Developed in 1998, the Bowl Championship Series was built to consolidate the college football polling system into one poll that would crown the undisputed champion. Although a step in the right direction, the BCS is not the answer for crowning a national champion in college football. To reliably crown the champion a playoff system is needed, allowing the national champions being able to be decided on the field instead of only two teams having the chance due to the BCS.

The quest for a system that would crown a true national champion started in 1992 when the Bowl Coalition was formed after two consecutive years of co-national champions. The Orange, Sugar, Cotton, and Fiesta Bowls made up the Bowl Coalition and there were tie-ins for member conference champions. The Rose Bowl, however, refused to break their tie-ins with the Big 10 and Pac 10. This meant that if a Big 10 or Pac 10 team were in the top 2, they would not be included in the national championship game. This scenario happened in 1994 when Penn State went 12-0, won the rose bowl, and finished #2 to a 13-0 Nebraska. After the 1994 season, the Bowl Coalition became the Bowl Alliance by tweaking the system and breaking up the conference tie-ins. This new system, unfortunately, still did not include the Big 10 and Pac 10 therefore it was a flawed system that was doomed from the start. Finally in 1998 the Big 10 and Pac 10 joined in with the Bowl Alliance and the BCS was formed.

In its time, the BCS has had its share of controversy. However, those problems stem from the underlying solution instead of the BCS system itself. Having a poll select what two teams play for a championship is the major flaw of this solution. The BCS has had multiple co-champions over the years, which limits its integrity as a system to select the national champion. In 2003, undefeated and consensus number one, Southern Cal was left out of the championship game where Louisiana State beat Oklahoma. Southern Cal beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl, and was declared the Associated Press national champion while Louisiana State was declared the USA Today national champion. The following year, there were four undefeated teams at the end of the season. Southern Cal and Oklahoma clashed in the national championship game, but Auburn and Utah were left out and both won their bowl games, and have both claimed right to the title of 2004 national champions.

To eliminate the occurrence of an undefeated team being left out and also to avoid having to select one one-loss team out of a group, an eight team playoff should be instituted in division I-A college football. Colleges have spoken against the institution of a playoff stating academic reasons. They feel that increasing the length of the season will be detrimental to the academics of the players since then the season would continue until the end of the fall semester. The extended season would only affect those eight teams that are involved in the playoffs, and the extended season has not been a problem for division I-AA, division II, and division III, all of which have a playoff administered by the NCAA.

Others have said that a playoff would destroy the tradition of the bowl games. The bowl games would not have to be eliminated; in fact the playoff can use the current bowl games for a round or two of the playoffs. The reality of the situation is that schools are given a lot of money by the bowls that they attend, especially those in the BCS. An eight team playoff would mean a total of seven games over the span of three weeks. A solution to keeping the bowls, and having them be significant, is that the last two weeks of the playoff could be using the bowl games that are already in existence. The bowl games not involved in the playoff would be filled the same way they normally are, and that tradition of the bowl games would be retained.

The selection of the playoff teams would use a system similar to the BCS, because although the system is not capable of reliably selecting the participants of the championship game, it is good at selecting the top few teams. Instead of having the eight BCS teams play in four separate bowl games, one of which selecting the champion, those eight teams would be the teams that play in the playoff. The teams would be seeded based on their final ranking in the poll with the top team playing the eighth seed, the second team playing the seventh seed, etc. The first round would be played one week before the start of bowl games, with the second round occurring during bowl season in two bowl games. Finally, the national championship game would be at the end of the bowl season allowing the bowls to build up to the national championship game.

Another argument is that a playoff would reduce the significance of games played during the season. Using the NFL for example, where many teams sit players the last week of the season, people argue that the same could happen in college football. In the NFL, however, twelve teams make the playoffs, out of a total of thirty-two, which is the reason why some teams have a record good enough to take a loss at the end of the season. In division I-A college football, there are 116 teams and with only eight making the playoffs, it is unlikely that teams with more than one loss would be certain of a playoff berth. This would discourage teams from potentially taking a loss to rest some players, because it would risk their chance of making the playoff.

Although people will always find a way to stir up controversy, the best solution to crowning a national champion would be through a playoff system. An eight team playoff would all that would be necessary to decide the national champion and the system could be tweaked to work within the current bowl structure, preserving tradition and finally giving college football a system to find the undisputed national champion.

Works cited:

Bowl Alliance. Wikipedia.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Alliance

Bowl Championship Series. Wikipedia.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Championship_Series

Bowl Coalition. Wikipedia.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Coalition

SFAA College Football Playoff Proposals. http://www.sportsfansofamerica.com/FansInAction/Football/playoffs1.htm

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