The BCS Isn't so Bad

ESPN ran a poll today on its website asking what college football teams would be selected for a possible eight team NCAA Football tournament. Seventeen teams were included.

The parity only proves the point I love to make. A college football tournament would never work.

My theory goes further: It would hurt the game far more than help it.

First of all, even those silly bowl games that get played on Wednesday nights in the middle of December mean a whole lot to the teams who participate in them. Having a major tournament would relegate them to NIT status. The games wouldn’t even make television. Seriously, they wouldn’t.

In fact, a large tournament would mean the end of bowl games as we know them.

Why is that such a problem?

Well to most fans, myself included, it isn’t. However, as boring as those games tend to be, think about how much good it does for the schools participating.

Teams trying to build their programs pride themselves on the one or two games they get to play on ESPN. The exposure for those schools means everything to making college football more competitive.

A case can be made that a four team playoff would work in conjunction with the bowl system, but that leaves at least two major conference champions out of the running every year.


An eight team playoff would have the same effect that the BCS does. Six major champions and then three or four teams fighting for two spots.

A real tournament would need to involve at least twelve teams and would have to start about two weeks before Christmas and end somewhere around the first Saturday in January.

The six major conferences would have to send an automatic bid.

In my opinion, the PAC 10 Big 10, and Big East would have to expand to twelve teams (something that will never happen) and play a conference championship game just like the Big 12, SEC, and ACC does.

The six at large spots would then be harder to decide than the two that the BCS gives every season. Example: Ohio State is clearly better than UCLA but it gets much cloudier when you start to look at say Miami and Georgia.

Let’s try and use this season as an example. The conference championships have not been played but I will assume that the favorites will all win.

1. USC
2. Texas
3. Penn State
4. Virginia Tech
5. LSU
6. West Virginia
7. Ohio State
8. Notre Dame
9. Oregon
10. Miami
11. Auburn
12. UCLA
Bubble Busted: TCU, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Texas Tech, and Alabama

If the tournament were to happen this season, the opening round would begin Saturday, December 17. Predictions – LSU over UCLA, Auburn over West Virginia, Ohio State over Miami and Oregon over Notre Dame.

Christmas Eve would see the top four seeds all survive with only Penn State even being threatened by Auburn.

The following week would prove just what those stupid computers and every writer in the country already knows: USC and Texas are the two best teams in the country.

The two would meet the following weekend in the title game.

I have no idea who would win and that isn’t the point of what I’m trying to say.

A real tournament would cause just as much confusion than the BCS already does and by eliminating the lesser bowls, would hurt a lot more teams in the process.

After all, this season, the computers are right.