March Madness has come and gone and, by any measure, this was one of the more exciting NCAA men's basketball championships in some time. Florida, led by the scintillating Joakim Noah, won it all. Just as historic as the Gators' title run was George Mason University slipping on the glass slipper and becoming the smallest school to make the Final Four in the post-Bird/Magic era of the NCAA tournament.
With this past year's Rose Bowl being the exception, the last few years have brought constant criticism to the way college football decides its national champion. The BCS is ridiculed as being outdated, inefficient, and more beneficial to the television networks covering college football than to the schools playing it. Many pundits point to the excitement of March Madness, and a say a postseason tournament is the only way to properly crown a Division I-A football champion. These pundits say that it is a system that is both fairer and more telegenic than the current BCS system.
As enjoyable as March Madness is, however, the BCS provides the opportunity for both a more exciting and more just crowning of a national champion.
Both college basketball fans and opponents of the BCS point to the annual buzzer-beaters and Cinderella stories that come from the basketball tournament each March as proof that football needs a playoff. What bears repeating, however, is that every week of the college football season is a like a round of a single-elimination tournament for the national championship.
Megagames like Miami/Florida State and Texas/Oklahoma mean so much because these rivals have the opportunity to destroy the title hopes of their opponents. As big a basketball rivalry as Duke and North Carolina is, the Tar Heels could get blown out by 20 points by the Blue Devils twice in the regular season, and once in the ACC tournament, and still go on to win a national championship. I enjoy the atmosphere of Duke/UNC as much as the next guy, but it pales in comparison to the atmosphere at the Iron Bowl when either Alabama or Auburn is in the national title hunt.
The de facto playoff nature of college football's regular season also allows for the huge upsets that many feel make March Madness what it is. As great as Bryce Drew's famous three-pointer was, is it really that much more exciting than the three-pointer that Boston College used to beat Notre Dame in 1993? And the fact that Doug Flutie's Hail Mary against the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes did not come in a formal playoff does not make it any less exciting than Lorenzo Charles' dunk that gave Jimmy Valvano his national title?
While the BCS makes every week of college football a playoff and allows its sport to provide year-long excitement that is usually only found in college hoops in March, it is also a much more fair way of determining a national champion. While, in years unlike 2005, there might be some dispute over which two teams played in the BCS title game, there was never any doubt that the two title contenders had displayed the excellence of one of the top two or three teams in the nation over the course of the entire season.
If Florida's basketball team had not won the SEC title, they probably would not have been recognized as a No. 4 seed, which would have meant there were at least 16 schools that had had better seasons than the Gators. Yet, the manner in which college basketball decides its national champion allows for a hot Florida team to win it all.
Furthermore, whereas George Mason's win over Connecticut was probably the most exciting moment of the college basketball season, how fair is it that GMU advances further in the college basketball championship format than UConn after the schools' respective seasons? And to those who say the BCS could never be more fair than a playoff tournament because teams like the 2004 Auburn Tigers are not even allowed to play for a national championship, the question I pose to them is this: how fair did Hofstra think the NCAA tournament process was while they were watching a GMU team who they beat twice, and had superior power ranking to, advance to the Final Four?
As much as this writer loved this year's edition of March Madness (as I do usually every year), it also reminded me how much I love the season-long atmosphere that the BCS creates for college football. While college hoops has three great weeks in March, college pigskin has four great months every autumn.
April 12, 2006
Ben Johnson:
While I agree that the regular season in college football is much more exciting than the regular season in college basketball, I disagree that every game is a playoff.
It is interesting that you used the Florida State - Miami and the Texas-Oklahoma scenario. This brings up exactly my point regarding the bcs. It only rewards the teams with the richest traditions in college football, thus it doesn’t make every game a playoff in college football. It only rewards an elite class, which incedently created the CFA - College Football Association 25 years ago. The mission of the CFA was to create a super division in college football where only a chosen few (The traditionally elite programs) would reap the greatest benefits of television and the Bowl payouts.
Now, this mindset would have worked 25 years ago since these teams were the traditionally dominant programs. The problem today is that the 85 scholarship rule and significantly changed the landscape of college football where any team (BCS or non-BCS) can beat any team on any given day. Yet, we are still playing with a mindset that Oklahoma, Texas, Miami, Florida, Florida State, Tennessee, LSU, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, UCLA, Alabama, Auburn, and Nebraska are still held as the elite schools when recent history has said anything but.
The reality is that this is what the BCS would like everyone to think…That the regular season is in fact a playoff. The reality is that the playoff only occurs for the precious few teams that are listed above.
Ask Utah, Oregon, Auburn, TCU, Tulane, BYU, Marshall, California, Washington State, Washington recently if their perfect or near perfect seasons were held in the same regard as Texas, USC, LSU, Oklahoma or Miami’s perfect or near perfect seasons. While we can claim over the last 3 decades that these elite programs have been better over the long haul, it does little to determine superiority within a given season. A playoff must occur in college football and I think we the system I have proposed in my book “The Grass Ain’t Blue in Georgia - The Story Behind The BCS Controversy,” we can actually include it as part of the regular season, thus…truly making every game a playoff for all 100+ teams in Division I-A college football.
The current claim that every game is a playoff in college football is grossly inaccurate and brings the hypocritical elements of college football in clear and present focus. It’s about time we as fans to something about this gross unfairness and make the sport inclusive for all.
Respectfully,
Ben Johnson
April 12, 2006
Michael Beshara:
Ben,
While I respect your points, and agree that I would have loved to see Shawn King’s Tulane team or Alex Smith’s Utes have a shot at the National Title, I am going to quote from the third paragraph of your post to back-up a point I made about the BCS.
In the third paragraph, you write:
“The problem today is that the 85 scholarship rule and significantly changed the landscape of college football where any team (BCS or non-BCS) can beat any team on any given day. “
I completely agree with you in this point, and would further add that the exposure of “mid-major” conferences on cable television and the increase in off-season developmental programs for high school atheltes have further deepened the pool of gifted players of which said “mid-major” schools can cull talent from.
However, the key point in your quote is, in my mind, “on any given day.” There is no doubt that, if Reggie Bush did not explode in the second half, Fresno State could have beaten USC this past autumn. But, even if the Bulldogs had won, would you think that they were a better team than the Trojans?
One of my biggest problems with March Madness (and, thusly, a reason I enjoy the BCS) is that the structure of a ‘one-and-out’ tournament rarely rewards the best team, or team that has had the best season. Yes, upsets are more prevalent in this day and age of college football, but I do not think that a team like the recent vintage Utah or Louisville powerhouses would have such sterling records if they played in a BCS conference.
Is it unfair to teams like Bowden’s undefeated Tulane team? Absolutely. But I also prefer it to the alternative, where a team like West Virginia or Auburn could have gotten hot (both were playing as good as anyone in the country for a stretch in the late season last year) in a tournament setting and denied us the epic USC-Texas contest.
Is the college football season really a play-off every week for all 119 I-A teams? No, and I concede I might have been guilty of hyperbole in that instance. But, do I think the BCS is the best way to crown a National Champion? Compared to the alternatives, I say yes, and it seems to be a point we just happen to disagree on.
In closing, I am an avid reader of any and all college football publications, and am going to seek out your book to learn the details of the play-off system you propose.
Less Than Five Months ‘Til Football Season,
Michael Beshara
May 16, 2006
Jake Rahorn:
Although I somewhat agree, I have to say a couple things regarding the BCS. That is the beauty of having March Madness…It gives everyone a pretty fair shot at the title, and it is the simple fact that you have to win or go home, with nothing else in between. The BCS is flat out stupid in my opinion. How can you say that USC is a better team than Auburn in 2004, or should I say how do you know Oklahoma is better than Auburn? From what we saw in that championship game concludes my point…Can you really pick the two best teams based on the regular season? Maybe. Can you really say who is going to win? Maybe. But here is the catch…The fact that the games have to be played in the March Madness Tournament make it interesting because anyone can lose in any given moment, no matter how good they played during the regular season…The BCS should still be there, but they should take the top 8 or maybe top 9 and have a play in game for the 8 seed. Let the games play out and see who the real champion is..then there is a leveler playing field and there is more for a team to play for then just a victory on December 20th.