Newsmagazine for Shawnee Mission North High School

The Mission

Newsmagazine for Shawnee Mission North High School

The Mission

Newsmagazine for Shawnee Mission North High School

The Mission

Why the BCS Needs Fixing

In 1998, the BCS was founded. From the very start critics, coaches and players have been against this post-season method for college football.

Let me give some examples of people who have spoken out against this system.

Coaches Pete Carrol, Tommy Tuberville and Nick Saban have spoken out against the current. Barak Obama has even spoken out.

“Any sensible person would say that if you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season and many of them have one loss or two losses,” Obama said in a 2008 interview, “there’s no clear, decisive winner. That is why we should be creating a playoff system.”

The point is, if you are a college football fan, there is no reason you wouldn’t want to see a playoff system in College Football.

The last 15 championship games average at about a 33-17 score. That is a 16-point difference. The closest game in the BCS has been a 3-point difference. It has happened only three times so far in 2005, 2008 and 2010.

On the flip side, 8 championship teams have won by more than 14 points. In those 8 games, 5 of the championship teams have won by 20 points or more.

Alabama’s 42-14 win on Jan. 7 over Notre Dame is the highest deficit in a Championship game since 2004 when USC beat Oklahoma 55-19. That championship was actually vacated from USC for the Reggie Bush validations.

The main point is if you want to have a successful postseason system and actually have fans watch these games you need to be able to make the games somewhat close.

Either way, it’s safe to say (no offense to Notre Dame fans) that The Fighting Irish didn’t belong on the other side of the line with Alabama.

We can all see that the BCS committee was mistaken by putting them in that game. I am not taking any credit away from Alabama. They are a great team. But I think any college football fan would love to see Oregon play them for the Championship. Maybe even “Johnny Football” and Texas A&M could take them on again.

Maybe Boise State could have gone on to play in the National Championship in 2007 against LSU after beating Oklahoma.

Think about all the teams that have been robbed of chances at National Championships because of the current system we have.

Boise State, Oklahoma, TCU, Connecticut, Kansas, Kansas State have all been robbed of chances at championship games because of having 1 or 2 losses all season.

Even high school football has a better system than this. You can lose 7 out 9 games and still somehow make the playoffs.

But I am not saying they should revert to where any team can get in. No system is perfect. But this system has to be the worst in sports.

Think about where we would be if every sport did it the way college football does it.

In the NBA in 2007 the Mavericks were number 1 in the Western Conference. What happened? They lost in the first round to Golden State.

In 2010 in the NCAA Tournament Kansas would have been in the championship game if it were a BCS system. They actually lost to Northern Iowa in the 2nd round.

The Saints would have not won the Super Bowl for New Orleans in 2010 if it were a “BCS like” system. Same for the New York Giants last season and 2007.

It makes you wonder how many champions in college football have been taken out of contention because of the BCS. It makes you wonder how many Cinderella teams have been robbed.

The great part of the NCAA basketball tournament is the fact that teams like Davidson can compete against the Jayhawks in the Elite 8. Teams like Butler can make it to the National Championship and almost beat Duke.

That is what college football needs. These days everything is so commercialized by big business. The fans don’t want it, I don’t want it, and if you want it, then shame on you.

It would do nothing but help college football to have a playoff system.

The fact that next year is the start of a 4-team playoff is a good start.  But hopefully they can get more teams involved. I think everyone would love to see an 8 or 16 team playoff.

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Why the BCS Needs Fixing