Extreme Makeover: BCS Edition

Critics said this day would come, and it seems like we’re inching closer and closer to a BCS meltdown. After 11 weeks of college football, there are still 4 undefeated teams with only a few games left to play. In case you don’t know what the BCS is, let me (try to) explain. The BCS, or Bowl Championship Series, is a selection system that places the top 10 college football teams in bowl games against each other, with the top two playing for the championship. It was created to make sure the number one team in the nation actually plays the number two team in the nation for the championship, unlike the prior system where the press voted on a national champion after the season. Sounds like a good idea, right? Maybe on paper, but the execution is very quirky and there have been numerous discrepancies over the years with the system. First off, the ranking system itself is very hard to understand and sometimes just makes you scratch your head. The rankings are determined by a computer algorithm that takes into account the media poll, the coaches poll, strength of schedule, and the computer rankings. This produces odd outputs sometimes like earlier this year then #3 Boise State was overtaken by #4 Texas Christian (who won 31-3) after a  48-0 win, despite beating Boise State beating TCU late last season 17-10.  There have also been numerous cases where legitimate contenders have been left out of the championship even tough they have beaten one of the teams in the championship. There are even situations where teams fail to win their own conference and are still selected to play in the championship. And there have been many times where a team can go undefeated in a season and not play in the National Championship, and it looks like this year #3 TCU and #4 Boise State will suffer the fate, again. (Boise State and TCU have gone undefeated in prior seasons and not reached the championship) My opinion? Switch to a playoff system for the top 8 BCS ranked teams. All other levels of football like high school and the NFL seem to use it fine, and it will eliminate most of the controversies. I might not be an expert, but I can tell you this: teams like Boise State and TCU will never be able to prove they deserve a championship until you let them.