It’s not nice to kick something when it’s already down.
But this is different. This is about the kid who’s had it coming for years — and every time someone or something is about to make the person look bad, he weasels out of it.
This kid is the Bowl Championship Series. It’s in bad shape. And this weekend it’s going to get officially kicked out — years too late.
Yeah, it’ll still be around until 2011, which is when the contract expires. But this is the weekend people will look back at and remember as when the BCS died.
The BCS has been around since the 1998-1999 season. And in most years, there’s been some controversy.
In the 2000-2001 season, one-loss Florida State got the nod over Miami to play undefeated Oklahoma. Miami was No. 2 in the human polls, and it had beaten FSU earlier in the year. But Miami had lost to Washington, another one-loss team in the regular season.
Three teams that had one loss — all of whom believed they were deserving. Florida State got to go and lost 13-2 in the game. Miami and Washington easily won their games.
A year later, Nebraska was in the championship game over Colorado and Oregon. The No. 4 team in the BCS was Oregon, which was No. 2 in the human polls. No. 1 Miami destroyed Nebraska in the title game, while Oregon handled Colorado with ease in the Fiesta Bowl.
While the BCS is now based much more on the human element, its main fault is that only two teams have a shot at the national title at the end of the year. And that leaves out other qualified teams, who might be more deserving.
This year, there are five remaining undefeated teams in college football: Ohio State, Boston College, Arizona State, Kansas and Hawaii.
Boston College will fall tonight at Virginia Tech. Ohio State always struggles at Penn State, and they will lose. Arizona State can’t keep up with California. Kansas and Texas A&M should be a good one. But even if Kansas wins, it loses at some point. Hawaii will probably win out. But that matters about as much as the Florida State and Miami rivalry.
That leaves the top 10 littered with one- and two-loss teams. Put it up to the voters, and there is guaranteed to be multiple teams who believe they deserve to be in the title game.
The voters can look at strength of schedule, playing style or a team’s record. And senior wide receiver John Dunlap doesn’t believe it’s fair.
“A playoff system would be a lot better,” Dunlap said. “You can’t judge a team because of who they’re playing — because some people are playing weaker teams.”
It’s tough to find anyone to support the BCS, too. When looking to find someone who doesn’t want a playoff, it’ll be tough to find it among the people actually playing the games. The universities are where you’ll find some disagreement. And it’s simple: money.
Redshirt junior quarterback Daniel Evans understands that.
“It would be cool to have a top eight teams make it to the playoffs or something — that would be cool,” Evans said. “I know there’s so much money in the bowls. I know they talk about possibilities of doing a hybrid, making each playoff game a different bowl. That definitely would be a cool thing to do.”
One scenario that looks very possible is the “Plus-1” system. It would essentially be a four-team playoff.
But I’d like to take it a step further, similar to what Evans explained.
An eight-team playoff. Still use the basis of the BCS from a couple years ago — the winners of the six BCS conferences are in. Then take the next two at-large teams. Each playoff game would serve as a different bowl game. The national title game could still switch between bowls every year.
What about the other teams?
They still get a postseason. Teams selected to the other, less prominent bowls, say the Peach Bowl, would still get to go.
It works for college basketball. It works for the NFL. It works for Major League Baseball. It works for every other division of college football. And if college football used a playoff system, the already popular sport could only grow.
