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The BCS is Dumb (Duh!)
America collectively slapped its forehead when The BCS computers announced Florida would play Ohio State. Many thought Michigan should play Ohio State. Others thought the whole system was screwed up.
How long will it take people to realize that if they put all their beans in a computer, they're not gonna be happy with what it spits out? BCS computers don't have to watch the bowl games it spits out. At the end of any season where there are not two clear-cut title contenders, people are bound to be unhappy with a computer ranking system.
Given that playoff games would most likely bring in lots of revenue and get high TV ratings, I continue to fail to grasp why there isn't a playoff system in college football. A simple 4-team bracket would solve almost every gripe with the system. It would let the question of 2 vs. 3 settle itself, and ensure a 'fair' system for determining who made the national championship game.
The only two conceivable arguments against a championship game are that we're putting too much strain on the players, and that giving the top teams an extra game takes attention away from other end-of-season bowl games. A few seasons ago the NCAA voted to increase the number of allowable season games from 11 to 12. If we're concerned about the players, why did we extend everyone's season by one game? All I'm asking is to extend two teams's seasons by one game (the semifinal losers are done). Furthermore, address the issue of attention by taking away the bottom of the scale, not the top. There are over 30 bowl games, which allow 6-5 teams to get in and play mediocre games in late December. Take out the Ren-O-Vac Bowl and every other game will get more attention. What's more, the BCS name already ensures the majority of the nation pays attention to only two games.
The current BCS system is bullshit…My only disagreement is that all arguments against the BCS blame “The stupid computers” that have some “Matrix Returns” A.I. grudge against humanity and are screwing up our tidy rankings system. NO NO NO NO NO!! These are computer algorithms yes, but these programs are written by statisticians who put a lot of thought into the equations that spit out the final rankings; not just a random rankings-jumbler machine. This is done before the season starts, so it is completely unbiased and a good check on the polls. Think of how hard it is to reconcile the unbiased numbers game (strength of schedule, winning percentage, margin of victory, etc, etc,) with our highly-biased beauty pageant style of ranking “flavor of the month” teams getting the ESPN endorsements (AKA Herbstreit-May’s lovefest with teams from conferences with ABC television contracts).
I actually think the computer component is a good thing, it’s just impossible to pick the top two teams from over a hundred using the current system–really any system. (Even a system that’s 99% correct would pick one wrong team for the title game!) Taking the top 8 would be acceptable, however, because the errors would work themselves out on the field. My preference is to keep the computer component to keep the polls grounded; that way 2-loss USC won’t sneak into the top 8 just because the producers at ESPN want to have Pete Carroll’s baby, when the numbers show they are an overrated team. Any team that can win three straight games against the “top eight” national competition would truly deserve a national title, even if they were BCS #8 going into the “playoff”…It would be interesting to see BoiseState try to run the table too, wouldn’t it??