Monday, November 21, 2005
Is the BCS Really All Bad?
It was decided long ago by men on high horses that the Bowl Championship Series is a sham. Reporters, columnists, analysts, anchors, you, me — we pretty much all agree. From the moment the computers churned out the rankings that stuck Nebraska in the national championship a few years back, we had a travesty on our hands.
Since then, BCS bashing has become an annual event. And that's fair. The system has major flaws.
But the thing is, it's kind of a good idea.
Well, maybe not the BCS itself. It has too many problems to mention. But the general idea — that of not having any playoffs and just putting two teams in the national title game — sits better with me than I thought it did. Maybe college football has had it right all along.
For as long as I can remember staring at box scores and reading sports pages, I've wondered why the concept of playoffs is the modus operandi for every major sport. I've never really understood.
It's not that I don't like playoff atmospheres. March Madness is like a holiday for me. Baseball playoffs define the fall season.
But just because I enjoy watching it doesn't mean I understand it.
See, I don't get how a baseball team can play 162 games and then have their entire season come down to a five-game series. I don't get how a college basketball team can go 27-4 and then see their season end in horrible disappointment with a first-round upset.
That's the way it is, though, and apparently the way it's supposed to be, if you listen to the advocates of a playoff in college football. But, while I would love to see a playoff, maybe it isn't the best option.
In college football, the regular season means more than postseason positioning. It means everything. And I kind of like that.
Of course, the BCS throws a major kink in the works. It's about a million times worse to see a team denied the chance at a national championship because of a computer than to see a team denied the chance at a title because of a postseason loss.
But, man, if the BCS actually worked, if it guarantee the two best teams would meet in the championship, then I think I'd really like that system.
Unfortunately, no system can make those kinds of guarantees. If there are three undefeated teams, who's to decide which two will make it? And I guess that's why playoffs exist.
So maybe I'm way off base here. Maybe college football does need a playoff.
But I don't know. There's something special about a season that matters. And that's what we have in college football.
Maybe it should stay that way.