With the college football season winding down, for the second straight year the national championship might hinge on the biggest travesty in sports today – the Bowl Championship Series. More than ever this year, it is glaringly evident that the NCAA needs to implement a playoff system, because right now the winners are not decided on the field but rather in a plethora of computers that watch about as much college football as Queen Elizabeth.
Of course, if Tennessee defeats LSU in this weekend’s SEC Championship, this will be an irrelevant discussion. After drowning Florida in the Swamp last week for their first win in Gainesville in 30 years, and destroying Vanderbilt the week before, the Volunteers have proven over the last few weeks to be well deserving of a trip to Pasadena to tackle the Miami Hurricanes. Should Tennessee lose, however, then the BCS again will show flaws at the worst time possible.
Last year, despite finishing second in both the AP and coaches’ poll, Miami was delegated to the Sugar Bowl, while Florida State, third in both polls, played for the National Championship. The Seminoles proceeded to embarrass themselves in a game in which their offense scored exactly zero points in a 13-2 final that wasn’t nearly as close as the score suggests. The Sooners smothered FSU, which left many critics questioning the merits of the BCS.
A Volunteers loss would resurrect all of these criticisms. Nebraska would likely slip into the Rose Bowl against the ‘Canes, even though the Cornhuskers are far less deserving than several other teams in the mix, including Oregon and Colorado. Nebraska, despite having one loss, played a far easier schedule than Colorado, and could not even win its own division, let alone the Big 12 Conference. The Huskers did have a quality win on the road against Oklahoma, but spent the rest of the year beating up on Big 12 patsies such as Kansas and non-conference cupcakes like Troy State. Colorado, meanwhile, has proven to be one of the strongest teams in the nation over the last few weeks after a 26-point demolition of Nebraska and after running over Texas in the Big 12 Championship. Although the Buffaloes have two losses, one was to a very good Fresno State team in the opening week, and one came at the hands of the Longhorns, who Colorado defeated last week. Although the Buffaloes might not be the most deserving team, they certainly should have precedence over the Huskers.
Oregon is another team that could have a major gripe should Nebraska earn the trip to the Rose Bowl. The Ducks are third in both polls, ahead of both NU and CU, and won the Pac-10. With its only loss coming at the hands of a tough Stanford team, the Ducks definitely should not be overlooked, despite a somewhat weak schedule strength. However, this schedule strength is derived by one of those pesky computers; the Pac-10 is widely regarded as one of the toughest conferences in college football.
One team that will be overlooked unfortunately will be Brigham Young. Despite finishing with an undefeated season (should they win at Hawaii this weekend) and the second most productive offense in the nation, BYU will not even get a chance to play in a BCS bowl, let alone the national championship. The Cougars put up more than 40 points in nine of their 12 games and 50 points in six of 12. Sadly, BYU runs into the same problems that mid-major teams in college basketball face; no one wants to face them for fear of it being a “bad loss.” The Cougars do play in a rather weak conference (Mountain West), but did as much as they could with their schedule. Is it fair that a school automatically gets eliminated from contention just because of a weak schedule, despite how well it plays?
The worst part about the Nebraska scenario is that the team had to do NOTHING to get into its current position. After being destroyed by Colorado, the Huskers went home to Lincoln to sit on their thumbs, supposedly completely out of the national championship picture. That is, until the scourge of upsets started going down, first with Oklahoma, and then Florida and Texas. Suddenly, the Cornhuskers were vaulted back into the picture, after doing nothing but changing channels. It seems ridiculous to reward a team for sitting, especially considering the outputs of the Ducks, Buffs and Cougars over the last couple weeks.
This simply proves the need for a playoff in college football. Every single other sport, college and pro (including I-AA, Div. II and Div. III college football), uses a playoff system to crown a champion. If a team wants to win a championship, they should have to earn it, not just be randomly picked by a bunch of inanimate objects. Until we get rid of the garbage that is the BCS, there will be too many teams continuing to get the shaft.
