you could do it with 8 teams.....and it would be awesome.
"This year's experience with the BCS forces me to the conclusion that the current system has lost public confidence and simply does not work. It is undercutting the sportsmanship and integrity of the game."
-- University of Georgia President Michael Adams
What's happened to college football?
The Bowl Championship Series, that's what. It's ruining the game.
Thanks to the bowl system, fans are subjected to an interminable parade of mismatched, lukewarm bowl pairings in the postseason, only to culminate in a "national championship" that more often than not excludes at least one perfectly qualified team from competing for the title.
And we get to watch all of it on television -- courtesy of a single broadcasting company that holds far too much sway over the bowl selection process. Amid all this, sitting idly by in a closed circle, are the conference and bowl commissioners, basking in their own inordinate power and wilfully ignorant of any outside input.
What began as a fun-to-watch, enjoyable exercise in sportsmanship, athleticism and fair play has mutated into a monolithic, billion-dollar industry. The Xs and Os have been replaced with dollar signs.
And even that aspect of college football is showing signs of weakening. The big TV ratings expected for the BCS title game didn't materialize this year. Instead, viewership was down 17 percent, to its third-lowest number since the BCS began 10 years ago. And who can blame the fans? Why would they watch a matchup that makes no sense?
Sadly, it's gotten to this point: Because of the BCS, the college football powers-that-be are hurting their own product -- and, by extension, the football fans.
It's time for a solution: a playoff system -- just like every other level of college football.
University of Georgia President Michael Adams, whom we quoted above, is on the right track with his proposal of an eight-team playoff that incorporates the four major bowls as quarterfinal venues. He should be applauded for throwing that idea out there, but it doesn't go far enough.
Institute a 16-team playoff, and place coveted, lucrative bowl status on playoff venues.
It makes a world of sense. A playoff system offers a much stronger guarantee that you are pitting the best teams in the country against one another. Every game matters because each team is playing each week for a shot at the national title. It's built-in excitement.
With the current bowl system, sadly, we're stuck with insomnia cures such as this season's R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, in which two teams with 7-5 records squared off in a game utterly lacking in prestige or meaningful consequence. Is that the NCAA's idea of a thrill?
In a 16-team playoff system, you can honestly say that a champion is chosen on the field. With the BCS, you get nothing but unresolved controversy, thanks to the blatant bias toward the six BCS conferences and Notre Dame.
With the BCS and its byzantine logic, a team can post an undefeated record and get shut out of the championship game.
With the BCS, a team can even lose its conference and still have a shot at the title. What?
The bowl system doesn't need tweaking. It deserves an overhaul. Replace it with playoffs.
Comments
you could do it with 8 teams.....and it would be awesome.
Cries for a division I playoff have been heard for decades. It's about time something positive is done. The old bowl system and the new BCS are little more then popularity contests. There's no reason to eliminate the minor bowls, as long as the top teams are aligned for a playoff.
Keep it like it is. If UGA would not have gotten blown-out by UT, then they would have been in the SEC championship to take-on LSU, and then to the BCS championship if they won. Sounds like sour grapes to me. They had an opportunity to control their destiny and lost. Finally, I think we should get GM residents free season tickets to UGA games next year as compensation for kicking them out of their homes.
What in the heck does GM have to do with collage football, this should show what shivas know about collage championship football.
Mike Adams' solution published in yesterday's Chronicle had at least one flaw. He put the number one and number two teams in the same quarter-final bracket. They should be split up (i.e., number 1 on the "left" side of the chart and number 2 on the "right" side - or vice versa).
And I kind of like the 16-team playoff. They should shorten the season so that all across the country the absolute last date for regular season is the Saturday after Thanksgiving (and that would include those conferences that are so big they think they have to have a playoff for conference championship - time for SEC to split apart again). Then December would be the month for the tournament, semi-finals on New Year's day, and the championship a week later.
I think Shivas didn't read the writers post. The writer said that a team that didn't win it's division could have a BCS title shot then said "what?" Don't be so stuck on hating a certain team or conference. Be a fan of the game and offer up better solutions. If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem!!
There is not going to be a playoff system (in the foreseeable future). Big 10 and Pac 10 are totally against it.
I wish we would return to the system used before the BCS. The bowls were much better and actually meant something. Now, only the Championship game matters. Plus, it didn't solve anything. Still have 10 teams that think they were better than LSU.
College football is beautiful because the season itself is the play-off. A formal play-off takes away what is special about college football, and that is the bowl system, and the debate that always occurs.
I do not think a playoff is a bad idea, but I do think its funny when brought up in the past UGA fans never cared for it. Its only when they feel they got the short end of the stick do they suddenly jump on the playoff bandwagon. If UGA had gotten into the title game their president would not have written his letter. Playoffs will be good, but they will take some drama away from some regular season games. That is the drawback.
You are wrong imdstuf. I have been a Dawg fan all of my life (48 years) and I have been SCREAMING for a play-off for years. But mostly the year a dominant undefeated Auburn was left out of the Championship game. That was a huge injustice! So it's not just because Ga. got left out of the BCS Championship game, it's because the SEC doesn't get any respect from the BCS, even though everyone admits the SEC is the toughest conference, they always give top honors to the Pac 10 and the Big 10. It's a joke!
Also, in the last 10 years the SEC has won the BCS Championship Game 4 times. The ACC-2. Big 12 - 2. The Big 10 -1 and the PAC 10 -1. So you tell me, which conference is the best? Ohio State has never beaten an SEC team in a bowl..so you tell me why is a Big 10 team such as Ohio State given a higher pre-season ranking every year over the highest ranked SEC team?
Uh, didn't LSU play in the championship game? Aren't they in the SEC?????
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