The BCS Debate

According to http://www.bcsfootball.org/, The Bowl Championship Series, or the BCS as it is commonly referred to, was formed in 1998 and is the selection system in which the top two teams in NCAA football play for the national championship. In order to determine these two teams, teams are ranked through a combination of the USA today Coaches Poll, the Harris Interactive College Football poll and an average of six computer rankings. Each of the three factors is weighed equally in a team’s BCS score. This system also selects the teams that will play in the other BCS bowl games: The Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. The teams come from the 11 division 1-A conferences and the University of Notre Dame (an independent school). Six of these conferences had bowl tie-ins before the formation of the BCS, so they had to be guaranteed this in order to agree to the new system. For example, the Rose Bowl always plays the winner of the Big Ten v Pac 10. As a result, certain conferences get automatic qualifications to a BCS game. Notre Dame does not belong to a conference, so their agreement says if they are ranked #8 or better in the final BCS standings, they will automatically receive a BCS berth. The other teams/conferences are at large teams and have to earn their way in.

Many people agree that this is not the most fair or best system out there. The National Championship is out of the reach of some deserving teams, just based on the conference they belong to. For example, Boise State was 44-4 during the last four seasons. This includes 4-1 against major conference opponents, and going undefeated several times over the span of years (Wetzel). The problem Boise St has is they play in the Western Athletic Conference, which the BCS feels is a lower competition (Wetzel). However, Boise St has practically been begging BCS worthy teams to play them, and no one is jumping at the chance. Why is this? It is not due to the fact that BCS teams will not play weaker opponents. It is rather the point that the BCS teams are afraid of losing to an underrated team. In fact, it was proven again this season. This past Sunday, the BCS rankings were released and once again top ranked teams like Florida were not matched up again teams like Boise St and TCU. Boise St and TCU were chosen to play each other. Many people feel this is a prime example to the bias in these games.

Another problem with the BCS system is the way teams are ranked. The BCS standings take into consideration the USA today Coaches Poll and the Harris Interactive College Football poll. Throughout the season, teams are ranked based on who they play and how many wins they have. If a team loses early in the year, they have plenty of time to redeem themselves and achieve a high ranking again. However, if a team loses late in the year, they do not have that opportunity. For example, last year Florida lost early, but won their remaining games and scored a chance to play for the national championship. A team who wins all year, but loses their last game would more than likely not get that same chance.

The BCS debate has even hit Capitol Hill as people believe the BCS unfairly allocated millions of dollars, and stacks the deck against smaller conferences that have a legitimate chance at the title (Casteel). The bigger schools and conferences get a huge chunk of the BCS money. For example, last season saw Boise St and T.C.U. being ranked higher in the BCS than Cincinnati and Virginia Tech. However, Boise St went on to the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, and brought home $750,000. Cincinnati and Virginia Tech played in the Orange Bowl, and brought home $18 million for their conference to share (Bakalar). Even President Obama has also expressed his displeasure with the BCS system, and strongly advocates a playoff system. Although, not everyone agrees Washington should get involved in this debate, it proves how strongly people feel this is an important issue.

In order to make college football fairer, and allow more deserving teams such as Boise St a shot at the title, a college football playoff needs to be created, similar to the highly successful and popular March Madness that college basketball offers. Every major sport in the United States has a playoff system to determining the winner, why should NCAA football be any different? A playoff system would allow more deserving teams a chance at the title. For example, in NCAA basketball, 64 teams start out competing for the chance at the title game. In the BCS system for football, only two teams are given the chance. On top of this fact, the two teams may not even be the most deserving. Almost every year since the implementation of the BCS in 1998, there has been some kind of controversy involving which teams were chosen, and who the champion turned out to be. Take for example the 2004 season. USC and Oklahoma were chosen to play in the title game, even though Auburn was also undefeated. USC blew out Oklahoma in that game and Auburn won their bowl game (Dougherty). Many people felt it would have been a better match up between USC v. Auburn. Another example was the 2001 season. Nebraska lost to Colorado in a blowout, which denied them a chance at their conference title game. The computer ranking system failed to drop Nebraska down far enough, so Nebraska actually made it to the BCS championship over Colorado, the team that beat them overwhelmingly, and who was the Big 12 champion (Dougherty). Last season, Utah went undefeated, but was skipped over by the BCS. The BCS chose Florida and Oklahoma to play in the title game, at one loss apiece.

Opponents of a playoff system think it will commercialize or professionalize the sport ( Wieberg). However, the sport is already commercialized. All one has to do is look at the names of the Bowl games: The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the Fed Ex Orange Bowl, the Citi Rose Bowl and the Allstate Sugar bowl just to name a few. Schools also sign contracts with companies such as Nike or Adidas, in which the school gets a huge sum of money, and the players only wear their brand of shoes and clothing. Opponents also argue that the traditional bowl games would be lost in a playoff system. The BCS coordinator says money spent on advertisements would now be spent on playoffs instead of bowl games (Frommer). Why not include the conduct the playoffs as part of the bowl games? It would be a win-win situation. Tradition does not have to be lost in order to improve the current system. Furthermore, opponents argue that regular season games would no longer matter. However, in a playoff system, a team still has to do well in order to make the playoffs. Teams are still going to play with the same intensity in order to win each game, in order to guarantee a playoff spot.

There are many flaws with the current BCS system, and there just seems to be excuses as to why it can not be changed. Too many teams do not get a fair chance to play for the national championship, or receive the recognition they deserve. A playoff system may not be perfect, but it would improve the current situation dramatically. In a playoff system, the best team may not always win, but at least they have a chance to play, and many more fans and teams would leave happy.

WORKS CITED
Bakalar, Nicholas. “In BCS, Dollars are the Only Relevant Numbers”. The New York Times. 3

Jan. 2009. 14 Nov 2009.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/sports/ncaafootball/04score.html?

_r=2
Casteel, Chris. “BCS Controversy Heats up on Capitol Hill.” NEWSOK. 2 May 2009. 14 Nov.

2009. http://newsok.com/bcs-controversy-heats-up-on-capitol-hill/article/3366139
Dougherty, Robert. “The Worst BCS Controversies.” Associated Content Sports. 20 Oct

2008. 14 Nov. 2009.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1091385/the_worst_bcs_controversies.html
Frommer, Frederic. “Game-Changing Call to College Football: Playoff”. ABC News. 1 May 2009.

14 Nov. 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7478888
Wetzel, Dan.”Boise BCS Blocked”. Yahoo Sports. 7 Nov. 2009. 14 Nov. 2009.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-boise110709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Wieberg, Steve. “No Final Answers to Those BCS Questions”. USA Today. 9 Sept 2009. 14 Nov.

2009. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2004-09-09-things-to-change-bcs_x.htm

Survey Reflection

The survey results supported my argument that the BCS system needs to be changed. 85.7% of the respondents felt a change to the playoff system needed to be made. Only 9.6 % of the respondents were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the current system. And 90.5% felt that money was the reason the BCS system is in place.

One reason I felt the BCS should change was that the system is biased towards larger schools, and 100% of the respondents felt that was true, including the few who actually supported the BCS. 100% of the people also agreed that the way the BCS is set up excluded deserving teams from a chance at the national championship in past years.

I found the number of people who dislike the BCS system to be very interesting. 52.4 % were dissatisfied and 19% were extremely dissatisfied with the system, with one person adding a comment that he was EXTREMELY dissatisfied. I also was impressed with how many of the respondents went above and beyond the requirements of the survey, and gave their input in the comment box. Their thoughts helped guide my direction when writing the final draft of the survey. The only thing I would change if I had to do it again was to try and gather more input. A larger survey sample would have been even more interesting!

Reading Response #3

Brent Staples writes in his essay, “Just Walk on By”, the stereotypes and racial profiling he faces being a young African American. When he walks the streets at night, he faces people who cross the street, lock their doors, or give him nervous looks. He also brings up the police treatment, and how a fellow journalist was mistakenly reported as the killer, and dragged to the police car at gun point. Staples, and this journalist mentioned, had not done anything to deserve this treatment, the people are just attributing their skin color to their fear.

What is interesting to me is Staples response to the situation. He seems to understand their point of view, bringing up the point that women are often vulnerable to street attacks and that black males over represent the perpetrator in those cases. He even goes to the extreme to try and make sure those around him know he is “safe”, by giving people space, and to not follow them if going to the same place. He started whistling classical music, because he thinks people wouldn’t believe a mugger would do that.

It is really unfortunate in this day and age that people have to experience this. I understand people, especially women alone at night, want to be aware of their surroundings and be safe, but they shouldn’t assume a person is dangerous based on his skin color. If you think about it, statistically, the majority of serial killers are middle age white males. Why is the fear attributed to black males?

It is sad to me that good guys like Staples, experience this on a daily basis. He mentions feeling, “surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed” the first time someone did this to him. I can’t imagine the feeling one has when you are assumed guilty without doing anything to deserve it.

The Pride of Running Out of the Tunnel- Michigan Stadium

Michgan State Football- Another Big 10 School

Michigan Football Stadium- Home of the largest crowd for college football games.

Reading Response #2

Denis Wilson writes in his essay, A Look Under the Hoodie, that even though the hoodie is popular, it signifies outcast status. He states that it's popularity crosses the board from infants to grandparents. Today, even popular brand clothing such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, and high end brands such as Gucci and Versach are making their own versions of the hoodie. How can a piece of clothing fall into the category of both outcast status, and be popular at the same time?

Wilson states the hooded sweatshirt was invented by Champion to be just practical clothing to keep the workers warm in New York warehouses. As time went on, hoodies were also made for sports. Athletes would lend their hoodies to their girlfriends, thus leading to more and more people adding it to their wardrobe.

When did the hoodie transform from practical clothing to outcast status? In the 1970's, hip hop culture was becoming prevalent on the streets of New York City. These trendsetters used the hoodie to isolate and hide beneath, and create anonymity. Society began to see people wearing hoodies as possibly being up to no good. They began to become popular among muggers and graffiti writers. Skaters, snowboarders and punk music fans also adopted the hoddie in their culture, which caused them to also adopt the outcast status. This time period also saw the rise of the Rocky movie. Rocky Balboa was a steet thug, as well as a striving athlete. At the same time these different subcultures were adopting the hoodie, Rocky sports a gray hoodie in the film, leaving a "us against the world" mentality.

Today, a hoodie can be found in almost everyone's closet. It is as much about comfort as it is about style. In fact, the people who do not own a hoodie nowadays may actually be seen as the outcast.It is interesting to see how something as simple as a piece of clothing can be viewed upon differently throughout the years.