And he promised you the stars in the sky
He said his Cadillac was gold
But he didn't say it was ten years old
He took you out to the Red Coach grill
But he forgot the cash and you paid the bill
And he told you the story of his life
But he forgot the part about...his wife!
Well, these are the breaks!”
- Kurtis Blow, “The Breaks”
When the promise of a true national championship was introduced for the 1998 college football season it seemed time that age old bowl commitments be altered so that the public could have a victorious champion. Ten years later there are mixed opinions about the success of the Bowl Championship Series. Who gets in, who is left out, which mid-major school will play Goliath if they can remain undefeated and crash the party, and ultimately what teams will face off for the national championship.
Many people clamor loudly for a playoff that would allow the teams playing the best football to beat each other up on the way to a March Madnessesque finale. I have no problem with the playoff idea and find the idea to be very sporting. I only have one problem, it will never happen. Not because a college football playoff would be difficult logistically or because it would take athletes out of more classes, etc. It won’t happen because the university presidents and conference commissioners have too much at stake (i.e. money) to change the bowl and spoils system as it currently exists. So that’s that.
I watched the first half of the Sugar Bowl last night between Georgia and previously undefeated Hawaii. The endless wave of Georgia defensive linemen swarming the Hawaii offense was in several ways indicative of the complete mess that has infiltrated the highest levels of collegiate football. The fact that the defense was much bigger and faster than their opponents is only one of the cold shivers of truth that could be realized by watching even one Hawaii possession. There was no conventional way Hawaii could beat Georgia; a fact sugar coated by Boise State’s improbable Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma last season. For the next several years any team outside a power conference that is lucky enough to win all of their games will be rewarded by being offered up for a nationally televised bloodletting the likes of which should be restricted from broadcast television and certainly not aired before young children’s bedtime.
What about Appalachian State over Michigan this year or any of the other long list of upsets this season? Mere background noise, don’t be distracted from the big picture of what is happening to college football. The football national champion will continue to come from the BCS power conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, & SEC) as long as the current system is in place.
I like computers as much as the next 21st century American. In fact computers pay my salary (I use direct deposit) and dominate most of my working days. But nonetheless, the BCS is nothing more than a computerized cheat to the American public.
Excuse me, I had to reboot.
Yes I went to a Big 12 school and work at another now. I don’t hate the power conferences, and I won’t suggest a lollipop and big bright rainbow solution of not having a champion because all of the teams are already winners. The reality of college football is that every year you could pick the two best teams from the previously mentioned conferences and let them play for the national championship. And that’s my point. Let’s leave computers for analyzing algorithms and broadcasting YouTube to your work computer. Leave Hawaii to bask in the warm glow of being undefeated by playing in the Also Ran Bowl and let humans vote without computer rankings etc. at the end of the year. Top two teams play for all the marbles. Let’s be accountable and dangerous. Let’s bash the Borda counts and pop the poll average. If the game turns out to be a blowout we can blame ourselves and never vote for the loser again.
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