Who Put the C in BCS?
From the Cheap Seats
by Chris Hahn
The C stands for Championship, yet the system seems determined to leave us wondering for sure. Without the C, it’s just BS, a much more appropriate abbreviation. I’ve kept my thoughts about the BCS to myself all season, waiting to see how it would play out. But now that the Rose Bowl is over, and despite the claims of BCS apologists that we have a true National Champion again, I am going to share my disgust.
Unfortunately, I don’t even know where to start. First there’s the tweak made this year for Quality Wins to avoid the 2000 situation of Florida State getting the nod over the Hurricanes. Yet Colorado, after beating Nebraska, was still behind the Huskers in the BCS despite a better ranking in both polls. Then I could gripe about how a field goal in the final minutes of a game between two mediocre teams can affect the outcome of the absurd equation. Next I could discuss the absurdity of a team that didn’t even win it’s own division, let alone it’s conference, winning the National Title. And to top it off, how about the all-too-realistic statement by Coach Fulmer of Tennessee that his team would have been in a better bowl by losing to Florida instead of beating them, advancing to the SEC Title Game, and then losing.
For the last two BCS Title Games (I refuse to call them National Championship Games), I had to split my cheering as a fan. With apologies to Seminole and Husker fans, I wouldn’t normally have cheered for their teams at all. Yet I find myself hoping that the system yields a split championship so that the apologists can’t try to weasel out of the mess once again. Sure, the undefeated team won both games and probably did deserve the championship. However, you can never know for sure. And after watching the performances of Oregon and Nebraska, I think it was pretty clear who deserved to be on the field with Miami.
Everyone knows the money involved in the bowls is the tallest hurdle for some type of playoff system. Perhaps all of those university presidents and athletic directors who have their hands out will take a look at the sagging TV ratings the bowls are getting. Something tells me a tournament would do all right in the Nielsen ratings against Men’s Ice Dancing, and that the TV contract would more than compensate. I won’t get into the details of how a playoff could use the bowls to make the locals happy as well, but there are dozens of proposals that I’ve heard thrown out that would beat what we have now.
It’s not going away soon…the BCS still has a few years on its contract, so we’ll just have to deal with it until then. I suppose the bright side for college football is that it gets plenty of conversation, albeit that conversation is about how ridiculous those running the sport are. But until we get closer to the time when a change might occur, we’ll have to wade through the seasons this way. Until then, you can count on me being one of the guys cheering for a split championship. And when it happens, I’d like to ask the BCS apologists what the teams can cheer…”We’re Number One-point-five?”