I know, I know...everyone agrees that BCS stands for Bull Crap System, and looking at the upcoming yawnfest of a bowl season we have every right to continue our annual pointless grumblings for the playoff chanpionship that will never, ever come.
Still, if we are going to bitch we should offer some solutions that would work if only the corrupt powers that be would listen. Here's my suggestion.
Abolish the BCS
Why is there an "elite league within a league"? The NCAA designates Division 1A football (or whatever the hell they call it now), and the pollsters vote from a pool of all of them. Then, the computer program calculates out some mystery combination of ingredients and gives us official "BCS Rankings" that include all of these teams.
Fine and dandy so far.
The problem is when we have this retarded sub-category of schools that don't count as "BCS Teams" because they don't play in "BCS Conferences". Included in this sub category are TCU and Boise State, two schools that both the pollsters and the computers agree are Top 6 teams, but still somehow not worthy of being "BCS teams".
Meanwhile, perpetual losers like Vanderbilt, Baylor and Duke are full blown BCS schools even though they would all be at least 4 touchdown underdogs to BSU or TCU, who are "NOT qualified"?
Horseshit.
You have the polls, you have the computer rankings, and that's plenty to decide who should go where. Forget the BCS conference champions "right" to an elite bowl over schools that are ranked higher. This is a joke if you are threatening to have a Top 5 team not make the "Bowl Championship Series" so some 18th ranked team from a "BCS Conference" can limp in instead.
Oh, and as far as the value of winning your conference counting for something, well, I say fine. Let it. But not at the expense of better teams who happen to play in "lower ranked" conferences that aren't filled with the traditionally glamorous schools.
Anyway, enough bitching and on to what will work.
Set up the NCAA Playoff System.
No more BCS shit. Here's how it would work.
Take the "Sweet 16" teams, which will include the winners of all 12 NCAA division 1A conferences, plus 4 at large births as determined by the final "BCS" rankings.
Seed the teams according to their rankings.
Divide the 8 games into the four choice venues currently not used for "BCS Bowls", and host two games apiece over a long weekend of playoffs.
For example:
December 19th-20th:
Orlando: #1 vs #16; #8 vs #9
Dallas: #2 vs #15; #7 vs #10
Atlanta: #3 vs #14; #6 vs #11
Las Vegas: #4 vs #13; #5 vs #12
Then, after the weekend of football is completed, the teams are re-seeded for the Elite Eight, that will be divided into the four current BCS Bowl venues.
December 26th-27th:
Pasadena: #1 vs #8
Miami: #2 vs #7
New Orleans: #3 vs #6
Phoenix: #4 vs #5
One week later, two of those venues will host the Final Four.
January 2nd-3rd
Miami: #1 vs #4
New Orleans: #2 vs #3
One week later, the championship game in one of the BCS venues not selected for the Final Four.
January 9th:
Pasadena: NCAA Championship Game
Anyway, that's my plan. What do you think?
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