The BCS National Championship Game

The BCS National Championship Game

The Best Game Of The Bowl Season?

During the preseason, you make your predictions on the two teams that will face each other in the national championship game. You try to make yourself look like a college football guru. Outsmarting the media, the analysts, and the other college football geniuses are the goals you have set. Then, each week passes by, and the big game gets closer and closer. You can’t wait until the BCS national championship. The top two NCAA football teams in the country are going to square off. Well, the top two teams according to a bunch of polls and computer data. What? No playoff. Please don’t get me started.

The national championship game has just started… and it has just ended. Team A beat Team B something like 31 – 14, or maybe it was 28 – 6, or 45 – 18. Those scores hardly represent a good close battle between #1 and #2. It’s hard to believe, but that is what the outcome of the BCS national title game has looked like more times than I like. You remember the year that Miami killed Nebraska in the Rose Bowl. How can we forget the pasting that the Sooners received from the Trojans? I caught up on some much needed sleep the year that Oklahoma played Florida State in the Orange Bowl. When I awoke, I realized that I didn’t miss much with the final score being Oklahoma Sooners 13 and Florida State Seminoles 2. College football fans would love to have the exciting BCS champs games we witnessed when Texas defeated Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl in January 2006. A game like the multiple overtime thriller between Miami and Ohio State would also raise any college football fans’ blood pressure. The question I have is why can’t each BCS championship game live up to the hype?

Is it because of the long lay-off? Yes, I know that teams practice and study film on the upcoming opponent. But they don’t take part in a real game for close to 40 or 50 days. This type of break has to have a physical and mental effect on both teams.

Are the participating teams really the best two teams in the country? Well, the polls say so. The media says so. The computers say so. The coaches that voted say so. So, it must be true. Some of this information shows that Team “X” is .0425 ahead of Team “Y”. Team “Z” has been ranked #1 all season long, is undefeated, and plays in a BCS conference. These factors mean that Team “Z” is the best in the country. We have incorporated a system that relies on decimal points to pair up the two teams that will play in the division 1A college football championship game. All of the money that this sport brings in, and that is the best the NCAA reps can do. A team depends on some formula to place them in the big game.

Could the following parts make up some sort of solution? Part #1) No matter what, there should be NO preseason polls. Well, ones that don’t matter anyway. Some will argue that this was the reason Auburn got snubbed in 2004 after going undefeated and playing in the toughest conference in college football. They started too far down in the preseason polls. Is it fair for the Tigers to be blamed for this? Auburn didn’t rank themselves in the preseason #16 spot or whatever it was. Part #2) Games against division 1AA opponents should not count at all. Some rule exists where teams can count a win against a division 1AA opponent towards bowl eligibility every four years. Get rid of this rule and stop playing division 1AA teams. If it is not gotten rid of, then the division 1A team should receive a huge penalty in the standings. If teams were penalized a lot for playing division 1AA teams a few years ago, Auburn would have no argument in the 2004 BCS title game discussion. Part #3) Take the “whole” season into consideration. Don’t just look at the unexpected loss at the beginning of the season or the great win at the end. I know the BCS says it measures the entire season, but does it really? How can a two-loss Southern Cal team be ranked fifth in the BCS standings? The Trojans lost to two unranked teams. The Trojans beat some good opponents during the 2006 season. Were these teams just good and not great? Take a look at what Southern Cal’s opponents did this season. I mean, Arkansas and Nebraska lost their last game of the season. Name one quality team that Notre Dame beat this year. Cal and Oregon went in the tank also. Then, you have to consider the fact that Southern Cal lost their last game of the season to an unranked UCLA team. I always heard that a late loss hurts a team worse in the standings. It didn’t seem to hurt the Trojans too much. Who’s to say that LSU isn’t the best team right now? Take a look at the number one team, Ohio State. What did the Buckeyes do to earn that spot before the season even started? What did Wake Forest do to earn a spot out of the top 25, maybe even the top 50, in the preseason? Wait until a few games have been played and then rank the teams. Part #4) The college football season should end on the same day for each and every team. Remember the old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Is it possible to say that is what happened to Michigan this season? How did Michigan drop in the polls by not even playing a single game after the showdown with Ohio State? Florida, Southern Cal, and a few other teams played for two more weeks. It would only be fair to have each team end its season on the same day. Part #5) Judge what the team has done on the field. Rank each team on what it did. Wins and defeating teams with good records should mean a lot. Losses, losing to teams with bad records, and playing division 1AA teams and division 1A bottom-feeders should mean a lot also. It should mean a lot of negative points when figuring their spot in the polls.

A better game could take place if these things were considered when matching up the two teams to play in the BCS national championship game. I never mentioned the word "playoff". There will probably never be one. Many fans forget that the sole purpose of the BCS is to put #1 vs. #2 in a national title game. That's it. But has the BCS really done this every year?