Now to the Bull Crap Series, errr, umm, Bowl Championship Series. Although its advocates will again argue otherwise, the BCS has yet again proven ineffective in yielding a true No. 1 vs. No. 2 match for the NCAA Division I football title.
Florida and Oklahoma ? Really? Seriously? These two teams are among the best and proved their worth in their recent conference championship games. But is this really the best pairing the system could come up with? In a year that saw Texas beat OU on a neutral site and, despite losing to Texas Tech ever so slightly in at a game’s end, Texas be at the mercy of a computer’s ever-so-narrow ranking margin? And Florida fell to Mississippi.
I’m not sure who the real top two teams are. You don’t, either. I’m very sure neither does a computer. As the quote goes, that’s why they play the game. On the playing surface. Like virtually every other sporting organization on earth. Even the Kazahkistani kick-goathead league has a playoff.
Well, we won’t waste further time going into the minds of those myopically opposed to a NCAA Division I tournament of some kind. Even the “bowl games are a tradition” and “schools will lose money” and “you can’t make the student-athletes play that long or late into January” philosophies. None of those arguments work. Never did, never will.
So, what if a playoff system did exist for college football? You start with automatic champions from 11 conferences (regular-season champs and/or championship game victors). In this year’s case, those bids go to: Boston College (ACC), Oklahoma (Big 12), Cincinnati (Big East), Penn State (Big 10), East Carolina (Conference USA), Buffalo (Mid-American), Utah (Mountain West), USC (Pac-10), Florida (SEC), Troy (Sun Belt) and Boise State (WAC).
You could averaging (the rankings of the AP Top 25 and USA Today polls, emphasizing which schools get the most place votes. Those are arguably the strongest, long-standing, most popular and credible of Division I polls. You add the top independent team ranked high enough (overall in polls) for an FBS bid and/or four (or five) other highest-ranked schools (overall in polls). So this year these get an at-large bid: Texas, Alabama , Texas Tech, Ohio State and TCU.
The ultimate FBS tournament seedings in a 16 vs. 1, 15 vs. 2, 14, vs. 3, etc. format would be:
1. Florida
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. USC
6. Penn State
7. Utah
8. Texas Tech
9. Boise State
10. Ohio State
11. TCU
12. Cincinnati
13. Boston College
14. East Carolina
15. Troy
16. Buffalo
Take into account the oldest, popular, most lucrative, traditional bowls and mix in some regional flair and considerate schedules. You can keep some of the best bowls. (I mean, really. The glut of bowls is ludacrous. More and more are added each year, some from inauspicious sponsors. Does anyone care to see the EagleBank Bowl? The what? Or the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl? Oooh, barnburner. Oh, we could so perpetuate the Poulan Weedeater FreeCreditReport.com Pomegranite Bowl joke.)
Rotate the remaining bowls as quarterfinal, semifinal and final games, all of which could retain and maybe even increase the number of ticket-buyers and TV viewers. One reason? There’s even greater incentive to play in such a bowl. Not just one bowl. But a series of true head-to-head games where all the conference champions (not just the typical, known powerhouses) and other top-ranked squads have a genuine (and fair) shot at an undisputed national title. Imagine that!
The younger, Decemberish bowls host quarterfinals on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday:
December 18
Buffalo v. Florida - Independence Bowl, Shreveport
Cincinnati v. USC - Insight Bowl, Tempe
December 19
Troy v. Oklahoma – Chick-Fil-A (Peach) Bowl, Atlanta
East Carolina v. Texas - Sun Bowl, El Paso
Dec. 20
Boston College v. Alabama – Gator Bowl, Jacksonville
Boise State v. Texas Tech - Alamo Bowl, San Antonio
Dec. 22
TCU v. Penn State – Liberty Bowl, Memphis
Ohio State v. Utah – Holiday Bowl, San Diego
Potential winners? Florida , USC, Oklahoma , Texas , Alabama , Boise State (sorry, Tech), Penn State and Utah (yep, you read right).
More bowls in Friday and Saturday semifinals (lowest v. highest-seeded winners):
Dec. 26
Boise State v. Florida – Capital One Bowl, Orlando
Penn State v. Texas – Cotton Bowl, Dallas
Dec. 27
Utah v. Oklahoma – Rose Bowl, Pasadena
USC v. Alabama – Outback Bowl, Tampa
Potential winners? Florida , Texas , USC, Oklahoma
Final Four of sorts/Friday, Jan. 2
USC v, Florida - Orange Bowl, Miami
Texas v. Oklahoma - Sugar Bowl, New Orleans
Potential winners? Florida, Texas (yes, I said Texas)
Championship game, Friday, Jan. 9
Texas v. Florida, Fiesta Bowl, Tempe
Yeah, it'd probably be Florida. But I guess we'll never really know.
