Recently the Penn State football team has begun practicing again. This has made me reflect on the last season. The feeling at the games as the roar of the crowd builds. The excitement as the last seconds tick off the clock and for that moment in time hundreds of people around the country are feeling the same way that I am. Then I thought about the extreme tension as the Orange Bowl went into its third overtime as me and my friends yelled and screamed at the television screen. But how did the team get to that point? How did it come to Penn State playing against Florida State? One answer and it isn’t Joe Paterno; it’s the BCS. It seems to be the same old story each and every year; certain teams believing they deserve the right to contend for the national championship game. Deep inside it kills me that teams are getting left out because they have only one or two losses. Ever since the BCS system was implemented in 1998, all hell has broken loose. Not that I am totally against the BCS system, but the system could be used in a different way to guarantee the true national champion of college football. To the BCS Committee: please take into consideration what I have to say. My plan could be the start of something great for college football, and put an end to all the torment and hatred you receive from the fans. To all the sports junkies out there, I have a question that I would like to ask you. What does college football lack that every other college sport and professional sport have at the end of the regular season? If you answered that college football does not have a playoff system, you are absolutely correct. But as college football icon Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast my friend!” I have come up with an idea that would make the college football postseason an event that no one would ever want to miss.

According to the BCS, the goals of the BCS are to “determine the national champion for college football while also matching the best teams at the end of the year against one another.”{About the BCS} That is the problem right there. The BCS feels that matching the supposed two best teams in college football is the fair thing to do to determine the national champion. Sure, the two teams chosen might really be the two top teams, but let them prove it by beating out other high quality teams in a playoff. The wonderful thing about playoffs is that anything can happen at any given time. For example, look at college basketball’s March Madness playoff. Their playoff consists of 64 teams all fighting to get to the national championship game. Fans all around the United States are hooked on March Madness. Almost all companies have office polls where people can fill out brackets and predict who they think will win each game. It creates an enjoyable atmosphere for everyone because people have so much fun with it. My suggestion is that we do the same thing for college football. Of course it would be unrealistic to have 64 teams compete because of how long it would take, and the fact that it takes football players a lot longer to recover since it is a contact sport. I decided to break this whole scenario down so that everyone could see exactly how the college football post season would work.

The BCS system works the way it is using six computer polls, through calculations, award rankings then dropping the highest and lowest scores and then totaling it and averaging it with the USA Today Coach’s poll and the Harris Interactive poll.{BCS Explanation} That gives a very fair advantage in determining the top college teams in the country. My point is not for them to change this but instead change how they apply it. There should be a playoff system where the top eight teams are put into a bracket that is set up as all eight team brackets are. If you do not know how that is set up it goes like this: #1teamVs.#8team who’s winner faces the winner of a game between #4teamVs.#5team while the winner of the #2teamVs.#7team game faces the winner of the #3teamVs.#6team; then the winner of those to second round games play for the championship. When do we have time for all these games? Well it is already built into the schedule. The last set of regular season games generally take place in the first week of December, while the Rose Bowl is not played until the first week of January. Only two weekends will be needed for the extra games and there are three for most years and four in some.

First you get the opportunity to say that whoever the national champion is earned the title rather then sneaking in the game with a “weak schedule” and out playing another such team. This also gives those teams who lost one close game on shaky calls to prove that they deserve a shot. For instance, Ohio State, a team that I despise, played an amazing game against Texas, who later won the title, and weren’t it for a late field goal Ohio State would have won and the BCS would have completely changed and everything would be different. But the point is that Ohio State hung in there with the future champs and should have another shot at proving their worth. Take a look at the current situation in the Men’s basketball March Madness. George Mason, a team ranked 11th in there division has not only beaten the past champion but also the team everyone thought would win this year. They are one of the final four teams playing for the title as champions. You can look at the NFL, as well. The Steelers were ranked 6th and were the first last seeded team to ever win a Superbowl. If the best teams always won then there would be no point in playing the games.

However, the BCS does not always care what would be best for the public, generally they care about there pockets. Do not worry BCS I have you covered too. The extra games do not mean you have to get rid of all your other bowl games sponsored by companies like MPC Computers or Gaylord Hotels (who sponsored the Music City bowl). And your coveted top four bowls will not be diminished either. How can that be when the teams that play in the other three bowl games are now in this bracket system? It can be solved simply by going to a high school wrestling tournament. When a wrestler loses a match in a wrestling tournament it does not mean they are out it just means they do not have the chance to contend for the championship spot, but they can contend for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th. So as the first four teams lose in the first round they move into a “loser’s bracket” where some teams rotate to the other side (to prevent from having the same teams play against each other more than once until the end). The losers of the first round in the “loser’s bracket” will automatically play in the 7th and 8th place game. The winners of that round move on to play the teams that lost in the second round of the original bracket. The following weekend the two teams that won both of there first two games will get a weekend break while the losers of the second round of the original bracket and the winners of the first round in the “loser’s bracket” play to see who goes into the 5th and 6th place game and the 3rd and 4th place game. Once this is all settled you have your top for bowl games so the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Rose Bowl get the best teams and the sponsors will be willing to pay more to get those better games.

Of course there will still be hiccups in this system since there will still be the controversy of who should make the cut of 8th seeded team and who shouldn’t. But you cannot always get rid of all the wrinkles. But as far as the pools go that offices and campuses across the country have for March Madness, I have seen them for the bowl games already. Picking correctly for every team in the non-bracket games would be worth 1 point each while the first round of the bracket and “loser’s bracket” would be worth 2 and the second round of each would be worth 4 and each of the three lower games is worth 8 points while the championship game is worth 10 points. It can be done and should give for interesting results.

This change is not just for the fans but for the BCS, too. The BCS can stop people from looking at the marred reputation from the bowl selection process and look at the BCS for giving fair rankings like it has all season previous. Also, you can get most of the people who complain that their team should have made the championship game but did not get the chance cause with the changes they will. This will also give the teams more incentive when they get to the post season. You often see the lower ranked teams play bowl games that are not nearly as exciting cause the teams aren’t playing for anything but a bowl game win, and what does that really get them? The BCS should do justice to itself and to college football and change its post-season system.

Citation

"About the BCS." Bowl Championship Series. 30 Mar. 2006 <http://www.bcsfootball.org/>.

"BCS Explanation." ESPN. 30 Mar. 2006 <http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlistings/abcStory?page=bcsexplanation>.

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