Did That Really Just Happen?

As I lay in bed last night waiting for my heart to stop pounding after that Boise State victory in the Fiesta Bowl, I couldn't help but think two things. First: was that the best game I've ever watched? Frankly, I'm not sure but in this world of short attention spans, it ranks right up there.

Second, and more interestingly to me, I just couldn't shake the notion that this game would never happen in the NFL. It's just the nature of the college game that can lead to these crazy matchups that make no sense. Nobody is really that big of an underdog in the pros because the league has created so much parity. So, yes you're surprised when Oakland wins a game, but at the end of the season, everybody wins a couple of games and everybody loses a couple. But BSU/OU last night you had an established powerhouse from an established conference playing a team epitomized by their quarterback. A redneck who outwardly discusses his seeing a shrink and has some ill-advised facial hair. It's a rag-tag bunch, they're scrappy, don't count them out, they're the underdogs... oh and they're undefeated. Still.

Having watched so many more NFL than college games this year I was ready to give up in the game after that horrendous interception thrown by the Z Man (as I'm told he likes to be called) I was considering writing a "most heartbreaking loss ever?" post. 18 points is a helluva lot to blow on the verge of an historic season. But, with the college football rules allowing the clock to stop on a first down Boise had time to drive down the field and get within striking range of the end zone. In the NFL they would have run out of time on the clock and had to throw a couple of hail mary's. Why doesn't the NFL have this rule? Isn't it unfair to watch the clock run out while some chubby referee takes his time spotting the ball? Thus, it eliminates any play not right next to the sidelines and your only chance is the defense completely falling asleep. Bah, I say.

Finally, how great was the lateral for the TD, WR pass for TD, Statue of Liberty play sequence? I know announcers like to suck off NFL coaches who call a trick play on 2nd and 1 in the third quarter, but it takes some serious balls to call those plays on 4th and the ballgame twice then a two point conversion for the ballgame. Just going for the conversion takes some serious cahones. I promise you there is not a coach in the pro game who has it in them to do it. It's becoming an old stodgy game and losingsome of the flare that really seperated it from football. Great game last night and substantially better than any pro game I've seen all year. Congrats blue fielders.

Count Me Grumpy About College Football

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Counterpoint: BCS Is Total Shit

One of our frequent commenters (and a good friend, surprise!), Jason decided he felt the need to weigh in on the whole BCS situation in order to shoot down my every argument. So, I present to you our very first ever guest post.

College football needs a change. While I believe the BCS system has enhanced college football, a simple playoff system would increase its popularity and fairness. First, what has the BCS done right? The BCS allows the number 1 and number 2 ranked teams to play each other for the national championship. This was a very important step for college football and took a great deal of work. A playoff system is the next step in the evolution of college football.

We will start with a little history. In 1990 and 1991 college football saw co-national champions. Because we don’t like ties, for the 1992 season the Bowl Coalition was formed. This system tried to improve upon the system of conference tie-ins to bowl games by allowing the top two teams to play for the national championship. The problem was that the Rose Bowl would not break its tie-ins so the Pac 10 and Big Ten were excluded from the arrangement. In 1995 this system became the Bowl Alliance which changed a few things but still did not include the Pac-10 and Big Ten. Only in 1998 were these two conferences included to create the BCS. The BCS tweaks its formula each year, but in 2006 has automatic bids for the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, and SEC conferences. On top of that, four other schools can earn bids through a number of detailed rules. Finally, if Notre Dame wins more games than it loses and Charlie Weis tells the media he deserves to be in a BCS bowl, Notre Dame goes to a BCS bowl.

In order to make a playoff work, it has to improve upon the BCS, but stay within a number of ground rules.

Players are student athletes and a playoff should not increase the number of games. This is a major argument against a playoff. To think that major conferences and FOX really care about the education of the football player is a stretch. Why would you introduce a twelfth game if you’re worried about the education of the youth? Because of this rule, a playoff system can only contain two or three rounds.

Don’t kill the regular season with a playoff. Any playoff system needs to ensure teams can’t coast at the end of the season. It also has to keep the interest of the lower tier schools.

College football has peculiar institutions that add to its appeal. College Football has unique systems like polls and bowls that should be a part of any playoff. Any system that allows Boomer Esiason and Anthony Munoz to vote has to be kept in order to keep the support of the Bengals fans.

Respect the conferences. Conferences and conference rivalries are huge in college football. A playoff system should respect the major conferences by giving automatic bids to conference champions.

Money Money Money Any system needs to make boat loads of money because that’s what its all about these days, right?

With these rules I propose my plan which has probably been proposed by 500 other people. I’m sorry. I’m too lazy to read what other people wrote unless it was put on The Goat.

The Proposal

I propose an 8 team playoff to decide the national championship. The eight teams would come from automatic bids from the six major conferences and two at-large bids. The two at-large bids would come from the two highest ranked teams which are not conference champions. The polling could use the current system or some other alternative as long as Boomer and The Rocket still have a voice. All other bowls should be kept and this system will not detract from them anymore then the BCS does now

An eight team playoff would require three weeks. By subtracting the twelfth game (Should teams really be able to go to a bowl with a .500 record?) this would be in line with the current system. Only two teams would play a fourteenth game. Just this year, Purdue will play fourteen games so the academic argument is void. The first round of the playoffs would be played the week after the final week of the season. The top four teams would play home games to give them an advantage. This keeps the regular season competitive. Teams will need to compete to win their conference and will also have to win to stay in the top 4 because of the importance of home field advantage. It also adds a second tier of interest for the schools competing for the two at-large spots. Those schools will add the spoiler element that makes college basketball so enjoyable.

After the first week the winning teams would play each other and the losing teams would play each other in the traditional bowl games. The winner and loser bowls would rotate with a loser bowl always hosting the national championship game. This is how the money comes into play. The first week will add a lot of TV revenue and the second week will keep or exceed the current BCS revenue. Finally, the national championship game would pit the two top teams against each other a week after the bowl games just like the current system.

Discussion

The proposed playoff system is an easy architecture to implement to advance the current BCS system. The system does not increase the number of games. It keeps the regular season competitive. It keeps the bowls, the polls and the importance of the conferences. I know people will argue that this system will have its own controversies and its own problems. This is true. The system will not be perfect, but it will improve upon the system that we have today. In 1992 people argued about the Bowl Coalition because it crowned mythical national champions. They cried in 1995 when the Bowl Alliance did nothing to fix the problems. Today we still argue about the BCS. Many of us relish the days of the 10-10 tie or think about the replay implications of the Stanford band entering the field or the personal four for running over the trombone player, but those days are over. College football is big-business, and if that’s the way it has to be then lets at least continue the trend of improving the crowning of a champion by implementing a playoff system.

(I’m sorry this is so boring. I write technical papers for the government. Passive voice is my life. Think about it: Jeanne Zelasko as a sideline reporter.)

Without The BCS There Would Be No Crystal Football

As a Purdue alumnus I really don't have any pipe dreams wherein I see the Boilermakers going to the national championship game...um, ever. Hell, we only win the Big Ten every thirty years or so. Thus, I don't really have a personal interest in any system that's in place. Just thought you should know.

It's getting to be a lonely club; those of us who don't hate the Bowl Championship Series. Now in its ninth year, the system that was supposed to cure the ills of college football's ranking system has become the most convenient whipping boy (with the possible exception of Pete Rose) in all of sports. Of course what people often neglect to mention is that there's only been one split championship (Auburn and USC in 2004) and a lot griping from teams who feel slighted. But surely the entire system can't be dismantled simply due to a bunch of whining, can it? Wouldn't that just be encouraging Jay Mariotti?

Let's get it out of the way: no system is perfect. Whether you favor a four team or eight team (or even the clinically insane 16 team) playoff there still will be unavoidable controversy. There are a lot of people who love the NCAA basketball tournament and have managed to convince themselves that it's the perfect system. Guess what, it's not (more on this later). While the idea of striving for perfection is noble, the BCS has accomplished what everybody wanted and expected. It created a Super Bowl of college football. And, nobody misses that game (except for my mom, but she's more of a pro football fan). The matchups have been complelling and entertaining, and generally more fun to watch than the Super Bowl. Sounds like a system that's working to me.

So, why are people completely obsessed with the concept of a playoff? Best I can tell, we have a playoff in every other American sports league and people don't know any other way. But, hasn't anybody noticed how we've completely undervalued the regular season? The Steelers won the championship from a Wild Card and the Cardinals squeaked into the playoffs in the middle of an almost-epic backslide with a barely better than .500 record. I probably don't even need to mention the NBA, but let me remind you that over half the teams make the postseason. In the NCAA basketball tourney, fourth and fifth place teams from some conferences get in every year.

We've created an atmosphere where it's not the team who plays great all season who is lauded as the best team, but rather the team who gets hot at the right time. I, for one, like the idea of that early fall game between Notre Dame and Michigan having the potential to make or break a season. This is why it's so goddamned exciting. Plus, there's the argument that in the Ohio State and Michigan game this year, both teams would have already qualified for a playoff and thus could have rested players and not had to give 100%. How sad would that be for a game with so much tradition? I kind of like the idea of every game being for all the marbles.

Then, of course there's the money. You've probably heard it all, but basically the current bowl system is insanely profitable for the NCAA, the host cities and particular the participating schools. Fans seem to travel regardless of the status of their team's bowl (for example the Champs Sports Bowl in tropical Orlando, Florida). Everybody is fat and happy right now. Do I think that a playoff could potentially make everybody just as much money? Probably. It's like your one buddy who's been at the same job even though he's had other opportunites that could probably make him more successful. You keep asking him about it and he just shrugs and says "yeah, but I'd have to learn a whole new job and I might even have to move." Hard to argue with, really.

Finally, at the end of the day everybody controls their own fate. Think you deserve to be in the big game, Michigan? Maybe you should have won that game in Columbus. And, there's still the reasonable subjective qualities of the coaches' poll in play. Living in SEC country I get force-fed a lot of Florida games. And, realistically, anybody who has watched the Gators barely edge out South Carolina and a crummy Florida State team in recent weeks cannot reasonably think that they are the second best team in the country. Beat FSU by four touchdowns and then we'll talk. What I'm trying to say here is: if you want to be considered in the top two teams in the country, go out and play like it.

In the end, I'd like to think the designers of the BCS had two (at least somewhat) noble priorities in mind when designing the stystem. One, have one game to determine the national championship. And two, do so without completely dismantling the current system. I'd say they accomplished said goals. Now let's not ruin it Fox by letting Joe Buck announce the game.