It’s been more disappointing than Frank TV, more unsatisfying than having one Pringle.
No, this isn’t a marketing lecture, and I’m not talking about the Wisconsin football team, either. But close.
The Bowl Championship Series — BCS for short — is celebrating its 10th birthday this season, but it deserves a firm spanking before any pieces of celebratory cake should be handed out. This, of course, you already know.
No. 7 Texas Tech upset No. 1 Texas Saturday night, and prior to Sunday’s unveiling of Week 10’s BCS hierarchy, college football fans — dressed as anyone from Ali G to the Joker — were collectively wondering how the new top three would shape up.
If the regular season were to end today, 9-0 Penn State would be left out of the National Championship game in Miami, which happened to undefeated Auburn in ’04.
Fortunately, the season doesn’t end today, and given their remaining schedules, it’s quite unlikely that Alabama, Penn State and Texas Tech will all finish unscathed. But even if exactly two teams finish undefeated and meet up on South Beach Jan. 8, the system is still flawed. And help doesn’t seem to be on its way any time soon, either.
Everyone and their brother would obviously love to see a playoff system implemented into the college football commandments; it would solve virtually everything. I’d like a free vacation to Hugh Hefner’s mansion, too. Let’s face it: Neither is happening in the immediate future.
But the real problem with college football isn’t that it lacks a postseason tournament like its basketball counterpart; the problem lies in the imbalance of teams’ schedules. There’s no question the Big XII and SEC are tougher conferences than the Big Ten this season. But does that mean that ‘Bama and Tech are better than the Nittany Lions? It’s impossible to tell.
Perhaps the scheduling decisions should be more closely regulated by the NCAA. College basketball now has the Big Ten-ACC Challenge every year. Football could use something similar.
See, it’s difficult enough to accurately rank teams during a short 12-game season. And when Penn State plays Coastal Carolina, Syracuse and Temple in three of its first four games, it makes ranking even more difficult. What did help was that PSU played Oregon State — who went on to beat USC — in Week 2. Playing common opponents is a step in the right direction in terms of gauging where certain teams are in relation to each other. But as the trend of patty-cake non-conference scheduling continues, common opponents — at least worthy ones — are becoming more rare than a Michael Phelps chest hair, meaning the “Who’s better?” questions are becoming more and more difficult to answer.
But as Mac Dre would say, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Look what happened last year.
In the final game of the 2007 regular season, Kansas lost to Missouri. Both teams finished with one loss; the Tigers’ sole defeat came against mighty Oklahoma, a team the Jayhawks were lucky enough not to face all season. Missouri went on to lose again to the Sooners in the Big XII Championship game, but Kansas earned the Orange Bowl (BCS) bid.
In other words, Missouri was punished for beating Kansas, earning an extra game and losing. So the moral of the story is: Get all A’s in easy classes, and you’ll get into better schools than the kids with straight B’s in all APs.
Is that what the BCS is teaching? Sure seems like it.
The Kansas-Missouri dilemma also raises a separate issue: Why do some conferences have title games when others don’t? Makes no sense to me.
How can you compare seasons when Texas plays Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Missouri, plus a conference title game; Alabama plays Florida, LSU, Georgia and a different title game, while Penn State faces Ohio State, Illinois and Michigan State, but no title game?
It’s simple: You can’t.
College football desperately needs some sort of uniformity. The NCAA needs to put its foot down and provide more severe penalties for teams scheduling pushover non-conference affairs and add incentive for playing the nation’s elite.
Had Ohio State played Buffalo instead of USC and finished with just one loss to Penn State, OSU would still be in BCS contention. But the BCS computers scoff at extra L’s on teams’ resumes, even if they’re against top-10 programs.
Basically, the current risk of playing the nation’s best outweighs the reward. That needs to change.
Wisconsin should not be playing Cal Poly on senior day, but that’s not Bret Bielema’s fault. Had the Badgers been contending for a BCS bowl berth, he merely would have been taking advantage of a flawed system. Now they’re 4-5, and the point is moot. But you get the idea.
So I ask you: Who’s more deserving of a BCS title bid, undefeated Penn State from the Big Ten, one-loss Florida from the SEC or one-loss Texas from the Big XII — assuming the latter two win their respective conference championships?
It’s like comparing apples to oranges in a language spoken in zeros and ones. The least the NCAA can do is try to make it galas versus Granny Smiths instead.
Derek is a junior majoring in economics. Think you have an answer to the current college football mess? E-mail him at [email protected].
