College Football Should Have a Playoff System

"The rankings are anything but muddled. All year BCS ranks teams 1,2,3,4,5,6... that is the exact opposite of muddled, it is well organized." Ah, yes, it is well organized at a first glance. That is, until you look deeper in. The way the BCS system works is a compilation of head-to-head matchups and difficulty of schedule, thrown in with different conferences, and specific games. The BCS has 6 of its own conferences: ACC, Pac-10, Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, and Notre Dame (independent). Non-BCS Conferences are as follows: Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and Western Athletic Conference. There are 5 BCS Bowls played: Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and, of course, the BCS National Championship Game. Let's take a look at the participants for these BCS Bowls: Rose Bowl - Big Ten champ vs. Pac-10 champ Fiesta Bowl - Big 12 champ Orange Bowl - ACC champ Sugar Bowl - SEC champ (One of these games is selected to be the BCS National Championship Game, thus donning the title such as "Sugar Bowl (National Championship Game)") Let's say that the #1 team is the Big 12 champ, and the #2 team is the Big Ten champ. These two teams are set aside to play in the National Championship game. Then, the two teams with the #2 rankings in the Big 12 and Big Ten are put together, and the team with the higher ranking is put into a slot. Let's say the National Championship Game that year was to be the Sugar Bowl. The bowl games would pan out to look like this: Rose Bowl - 2nd Overall in Big Ten vs. Pac-10 Champ Fiesta Bowl - SEC Champ Orange Bowl - ACC Champ Sugar Bowl - #1 vs. #2 The Big East Champion is given a spot in one of these bowls, and, if ranked in the top 8, Notre Dame is given a spot. So it would look like this: Rose Bowl - 2nd Overall in Big Ten vs. Pac-10 Champ Fiesta Bowl - SEC Champ vs. Notre Dame/2nd overall in Big 12 Orange Bowl - ACC Champ vs. Big East Champ Sugar Bowl - #1 vs. #2 Under these circumstances, the only way a non-BCS conference champion can receive berth in a BCS bowl game is if they: Are ranked in the top twelve OR Ranked in the top sixteen and higher than another BCS Conference champion. These teams are classfied as BCS Busters. So, overall, the BCS Bowl Games are classified as such: Rose Bowl - 2nd Overall in Big Ten/BCS Buster vs. Pac-10 Champ/BCS Buster Fiesta Bowl - SEC Champ/BCS Buster vs. Notre Dame/2nd overall in Big 12/BCS Buster Orange Bowl - ACC Champ/BCS Buster vs. Big East Champ Sugar Bowl - #1/BCS Buster vs. #2/BCS Buster Doesn't seem that hard to be a BCS Buster, eh? In the 10 years of BCS Rankings, there have been three BCS Busters. There have been forty-two BCS Bowls. 39 of the 42 teams in BCS Bowls have been BCS Teams. Non-BCS Teams reach BCS bowls 7.14% of the time. Seems a little biased. A little too biased. Kudos to the 2006 Boise State Broncos, the 2005 Utah Uteps, and the 2007 Hawai'i Warriors, for cracking through the bizzare BCS. But enough about the bowls. Let's talk about the playoffs. "Fans are stuck on pins and needles all year while watching their favorite team play, knowing that one loss will destroy their chances at the gold, the supreme BCS Title." (my quote) "This is exactly what makes sports interesting, the excitement and tension. What you're suggesting is that the regular season should not matter because 64 out of the 120 schools would compete in the playoffs." (your rebuttal quote) First of all, I had already stated the fact that the amount of teams playing in the playoff format would be equal to the number of teams playing in the current Bowl Format; 64 out of 120. Second of all, you say that "the regular season should not matter because 64 out of 120 schools would compete in the playoffs". Let's take a look at college basketball. 64 teams compete in their playoffs, their March Madness Bracket. Because so many teams compete in this tournament, do you infer that College Basketball fans don't treat each game of their season with value? Of course not! Each game has impact on their rankings, their seeding, the team's value. 'Ah', you think as you read this, 'But College Basketball has 341 teams, compared to college football's 120. He's run himself in a trap!' I have come to realize this as well, and the fact that half the teams would receive berth in this playoff would diminish the purpose of the regular season. Like all flaws in postseason formats in sports, things can be changed. So, rather than having a proposed 64-team bracket, it could shorten down to a 32-team bracket, or even a 16-team bracket. In college basketball, roughly 18% of teams get a chance to partake in March Madness. With a 16-team bracket, a mere 13% of teams would get a chance to partake in the postseason, thus, elevating the importance of each regular season game. Have I satisfied you yet? 'Apparently not', you think, 'because schools would lose money from the loss of the sponsorship of the bowl games.' I'd like to go further into this debate by bringing up the flaws of sponsorship in bowl games. One looks at the BCS Bowl games to see that the most broadcasted, most analyzed, most hyped games of the year are sponsored by the following companies: Tostitos Citi FedEx Allstate AT&T (former) Nokia (former) For years these games have lived down as plainly the Rose Bowl. The Orange Bowl. The Sugar Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl. That's how everyone remembered them; that's what they lived down to be; that's what people thought of when they thought of College Football. Then they had to go and change things. Now, tell me, please, somebody tell me, what in god's name do Tortilla Chips, Retirement Funds, Phone Companies, Postal Services, and Financial Services have to do with football? Let me rephrase that: What in god's name do big, greedy, corporate chains of Tortilla Chips, Retirement Funds, Phone Companies, Postal Services, and Financial Services have to do with football? Nothing. But some people don't see it as nothing. Some people see it as an opportunity to advertise their product through beloved pastimes. Some people see it as an opportunity to earn some quick cash by signing a piece of paper, handing over the rights to a beloved sporting event, a pastime, to greedy corporations, so they can slap their product name on it. They think it'll create affiliation, so when Bowl season comes around, people subliminally think "It's time to stock up on tortilla chips (Tostito's, of course), purchase insurance (my gut feeling tells me Allstate is the best choice), buy an excessive bluetooth- unlimited-texting-wi-fi-interent cell phone (I should get it with AT&T's service-they deliever our world!) and deliver my mail from FedEx, because with Express, Ground, Kinko's, Home Delievery, SmartPost, Custom Critical, and Trade Networks, the world is on time!" In some cases, for some people, this actually happens. The greedy, corporate businessmen and the money-hungry people signing over the deal are both selfish and soulless-a deadly combination (or, at least, an annoying, arrogant one). Here are some other uneccessary, consumer-happy titles given to bowl games: Auto Zone Capital One Chick-Fil-A Insight Ford, GM, Chrysler Emerald Nuts Meineke Papa John's Bell Helicopter Sheraton Valero ...The list goes on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not attacking solely college football on this one; many professional sports take part in this consumer-happy marketing, and it is wrong. Don't try to tell me that this sponsoring is good for college football, or America in general, because you're just wasting your time. In a playoff/bracket system, I cannot guarantee a marketing-free sports experience, but there would definetely be significantly less. The college football postseason is a mess, and evasive action is in need of taking place. A playoff system is the answer, the solution, the safe haven.