Ravenwood - 11/14/02 01:00 PM
Just over two weeks ago, NCAA fans were stressed about there being 8 undefeated teams in NCAA football. It was too many. How can they crown a national champion with all those undefeated teams out there? As most astute football fans know, a lot can change in two weeks.
Now there are just 2 undefeated teams, and fans are crying that it may not be enough. Undefeated Miami has three tough games versus Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech left to play. Ohio State has two games left versus Illinois and Michigan. If either Miami or OSU (or both) gets knocked off before the end of the season, a one-loss team may be selected to go to Tempe. That would start the who beat who, and who is better than who conjecture that happens every year at the end of the NCAA season. That is the problem of not having a playoff system.
The magical BCS computer formulas, which change every year, are supposed to crunch the numbers and determine who is worthy to compete for the National Championship. But even they don't solve the problem of a once-beaten Texas, Oklahoma, Washington State, OSU, Notre Dame, Miami, Iowa, Georgia gridlock. The computers love Ohio State right now, but if they lose to Michigan at the end of the season, they are almost assuredly out. Washington State would probably get the nod over Ohio State, even though OSU beat them on the field. Ironically, the scenario would favor Washington State, because they lost to a good OSU team, whereas OSU would have lost to a 'decent' Michigan team.
A playoff system would eliminate a lot of the skepticism that fans have about the mystical computer formulas. It would also eliminate the need for a team to go undefeated to be considered for the National Championship. The push for teams to play perfectly all season long puts enormous pressure on them, because typically a single loss is all that is needed to ruin your chance to play in the big game. Teams that do lose a game, have no chance unless other teams lose as well. That is, they no longer control their own fate. Once other teams lose, they are at an advantage because they lost earlier in the season than the others.
Although a playoff would mean that one or two loss teams still have a shot at the title, BCS proponents claim that a playoff will never work in college football. (Not to mention that NCAA football already has a working playoff system, in Division I-AA.) BCS skeptics know the real reason for not holding a playoff is money. In a world where more than 50% of all Division I-A teams go to a bowl game, the almighty green-back is king.
The threat of losing revenue doesn't bode well for a playoff system. For the mean time, NCAA football will continue to suffer under the dreaded BCS computer polls. Hopefully the advent of computers will bring on some large scale corruption that will swing the need for change in the fans favor. Perhaps a computer hacker will manipulate the polls to put Bowling Green back in the race for a national title.
Since I'm just a spectator, I can only hope.
Maybe the NCAA will throw out next year's schedules and adopt a Swiss-system season, like US Chess Federation tournaments? That way, you're assured that unbeaten teams play each other and the best teams eventually meet.
Okay, I'm being a little silly. Honestly, I don't care who's the national champion in college football. I do fear a playoff system, though. We've got a playoff in basketball which invites 64 teams. Every year, we're treated to an endless stream of pissing and moaning over who should have been in the tourney, who shouldn't have been, etc. That would happen in football, too, perhaps even worse. And how many teams would be in the playoffs: 8? 16? 32? 64? Who determines which teams get into the playoffs? The thought of the hype and the arguments is just too much to bear.
The old system of polling coaches and writers wasn't perfect, but it was a damn sight better than the BCS rankings now. And I don't think it would be worse than a playoff system given the way college conferences are organized now.
Just my 2 cents...
Posted by: Steve at November 14, 2002 4:50 PMI would think a playoff would start with the conference champions, with a few wild cards for independents and conference runners up.
As long as the criteria are objective and predetermined, it would be no worse than the NFL playoff criteria. (although hopefully a little less mysterious)
Posted by: Ravenwood at November 14, 2002 5:31 PMI might be inclined to agree with you, Steve, if the relative strengths of the conferences weren't so distorted, even with some wild cards added in. The winner of the WAC would have a hard time beating the 4th place PAC-10 team, and that's just one of dozens of examples. This is what I was getting at by the pissing and moaning: the 3rd and 4th place finishers in strong conferences would complain that they were better teams than the winners of weaker conferences.
Granted you have some relatively strong and weak conferences in the NFL, but the difference between them isn't nearly as great as in NCAA football. And a strong NFL conference now might have been a weaker one 10 years ago; there hasn't been much change in strong vs weak conferences in the NCAA.
If we have 16 teams in the playoffs, that extends the season by 4 weeks minimum, and you know we'd be in for lots of grumbling if the playoffs are limited to just 16 teams.
I don't offer any solution, just pointing out that a playoff system might suck even more than we expect.
Posted by: Steve at November 14, 2002 7:22 PMSomething has to give. Nebraska finished 4th last year in the final AP and Coaches poll and got to play Miami for the national championship. To say that Oregon, who finished 2nd in both polls and won their conference championship got fucked, is an understatement. It was all about money, boosters, and ratings. Oregon and football fans everywhere got robbed and Nebraska got what they deserved...an ass kicking. They didn't deserve to play for the title.
Posted by: Brent at November 14, 2002 9:29 PMPlease help me I am not a ncaa fan but I need to know what 2 teams are going to the national championship please.
Thank you so much for any and all help.
Linda
The BCS "national championship" teams are Oklahoma and LSU.
Posted by: Ravenwood at December 17, 2003 8:57 AM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
