BCS Chaos...What is the answer?

Well one thing we can all agree on is this: What is currently being used for the BCS is not the best. But what do we do about it?

Only in the BCS Division Football can a team go undefeated and not National Champion. So what if Hawaii plays in a weak conference? What if they really were the best team in the nation? We have no idea until someone beats them. Now they don't have the money of the major conference schools, so you can't blame them for having a weak schedule or being in a weak conference, like I can with Ohio State (come on OSU AD, step up and give some legitimacy to your team's wins!). Hell, I doubt they even thought they would do as well as they have when they came up with this year's schedule.

But should Ohio State and Hawaii being playing for the national title? Should we go to a complete playoff system and bankrupt the bowl system within five years? Is there some even ground here?

• Stewart Mandel writes that Plus-One is the answer. He feels that having a championship game after all of the bowl games would better serve the purpose without taking away from the bowl games. He feels that using the major bowls to provide matchups to decide the final two could give us a better national championship without taking from the bowls.


• Luke Winn writes, "There is only one logical way to decide the national championship in the Season of Endless Upsets, when there were these options available:
  
  * One undefeated team
  
  * Two one-loss teams
  
  * Ten two loss teams
  
  The solution is to grab one of the two-loss teams (LSU) and one of the one-loss teams (Ohio State, which gained status simply by having the final weekend off), and pit them together in a winner-take-all finale. The less-fortunate leftovers can fight for the scraps in consolation bowls, and the country will be content that we've conclusively answered the "Who's No. 1" question. Especially the undefeated team (Hawaii) that didn't even get a chance to play for the title, even though just one year ago, its conference's BCS rep (Boise State) beat one of college football's juggernauts (Oklahoma) in perhaps the greatest BCS game ever. This is all so incredibly satisfying for everyone involved.
  
  The slate of BCS games this January will do nothing but guarantee dissatisfaction among fans. So what if LSU pummels Ohio State in what will be a pseudo-home game for the Tigers? What will that tell us? If Hawaii beats Georgia, an SEC team that didn't win its own division much less its own conference, to go 12-0, how does that further the Warriors' bid for a share of the title? The BCS has worked in the past -- in the years where a clear Nos. 1 and 2 existed -- but we desperately need something that works every year. That's a playoff beyond the plus-one model. Put the 12 BCS-eligible teams into a field with first-round byes for Nos. 1-4, and let them duke it out. I'd much rather be worrying about the trivial controversy over who was excluded at No. 13 than who was left out at No. 3"


• Bill Trocchi writes that there is already a playoff system in place, but we need to expand the field from 2 to 16, and kill off the rest of the bowls.


• Cory McCartney wants to know why we can't all just get along and why if a playoff system has worked for little brother Div I-AA, it won't work for the BCS. He writes that a playoff would be bigger than the basketball equivalent madness.
  

So my idea is to have a playoff with 12 teams, top four getting byes. The stipulations for choosing teams is this:

• Any conference winner that finishes in the top 25 in the BCS Standings receives an automatic bid. Top four with byes must come from this group. This rule would also keep conference winners who are not any good out. There's always the minor bowls (the football version of the NIT)
  


• The rest of the field is formed by the next highest in the BCS Standings with only two teams from each conference being selected.

If this were implemented the seedings would be as follows:

1. Ohio State (Big Ten Auto)
   
2. LSU (SEC Auto)
3. Virginia Tech (ACC Auto)
4. Oklahoma (Big 12 Auto)
5. Georgia (SEC At-Large)
6. Missouri(Big 12 At-Large)
7. USC (Pac-10 Auto)
8. W. Virginia (Big East Auto)
9. Hawaii (WAC Auto)
10. Arizona State(Pac-10 At-Large)
11. Illinois (Big Ten At Large)
12. Boston College (ACC At-Large)

This would keep No. 8 Kansas and No. 12 Florida out of the playoffs due to 2 SEC and Big 12 teams ranked higher. The first round would have the following games:

1. #12 BC at #5 UGA
2. #9 Hawaii at #8 WVU
3. #11 Illinois at #6 Missouri
   
4. #10 Arizona St. at #7 USC

A second round:

1. Winner of 1-1 at #4 Oklahoma
2. Winner of 1-2 at #1 OSU
3. Winner of 1-3 at #3 VT
4. Winner of 1-4 at #2 LSU
   

These first two rounds would be held a week after the regular season is over in two consecutive weeks. The bowls would still work as normal. The semifinals would be held a week after bowls in an actual neutral ground (Quit pretending the National Championship is a neutral field). Fields in between the two teams can put in bids for the game.

What do you think, send me your ideas on what could have been done better. I'm not perfect, but anything has to be better than this. Be sure to take into account keeping big revenue from bowls in mind and the such.

Finished Before You Even Began

I am now the Sports Editor of the Indiana Statesman, so I will be writing many columns this semester. Here is my first as published in the Statesman:

It is soon to be September and you know what that means - it is football season and more importantly, college football season. Millions of rabid fans have been yearning for this day since the final whistle of the Bowl Championship Series national championship game in January.

Every newspaper, every sports magazine, anyone who is anyone in sports has some version of rankings and everyone wants to see how their team stacks up this season.

Fans of the University of Southern California can rejoice at their No. 1 ranking and know they have a lot to look forward to this year, and fans of No. 24 ranked Boise State can begin talking about how underrated they are after going undefeated and winning what is considered by many the best college football game ever in their Fiesta Bowl upset last season.

And that would be wonderful - that is if these were merely preseason rankings like any other sport, that don't mean anything more than one writer's opinion. But they aren't.

Without a playoff system in place, rankings mean more in college football than any other sport. These rankings tell us who may even have a shot at the college football championship.

Only the top two BCS ranked teams after week 15 compete for the championship at the end of the season which are determined using the Harris Poll, the USA Today Poll and computer rankings. So that third spot is like finishing fourth in the Olympics - so close, yet so far away.

Last season, Boise State finished the year undefeated, the only team to claim that feat in the BCS, but they were not awarded the championship. They were not ranked high enough by the end of the year to have a chance in the BCS championship.

When writers send in their ballots for their rankings, they often take the current rankings and decide for the ones that won, how significant their win was, and for those that lose, how significant their loss was. So where they begin in the rankings make a big difference.

Boise State wasn't even in the Top 25 when the season began, but would slowly gain recognition and appearance in the rankings after the first quarter of the season. By week 13 they had climbed into the Top 10, but their pre-bowl season was over at 12-0, one of two undefeated teams left.

They gained one more spot by week 15, which would determine who would fight for the national championship. However, only the top two contend for the championship.

Fluke incident? Ask Auburn. Its 2004 run is very similar, beginning at No. 17 and climbing to No. 3 by week 15, but was cheated out of a chance at the championship, even going undefeated for the season.

So USC and Louisiana State fans, go ahead and buy your BCS Championship ticket now. Ohio State and Louisville fans, good luck, because there's a long road ahead of you. Boise State and Texas A&M fans, look on the bright side: tickets to a minor bowl game are normally much cheaper.