Spring Break
A Plea to the BCS
Ralph MacDonald
Issue date: 10/29/08 Section: Sports
A plea to the BCS feels a little like a plea to a phlegmatic little man behind a curtain of massive revenue, but the way the season is beginning to unfold is starting to make me fear yet another uncompetitive championship game.
That being the case, here are the rules I would like to see enacted in the BCS for this year and beyond. While some of these rules may seem impracticable, I feel they, at very least, make sense theoretically.
1. No Big-10 allowed. Sorry Penn State, but the conference has fouled up the last two championship games to an unforgivable extent. Furthermore, the Nittany Lions' non-conference schedule was horrendous and their one big win is going to be a fourth-quarter comeback against OSU. If history has taught me anything, it's that championship-caliber teams kick the crap out of Tressel's group of choke-artists.
2. One loss in the Big 12/SEC > One loss for USC. Due to the quality of their schedule, Texas and Alabama are in constant danger of falling. And, both will have to play an additional conference championship game that USC gets a pass on. Even if USC did have to play a championship game, it would be against a second-rate team in a conference that has been embarrassed by opponents in the Big 10, SEC, ACC, and most extensively, the Mountain West Conference. Besides, the one big win is against an Ohio State team that, again, is known for crapping the bed in big games.
3. Throw a monkey wrench into the whole damn system. It is ridiculous that the weaker Big 10 and Pac 10 conferences do not have to play a championship game while the ultra-competitive conferences like the SEC and Big 12 do. The chance for an extra loss against a guaranteed tough opponent should not be limited to the conferences that already have a plethora of tough games.
4. Go ahead and throw another wrench-the Big 10 needs a twelfth team in order to have a championship game, and I would like to nominate Notre Dame. Watching the Irish coast into the Sugar Bowl two years ago with nine non-quality wins was disheartening, and it hurts the credibility of college football when they allow tradition to play such a large role in the bowl selection process.
5. Disenfranchise the Big 10 and Pac 10 commissioners. The best way to fix the BCS is to destroy it and replace it with a play-off. But, the commissioners of two of the weakest BCS conferences are against such a plan. Why? Because it would destroy the traditional and historic rivalry between the Pac-10 and Big-10 in the Rose Bowl by using the Rose Bowl as a play-off game and rotating it with the other BCS games. That, at very least, is the stated objection. The real objection is that BCS games are a guaranteed seven-figure payday for the schools, and the conference as a whole gets a cut of the bowl profits. The end of a Pac-10/Big-10 rivalry bowl means non-deserving teams like Illinois will not get paid big bucks to go get clobbered by legitimate programs.
That being the case, here are the rules I would like to see enacted in the BCS for this year and beyond. While some of these rules may seem impracticable, I feel they, at very least, make sense theoretically.
1. No Big-10 allowed. Sorry Penn State, but the conference has fouled up the last two championship games to an unforgivable extent. Furthermore, the Nittany Lions' non-conference schedule was horrendous and their one big win is going to be a fourth-quarter comeback against OSU. If history has taught me anything, it's that championship-caliber teams kick the crap out of Tressel's group of choke-artists.
2. One loss in the Big 12/SEC > One loss for USC. Due to the quality of their schedule, Texas and Alabama are in constant danger of falling. And, both will have to play an additional conference championship game that USC gets a pass on. Even if USC did have to play a championship game, it would be against a second-rate team in a conference that has been embarrassed by opponents in the Big 10, SEC, ACC, and most extensively, the Mountain West Conference. Besides, the one big win is against an Ohio State team that, again, is known for crapping the bed in big games.
3. Throw a monkey wrench into the whole damn system. It is ridiculous that the weaker Big 10 and Pac 10 conferences do not have to play a championship game while the ultra-competitive conferences like the SEC and Big 12 do. The chance for an extra loss against a guaranteed tough opponent should not be limited to the conferences that already have a plethora of tough games.
4. Go ahead and throw another wrench-the Big 10 needs a twelfth team in order to have a championship game, and I would like to nominate Notre Dame. Watching the Irish coast into the Sugar Bowl two years ago with nine non-quality wins was disheartening, and it hurts the credibility of college football when they allow tradition to play such a large role in the bowl selection process.
5. Disenfranchise the Big 10 and Pac 10 commissioners. The best way to fix the BCS is to destroy it and replace it with a play-off. But, the commissioners of two of the weakest BCS conferences are against such a plan. Why? Because it would destroy the traditional and historic rivalry between the Pac-10 and Big-10 in the Rose Bowl by using the Rose Bowl as a play-off game and rotating it with the other BCS games. That, at very least, is the stated objection. The real objection is that BCS games are a guaranteed seven-figure payday for the schools, and the conference as a whole gets a cut of the bowl profits. The end of a Pac-10/Big-10 rivalry bowl means non-deserving teams like Illinois will not get paid big bucks to go get clobbered by legitimate programs.
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