24 ending the most pathetic BCS season of them all. Combined margin of victory: 200-100. Worst off all we have no idea who the best team in the country is.

The solution seems so simple to me. The fact that college football doesn't have a playoff system is mind boggling in the first place especially when there is such an easy solution. The BCS Conferences are the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, and SEC. Each conference winner needs to be rewarded and would get an automatic bid to the eight team playoff. That leaves openings for two at large teams. Had this system been in place this year, the teams most likely involved would have been Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC, LSU (conference champions), Georgia (at large), and Missouri(at large). Yeah, Hawaii would have a complaint but when you have the worst SOS(strength of schedule) in the nation and you play in the WAC, you aren't getting any respect from me. The four quarterfinal games can be the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. The other bowl games will still exist as well for teams not in the playoff. This system is just so easy to switch to but I guess it makes too much sense. The seeds can be determined by the pollsters or even the computers for all you BCS fans. This is how things probably would have shaken out this year:

1. OSU
2. LSU
3. Va Tech
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. USC
8. West Virginia

(These are 8 of the top 9 teams in the BCS rankings, only team left out is Kansas who would have a complaint, but I think we all can agree they aren't national championship material.)

Quarterfinals at the four BCS Bowl Venues:
Osu vs. WVU
LSU vs. USC
Va. Tech vs. Missouri
Oklahoma vs. Georgia

These games seem a lot more intriguing than the games that were actually played, although LSU and USC get stuck playing each other in the first round...that is what happens when you lose to Stanford at home.

Semifinals:
WVU vs. USC, Georgia vs. Missouri

National Championship Game:
USC vs. Georgia

How much better does this game seem like it would be than Ohio State vs. LSU?? The match ups the whole way through the playoffs seem exciting. Furthermore, more games equals more money, so everyone wins. I don't know who is running the show in College Football but a change is needed real soon. I might hate the sport completely if I have to watch another bowl season like the one this year.