The Best of Intentions...Or Why the BCS Isn't All Bad

Although the BCS has failed to provide a successful resolution to almost every controversy it has faced in its 11 years of existence, the system does deserve props for bringing an official national championship game to college football. Amazingly, the sport somehow went 129 years without one. It may seem infuriating that only two teams can play in this championship game, when there are usually several other squads that are just as worthy to participate as the ones that are selected. But the BCS does bring some semblance of consistency and authority to the selection of a national chamipon, a process that prior to 1998 was a total free for all. There were no guarantees in the pre-BCS era that the top two teams in the final regular season polls would play each other in a bowl game. In fact, up until 1968 for the AP poll and 1974 for the coaches poll, the national champion was selected prior to the bowl games. Not only was there usually no bowl game between the #1 and #2 ranked teams, if there was such a game then its result was irrelevant!

And once the bowl games were factored in, chaos still reigned. For example, Big 8 Champ Nebraska was 12-0 and ranked #1 at the end of the 1983 regular season and Southwest Conference Champ Texas was 11-0 and ranked #2. Because the Big 8 Champ was automatically slated for the Orange Bowl and the SWC Champ contracted to go to the Cotton Bowl, this would-be titantic clash was simply not eligible to occur. As a result, #5 Miami, a team that had already lost a regular season game by 25 points, was given an ear of corn with a Christmas bow around it and a chance to knock off the #1 Huskers. The Canes made the most of their opportunity and beat Nebraska 31-30. Their huge win became a National Chamiponship win since #2 Texas and #4 Illinois lost their bowl games. Even though #3 Auburn beat Michigan in the Sugar Bowl, they had the misfortune of being matched up against a team that was only ranked #8. Miami stole the spotlight, and the voters jumped the Hurricanes over the Tigers in the final AP and Coaches polls. This convoluted process, where your championship aspirations depended on your conference's bowl tie-in and the quality of your bowl opponnet, is certainly not any fairer than the BCS system that's used today.

The BCS has managed to shift the chaos to the regular season, making each and every week an epic battle in which teams jockey for position. Teams know that at the end of the season-long horse race only the first and second place spots are rewarded. The popularity of college football has risen to unprecedented levels as fans now pay rigorous attention to games from across the country that could have an impact on their team's ranking. Each Saturday has become a mini-Armageddon, with reports coming in from different precincts throughout the day to announce which teams have survived and which ones haven't. The BCS mantra is true: every game in the regular season matters.

The BCS biggest flaw is not that it selets only two teams to play for the national championship....that's actually its biggest strength.  Its problem is that it so rarely selects the right two teams. It has been presented with every situation imaginable and has failed to produce a reasonable result almost every single time. The BCS mission to pick the two best teams to play each other in a national championship game is sound. It's the fact that it's failed to carry out that mission in 7 of 11 years that has made it the object of scorn, ridicule, and hated from college football nation.


-Drew