Let me start this off by saying that I am a Michigan fan. In fact, I rooted for the Wolverines back before my 7 years in Morgantown turned me into a Mountaineer and back in the days when Marshall was just figuring out how to win a game every now and then. That being said, USA Today columnist Joe Saraceno is wrong - the BCS got it right by matching up Ohio State and Florida in the (mythical) national championship game.
Say what you will about how a Michigan - Florida game would play out, or the strength of their respective schedules, or how Michigan beat common opponent Vanderbilt by 20-some points, while Florida struggled. None of that is relevant for the simple reason that Florida did one thing that Michigan didn't - it won it's conference's championship. For my money, given the limited number of games any college team plays in a season, winning your conference (or some non-conference equivalent for Notre Dame) is a condition precedent to playing in the national championship game.
Besides, who ever said that championship games are limited to matchups between the two best teams? Even in playoff systems, the two "best" teams (by whatever means you want to use to figure that out) almost never face each other in in the title game. Who was the "better" team last season in the NFL, the Colts or Steelers? Before they played in the playoffs, folks would have said the Colts. But the Steelers won the game on the field and, eventually, the Super Bowl. The best team in the league that year (it could be argued) was at home when the title was decided.
Finally, if you're one of those folks who think that a playoff would solve all the problems, consider this setup from another USA Today columnist:
You're just in time for the selection of this year's field, so you can see how problem-free this is. Why, when we're done, everyone will be as happy as low-carb dieters at a pig roast.
Ohio State goes first. Then Florida. In this world, Urban Meyer has more time to study game film because he doesn't have to go tracking down Jane Fonda to find out how to organize a protest march.
Michigan. The Wolverines won't have to worry about leaving the season for two weeks and then coming back to find a bunch of Gators in their beds.
See? This process is as easy as biting into a Krispy Kreme.
Oklahoma gets the automatic Big 12 spot, Wake Forest the ACC, Louisville the Big East, USC the Pac-10. Boise State is unbeaten so the Broncos have to be in. And to hear tell, the SEC is better than the NFC West, so LSU is a clear choice. And Auburn went 10-2 and beat Florida. We don't shaft the Tigers here, like the BCS did.
Oops.
That makes 10. And what idiot left out Wisconsin? You mean 11-1 isn't good enough to get off the bubble? What the blazes kind of system is this?
Notre Dame won 10 games. Everybody from the pope on down knows Notre Dame gets invited with 10 wins. People who say no to Notre Dame sleep with the fish.
The Mountain West Conference has two 10-2 teams — TCU and BYU — and they don't even get a sniff? How come the Pac-10 gets only one team? Or the Big 12? What makes the SEC so special? Because they brag louder than anyone else?
Maybe we should just go back to the old pre-BCS bowl system and write-off the idea of ever having a true national champion?
3 comments:
I'm a Big Ten-er who didn't go to Michigan, so naturally that means I hate Michigan, but I still wanted them to go to the championship game, because then no matter who wins, it'll be a Big Ten team. That being said, this is good too, we can have OSU crush Florida, and Michigan kill USC. Works for me :)
This is why I watch pro football, although I ruined it by playing fantasy football this season. It's wierd watching a game and rooting for one team's running back (but not their deep receiver) and the other team's tight end (but not their defense).
Next season it is back to getting excited when the Browns actually win a game.
I'm not a rabid sports fan so I can't claim to have given profound thought to the merits of the Bowl system vs. a playoff system. The thing is what it is though and the bottom line comes down to that the corporate sponsors of the Bowl system want two things: 1) fans attending the game but more than that 2) fans watching the game on tv and seeing their advertising through the sponsorship. Thus, the sponsors have the greatest interest in maximizing their audience which is why a Bowl will sometimes pick one team over another when the other team has a more legitimate claim to the Bowl (the Gator Bowl has done this with WVU in the past by picking it over someone else). That's just the system as it is and I don't see it changing without completely removing the corporate influence and that just isn't happening. Just my $0.02.
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