BCS gets it right for once
Purple and gold confetti rained down from the top of the Superdome as Louisiana State University quarterback Matt Flynn hoisted up the BCS National Championship trophy after his Tigers put a 38-24 schooling on Ohio State to become the champions of college football.
But for some reason people have been questioning LSU's claim to the championship. Why? The Bowl Championship Series of course. Now, everybody's heard all the problems with the BCS and how so many times it doesn't crown the true kings of the gridiron, but for once, the debate for who should be the true national champions does not have much credence.
Since there is no playoff, everyone wants to say that their team should be the national champion, and after this season's parity-laden outcome, everyone thinks they have a good argument.
That does not mean everyone has a good argument.
Coming into the title game, there were only three teams with one loss or fewer: Kansas, Hawaii and Ohio State. All three of these teams built their records on a cupcake schedule. Of the two loss teams, Georgia didn't win its conference. USC lost to heavy underdog Stanford as well as Oregon State. Oklahoma lost to a Colorado team that only won six games. And so on.
It may be painful to hear, but this season the BCS got it right. You can argue that LSU and Ohio State didn't even deserve to play in the championship game but if they were excluded Buckeye and Tiger fans would be phoning in on talk radio staking their claim to play for the title. Just like USC fans. And Kansas fans. And Georgia fans, ad nauseum.
Of course, a playoff would be a better solution, but it is going to materialize as slowly as Washington legislation handled by the most meticulous bureaucracy. First, the NCAA gave us the BCS, which was supposed to eliminate multiple teams having stakes in the title. Next it looks as though the NCAA is going to implement a "plus one" game that will add another game after the bowls are played. Then people will complain, as they do now, that the top two teams didn't make it to the championship game.
Then there will be a four, six or eight team playoff. However, sports fans are too shrewd to let an opportunity to tell the nation how their team isn't getting enough respect. Those not in the playoff will say how their team deserves to be in the bracket over Team X. Those in the playoff will gripe about how unfair their seeding is and how there is a [insert geographical region or conference affiliation here] bias.
The biggest hindrance to a playoff in college football is the very physical nature of the sport. The size of the tournament would have to be limited to a small amount of teams because it is unrealistic to expect teams to play 12 regular season games on top of four to six postseason games.
As a result of this limitation, there will be more controversy surrounding smaller conference teams. With 65 tourney bids in basketball, every conference can be represented. However, with 11 conferences as well as independent teams, it would be very difficult to include a team from each conference. Also, good teams that finished second in their conference (i.e. Georgia) would be difficult to include if the WAC's and the MAC's are getting into the playoff.
While we sit here and dream of a playoff in the future there really is only one thing to do-look shamefully down at our feet and realize that the LSU Tigers deserve to be national champions.
See more at http://media.www.mtsusidelines.com
