'Tis the eason for change
By: Thomas Lawrence
Issue date: 12/5/07 Section: Sports
For the love of God, will somebody please find the creator of the Bowl Championship Series, give him a firm, disrespectful slap to the face and tell him to rewrite history and create a logical playoff format for college football.
Another weekend has gone by in the NCAA Football season, the final one, for that matter, and once again the BCS picture has been flipped upside down. No. 1 Missouri lost to the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big XII championship game, and the No. 2 West Virginia Mountaineers went down at home to the heavy underdog Pittsburgh Panthers, who benefitted from an injury to West Virginia quarterback Pat White.
Now, the title game will be between the Ohio State Buckeyes, who while they have an excellent record at 11-1, had to play in the Big 10 - a conference much weaker than the Pac-10, SEC or Big East, and the Georgia Bulldogs: a two-loss team.
The only reasonable solution to this constant mess comparable only with the tattered remnants of the Middle East is to incorporate an eight team (or at least four, to start with) playoff format in which everyone who deserves it, and yes, this includes Hawaii, will get a chance to win a national title.
Of course, for those who will moan about ruining the tradition of the college football bowl system, there is an obvious answer. The playoff games can be in home-away format up to the title game, and from that point the consolation games can become the former BCS headliners like the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl.
Just imagine what a playoff format could do this season, for the aforementioned Hawaii Rainbow Warriors of the WAC, for the red-hot USC team that nobody in their right mind would want a piece of right now, or even those insufferable LSU Tigers who "haven't lost in regulation." Can we please deport Les Miles?
The last couple of seasons, the BCS outrage seemed to have calmed down because the system had worked relatively smoothly - as the two top teams were quite obvious. However, this season has provided the most bizarre parity of them all - a tangled web of teams not quite good enough to rise up and be the best in the regular season.
The closest we've seen to this was two years ago, when USC was left out of the title Sugar Bowl game and was forced to only share a championship with the LSU Tigers. Sharing a championship is like winning an olympic medal and then having it literally torched in half and the larger half given to the Lithuanian team.
A little dramatic, I know, but that doesn't alter the ridiculousness of the system!
I understand that a change to a system of such an enormous sports conglommerate like the NCAA would take some serious time. But the sooner things get moving in this direction, the better it will be for such an excellent, inspiring, pure sport that's getting undermined by a ludicrous system.
Another weekend has gone by in the NCAA Football season, the final one, for that matter, and once again the BCS picture has been flipped upside down. No. 1 Missouri lost to the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big XII championship game, and the No. 2 West Virginia Mountaineers went down at home to the heavy underdog Pittsburgh Panthers, who benefitted from an injury to West Virginia quarterback Pat White.
Now, the title game will be between the Ohio State Buckeyes, who while they have an excellent record at 11-1, had to play in the Big 10 - a conference much weaker than the Pac-10, SEC or Big East, and the Georgia Bulldogs: a two-loss team.
The only reasonable solution to this constant mess comparable only with the tattered remnants of the Middle East is to incorporate an eight team (or at least four, to start with) playoff format in which everyone who deserves it, and yes, this includes Hawaii, will get a chance to win a national title.
Of course, for those who will moan about ruining the tradition of the college football bowl system, there is an obvious answer. The playoff games can be in home-away format up to the title game, and from that point the consolation games can become the former BCS headliners like the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl.
Just imagine what a playoff format could do this season, for the aforementioned Hawaii Rainbow Warriors of the WAC, for the red-hot USC team that nobody in their right mind would want a piece of right now, or even those insufferable LSU Tigers who "haven't lost in regulation." Can we please deport Les Miles?
The last couple of seasons, the BCS outrage seemed to have calmed down because the system had worked relatively smoothly - as the two top teams were quite obvious. However, this season has provided the most bizarre parity of them all - a tangled web of teams not quite good enough to rise up and be the best in the regular season.
The closest we've seen to this was two years ago, when USC was left out of the title Sugar Bowl game and was forced to only share a championship with the LSU Tigers. Sharing a championship is like winning an olympic medal and then having it literally torched in half and the larger half given to the Lithuanian team.
A little dramatic, I know, but that doesn't alter the ridiculousness of the system!
I understand that a change to a system of such an enormous sports conglommerate like the NCAA would take some serious time. But the sooner things get moving in this direction, the better it will be for such an excellent, inspiring, pure sport that's getting undermined by a ludicrous system.
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