Diehard Jock: What a year of college football
By Scott Ford
Tuesday, November 27, 2007 11:57 AM PST
In most years after 11 weeks of playing college football, fans have a pretty good idea which two teams will battle it out for the national championship.
But not this year.
Once again, the BCS polls have had a reshuffle of teams as top ranked LSU, and second ranked Kansas both fell victim to the pressure of being at the top of the polls.
LSU lost to Arkansas 50-48 and the Jayhawks of Kansas were knocked off by Missouri 36-28.
The win for the Tigers pole vaulted them to the top spot in the nation, a distinction that may very well cost them the national title. Just ask LSU, Ohio St., Kansas, Oregon, Boston College, South Florida, USC and California. Every one of these teams held the No. 1 or No. 2 spot at one time this season and then lost an upset game that knocked them out of the national title bid. Or did it?
Missouri still has to play in the Big 12 Championship against Oklahoma, a game that has upset all over it for the Tigers, and if they do lose, then what? West Virginia, the No.2 team in the land, finishes up their regular season vs. Pittsburgh and could very easily find itself ranked No. 1 after next weeks games, barring a Missouri win. If so, who will they play in the National title game? Ohio St, Georgia, Kansas, LSU...who?
This is why the BCS does not work. This season alone shows that on any given day, any team can win.
Will the fans get a true representation of a national champion? Only if Hawaii is playing in that game. I know they play in the lowly WAC, but they are undefeated. They have only played one ranked team all season in Boise State and they only won that game by two touchdowns.
Really, the BCS guru’s need to sit down and throw that system out the window. It is an unfair bogus championship system, (That is what I think BCS stands for.)
There are 11 football divisions in college football, and four independent schools.
A playoff needs to be born. Teams will have to win their conference to get an automatic bid and the rest will be decided by overall record, that’s right wins and losses.
But will that result in soft scheduling for teams? Yeah it could, but it will catch up to them in the first couple rounds of the playoffs.
So what about all those bowl games? Easy, every bowl sponsor gets to bid the national championship game, highest bidder wins, and work backwards from there. The lowest bidding sponsors will host their bowl game in the first round of the playoffs, and so on.
To me this idea will benefit not only the fans, but each school that makes it to the playoffs. Since the schools get a piece of the revenue pie, the teams that go the farthest will gain more cash for their school - a great motivation not to schedule soft.
The fans and corporate sponsors will get all their bowl games, the schools will see an increase in funds and the level of football will ultimately become better.
That is my thought on this whole BCS system, but who am I? Oh yeah, a fan who wants to see a true champion crowned each year.
Remember last year, Boise St. upsetting Oklahoma. Who’s to say they would not have won the national championship game over Florida? Any given Sunday, any team can win.
Remember to play hard, but play fair.
