I hear you all loud and clear.
However, NCAA Division I-A Football (and I refuse to call it by their proper FBS title) is not the National Football League, the Arena Football League, or even NCAA Division I-AA football. A playoff system would be much worse for D1 football than the BCS has seemingly been for fans over the past 10 years. Personally, I would love to see a playoff. I have done like every other college football fan out there and developed their own thesis on the college football playoff system they would love to see put into action. I have the perfect system for a football playoff that could put the forementioned organziations to shame.
But, Division 1-A Football is a totally different monster. There are literally dozens of schools that are driven by their football programs in D1-A. Do you think Notre Dame, Nebraska, Alabama, and Michigan enjoy their current slumps? These are storied schools who pride theirselves in being an alum, a student, or a fan of these programs. There is so much passion in D1-A football, its insane. Yet, in no way am I saying a D1-AA school isn't passionate - I am a student of a newcomer to the D-1 system, and football is a big deal for the University of Central Arkansas. However, there is not the same publicity, pressure, or presence in 1-AA as there is in 1-A. UCA finished 2nd in their conference in their first year, posted a 6-5 record, and no one is calling for Coach Clint Conque's head ... on the flip side, in 2006, the University of Arkansas Razorbacks finish first in the SEC with a 10-2 record, 7-1 SEC record, a valiant effort against the LSU Tigers in the SEC Championship Game, and a sub-par perfomance against Wisconsin in the Capitol One Bowl, and everyone wants Houston Nutt gone. Of course, those are two difference scenarios, but you get the picture. D1-A schools expect more, and feel they deserve to be champions, and will roll over any one who can't deliver it. Houston Nutt resigned after this past season, took 3 million dollars, and went to a rival school, and everyone in Arkansas hates him for that.
Division 1-AA playoffs work because each school isn't driven by their athletics - Appalachian State, McNeese State, Northern Iowa, and Montana are at the top of the polls in D1-AA football, but in three of four years, they may be at the bottom. Fluxuations occure because of the rarity of talent that leaks down from D1-A football programs. Most football programs are not hit hard by missing the playoffs, simply because they are, more times than not, driven by academics, or some other avenue being a university. Playoffs work because football doesn't mean life of death for fans of their D1-AA schools. The players still show the same intesity, have the same heart, and play with the same purpose of being the best, but because they are left out of the elite won't turn the programs for a flip.
Turn the page to D1-A. How many teams, fans, or all the above are either A) unsatisfied with the two teams that are playing for the National Championship, or B) upset they were not selected to play in the National Championship game, or C) all the above.
Answer?
Oklahoma, USC, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. All runners-up to LSU and Ohio State for the National Championship. All but Ohio State and Kansas, one loss teams, shared the same number of losses with two. Five of those teams won their conference. Only two of the teams played head to head, LSU and Virginia Tech, which LSU took the victory. Hawaii posted the only flawless record of any team. Overall, a fairly even playing field. So how does one select two teams and two teams only to play for a championship? Before the BCS came along almost ten years ago now, there were too many agreements between the conferences and the bowls to truely match number one and number two. The BCS did away with the total tie-ins to certain bowls for conferences until the BCS Championship Game selection. The Rose Bowl still strives to match Pac-10 v. Big 10, the Orange Bowl also tries to match Big 12 v. Big East, and the Sugar Bowl with SEC v. ACC. However, there have been instances where this hasn't worked due the the National Championship bids taking the qualified teams. The BCS, not the conferences, determine the tie-ins, and make the deals between bowl sponsors and bowls, not just for the BCS Bowls, but the other useless bowls as well. The BCS selects eight teams to play in four bowl games on or after New Years, and another two to play in the national championship game. Essentially, each year, eight teams are left out, five of which are legitimate, being conference champions (of the BCS conferences), three are at-large. More times than not, one, if not more, team is left "high and dry," a team that easily could have played for a national championship, but was left out in favor of another team. The two most recent instances, 2003 and 2004, three teams were conference champions with equal records. Two played, one went to a BCS bowl, instead of THE BCS Game. In 2003, they took the easy way out (they being the AP) and crowned USC (who was left out, and won their BCS Bowl game against Michigan) and LSU national champions. In 2004-2005, Auburn was left out, won their bowl game, but settled for number two as they watched USC pound Oklahoma. No co-national championship this year. Flash to this year, 2007-2008, the number jumps from three to five conference champions (WV, Hawaii, VT, Oklahoma, and USC), four with equal records, and again, one who is undefeated.
Now, I know you are exhausted, but try to formulate a playoff format you think could work. If you come up empty, take this easy one into consideration: Ten team playoff system based off the BCS Bowl games, re-seeding the teams by their BCS ranking. They bracket would look like this:
(1) OSU
v.
(9) Hawaii
(3) VT
v.
(7) Kansas
(5) Georgia
v.
(6) USC
(4) Oklahoma
v.
(8) West Virginia
(2) LSU
v.
(10) Illinois
Take on the second round however you will, whether you allow the highest seed to have a bye, re-seed, and play on, etc. Let us consider the worst-case scenario - lowest seed wins every game. The second round would then look like this:
(7) Kansas
v.
(9) Hawaii
(8) West Virginia
v.
(10) Illinois
(6) USC
Now, we have a dandy here, eh? Kansas v. Hawaii? Mountaineers and Illini? USC gets bye? OSU, LSU one and done? How about Georgia, who snuk in, and lost? Would Tennessee have won? What about Florida? Auburn? Arkansas? Now, let's say the at-large teams (Georgia, Illinois) lose. Does Michigan, Tennesse, and Florida feel slighted even more? How does the world feel about giving OSU a number one seed to watch them get beat by ... Hawaii?
Fans would love to see upsets, but then again, what about the 109 teams that were left out? If they sit there and watch a one or two, or even three or four seed fall in the first round, what do you think other deserving programs want now? Expand the playoffs, we deserve to be in. Tennessee rolled Georgia in the regular season, and if the Dawgs get rolled by USC, how even of a matchup would Tennessee and USC could have been? Fans of football want to see a cinderella story unfold. People love March Madness, thirteen over four seeds, twelve over fives. George freaking Mason in the Final Four! Can football capture that same excitement? Unless it can expand to sixteen teams, no. Sixteen teams means four rounds, four additional games to the already busy college football season. Even ten teams equals three additional games, and cutting it back to eight would yield the same. Four teams is absurd, simply because two conference champions would be left out, and that would heighten the talk about who's conference is stronger, while leaving no hope for teams like Hawaii, Boise State, and TCU to make their case if they run their own tables.
If I have not yet convinced you that the BCS will have to do, my apologies. Most people thought communism would work and would not be convinced otherwise until the system blew up. Many people think of the BCS as communism. While it may not be the most desirable of systems, but its the best thing we have. Just like our "democracy".
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