Imagining Life With No BCS

Wall Street Journal ^ | NOVEMBER 28, 2010, | Darren Everson

[STONEWALLS]

College football fans love hypotheticals. So let's entertain one.

What if the Bowl Championship Series actually did disappear?

Last week, in the course of making other comments that got a great deal more attention, Ohio State president Gordon Gee mentioned what he'd like to see happen if the present BCS system someday went away.

What Mr. Gee said—that he'd prefer to return to the old bowl system, which didn't even pit the ostensible top-two teams—wasn't new. He's said it before. But that statement is a reality check, a reminder of where this sport is right now with regard to revolutionizing its controversial postseason. In other words, not close at all.

The prevailing view among the public is not only that college football should adopt some sort of playoff (a Quinnipiac University poll last year found 63% in favor of dumping the BCS). Implicit in that viewpoint is the further belief that, if and when change does come to the sport's postseason system, it surely will be in the form of a playoff. The most likely step would seem to be an incremental one, like a "plus-one" championship game. (The plus-one idea involves playing out all of the bowl matchups, then taking the top two teams that emerge and staging a title game.)

[STONEWALLS]

....my wife teaches at Appalachian State University...they have a good football team that competes one step down from the big time schools....their playoffs begin this Saturday...it's really exciting, and at the end there's no dispute over who the top dog is...IMHO the whole BCS thing is confusing.

[BenLurkin]

Ah — the Rose Bowl played on the 1st of each year between the best teams from the PAC-10 and the Big Ten.

Much better.

[Luke21]

In the old days, ignorant sportswriters picked their favorites. The biggest travesty occurred in 1990 when Colorado, with a loss a tie, a fifth down cheat, and Notre Dame's winning td in the bowl game mysteriously called back, was voted ahead of an undefeated Georgia Tech team.

Throughout the history of previous eras, the ignoramuses commonly voted for their favorites, often Notre Dame, who wouldn't play a bowl game until the late sixties.

Believe it or not BCS is better.

[Mobile Vulgus]

Wouldn’t bother me at all if ALL so-called professional sports disappeared forever.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Even if you went to an 8-game playoff there would always be the 9th team claiming they were robbed.

[gorush]

There’s a 3 way tie in the Big Ten. Wisconsin beat Ohio State, Ohio State beat Michigan State, Michigan State beat Wisconsin...all three teams have just 1 loss.

[Alberta's Child]

The BCS system might be imperfect, but a college football playoff won't really solve anything at all in terms of eliminating controversy from the national championship process in NCAA football. A football season has so few games, so it is impossible for teams to play all of their top competitors in the same season. That means there will ALWAYS be questions about whether Team A deserved to be in the playoffs over Team B, which team played a tougher schedule, etc.

The biggest flaw in the "old" system was that it gave an advantage to independent schools (they weren't forced into a specific bowl game, and could accept an invitation to play a top-ranked team in nearly any major bowl) and left the Big 10 and Pac-10 teams at a major disadvantage (their conference champions were forced to play each other in the Rose Bowl no matter how good or bad they were in the national rankings).

[Alberta's Child]

I agree with you. And the complaints about a flawed playoff system will be deafening when a #8-ranked team manages to win a national title, and the teams ranked just below them make a case that THEY were unjustifiably left out of the playoffs.

[DarkSavant]

OSU did not beat State. The two teams did not play each other.

[MozartLover]

Michigan State’s loss was to Iowa. Ohio State & Michigan State did not play this year..

[gorush]

I stand corrected.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Badgers to the Rose Bowl.

[Carl LaFong]

I would have one more thing to add to my list of things I couldn’t care less about.

[gorush]

You’ll get no argument from me.

[Non-Sequitur]

I’d be watching Oregon play Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl for one thing. And the problem with that would be....?

[Fiji Hill]

Ah — the Rose Bowl played on the 1st of each year between the best teams from the PAC-10 and the Big Ten.
Much better.

Giga-dittos! And the tradition and pageantry of each bowl game will be restored.

[Dacula]

The Ohio State Buckeyes beat Oregon last year in the same bowl.

Jan. 1: Ohio State 26, Oregon 17 (Rose Bowl)

[Comparative Advantage]

Elwood Gordan Gee is an overpaid blowhard whose only interest is self-enrichment primarily for himself but, secondly, his BCS university.

I really hope that Auburn loses to USC in a couple of weeks so that TCU gets an opportunity to play Oregon. The end result couldn’t be any worse than what Ohio St. did against Florida or LSU in recent years.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Amen to that. What a novel concept! Worked just fine for many, many years.

[quadrant]

Lets remember what happened in college basketball. The tourney started with 32 teams; then it was expanded to 64; then they added - what - two more teams; now, there is talk of expanding the tourney again.
What makes anyone think the same process wouldn't happen with football?