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