Alex Jenkins
Mrs. Boreson
Expository Writing, P-6
Essay
02-03-09
In the article “Pros, Cons of a college football playoff,” it points out how surveys consistently show a majority of fans for a BCS playoff” (USA Today). The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a five-game plan for post-season college football; while one of the games, the BCS Championship, has the top two ranked teams play. The remaining four games have eight other highly regarded teams. Overall, NCAA Division 1 teams are ranked by the strength of their schedule, the quality of teams they defeated, and how they played during. Today, the BCS standings consist of the top 25 ranked teams according to two different human polls and an average of six computer rankings. The USA Today Coaches Poll, the Harris Interactive College Football Poll and the AP poll. These three factors each count as one-third of a team’s score in the standings; however, with this system almost every year there is disputation when it comes time for the two top ranked teams to be picked for the national championship game. The BCS should feature the top eight ranked teams in a tournament to determine the national champion. Year after year, the BCS system creates an unclear decision as to who the top ranked teams are, not all of the top ranked teams can be compared fairly and college football needs to have an effective playoff system like every other sport to determine a national champion.
The BCS system creates an unclear decision as to whom the top ranked teams are. Some years there are three or four unbeaten teams who have convincingly won against everyone they played, but other years there is not even one unbeaten team and several with one loss. The BCS originated in 1998 after Michigan and Nebraska went undefeated throughout the entire season and each claimed a national title. As stated on the website Sports Hubla, “Since the BCS was adopted, we have had one split national champion in 2003 (and if you ask Auburn, another in 2004)” (Newberry 2). Louisiana State and Southern California had one loss ending with LSU ranked number one in the USA Today Coaches Poll and USC number one in the computer AP. After a few minor changes to the BCS, the next season again resulted with more controversy. Auburn ended up undefeated and ranked number three. They won their bowl game while one-loss, number two ranked Oklahoma lost again in the national championship. A tournament would prevent both of these exapmles entirely (Newberry 2).
The top teams are made difficult to compare and rank higher than one-another with the way that they are measured. NCAA Division 1 teams harly play other teams outside of their own conference. This causes a disadvantage to teams with schedules of lesser quality. One example of many happened in 2005. An article from Active Rain explains how Boise State went 12-0, but was ranked eighth at the end of the season, ending their hopes of becoming champions (Williams 2). They went on to win their bowl game against one of the powerhouses, Oklahoma. The only other undefeated team in the regular season, Ohio State, lost in the national championship game leaving Boise State unbeaten and without even a chance to own a title themselves. Although, this is not uncommon. This again happened this past 2009 season ending with Utah beating Alabama to complete their perfect season.
College football must come into conformity with other sports and have an effective playoff system. A better system would be to keep everything the same in college football except have the top eight ranked teams compete in a tournament bracket. Starting with number one versus number eight, number two versus number seven, and so forth. The BCS standings would continue to stay the same and keep everyone in favor of keeping the BCS happy. The two teams to make it through play in the national championship game and all othe bowl games are still played. “Every pro sport and even college baskteball pick the best however many teams there are that season and let them play. As every fan knows, there are always upsets and anybody has a chance” (College Football Poll). A tournament would help the sport give other contenders a chance.
Although having this tournament would be completely fairer to other teams; some are still in favor of the flawed BCS. Some claim that a playoff system could diminish the regular season and destroy tradition. Others say the longer season would put more pressure on students during final exam time. Maybe the strongest argument of the opposition is money. According to USA Today, the most recent plan would gross nearly $376 million a year (“Pros” 2). The tournament would still enable all bowl games to be played and it would only add one or two more weeks, depending on the plan used; and for only two to four teams. This still keeps the tradition of the bowl games and also gives a clear champion. Some could argue that the ninth or tenth ranked teams deserve to be in the playoff, but that is much less controversy than choosing only two.
The BCS should feature the top eight teams in a tournament to determine the national champion. The current system creates an unclear decision as to who the top ranked teams are, not all of the top teams can be compared, and college football must come into conformity with other sports. Do you not think that a champion should be decided by the players rather than what the media or computers say? An article from Gator Country openly states “…trust the process and we will get right 80 percent of the time” (Martin 2). This error rate could and should be eliminated.
