BCS Fixins'

Last night, I detailed the argument for those of us that didn’t hate the Bowl Championship System and weren’t crazy about a tournament for college football. Today, I am going to detail some improvements that the college football system should implement.

1) Blue ribbon committee that ranks teams. It is silly that reporters that don’t watch games and coaches that don’t watch games are responsible for ranking teams. Aside from the fact that most of the voters don’t watch all of the top 25 match-ups, much less teams on the cusp of making the top 25, there are huge conflicts of interest at play. Coaches are helped if opponents they defeated are ranked and reporters have a more interesting job if the team they cover primarily is ranked. There is also an inherent bias from these groups. If you are a coach or reporter in Georgia, wouldn’t you naturally skew your vote toward Georgia teams and teams in the south because that is your zone of expertise? College football makes enough money to hire 10 guys whose job it is to watch every game every week and produce a poll based on what actually happens on the field. They should document their thought process and detail reasons why certain teams are ranked at certain places. That website would instantly become one of the most popular destinations on the web. Let the AP and ESPN have their fun, but eliminate their biased, uninformed opinions from the postseason decision making process. It is far too flawed. This solution also eliminates the pre-season poll bias that is partly responsible for Texas’ entry into this year’s championship game over Cincinnati and TCU.

2) Force all conferences to hold a championship game. Call this the Ohio State rule because this Big Ten non-championship game decision is total crap. I don’t care if a conference has less than 12 teams, the conference should have a designated champion that is determined by a championship game. This change should reduce the number of perfect records as well as reduce the number of appearances of bad Ohio State teams in championship games. It also gives people (especially that blue ribbon committee) another game to evaluate how a premier team is playing at the end of the year and how it handles the pressure of a championship atmosphere.

3) Mid Major contenders should play at least two BCS conference schools. This might take some sort of commissoner-like intervention from the NCAA, but it is a necessary component if mid-major schools want to be taken seriosly. For instance, I can’t believe people shed a single tear for Boise State this year. Boise State has one win over Oregon and is getting a BCS bowl game. That’s. Not. Enough. Good teams that play elite competition in their conference aren’t getting a BCS bowl bid (teams like LSU) because Boise State beat Oregon. Take a look at TCU. They played Virginia, BYU, Utah, and Clemson all on the road. That, my friends, is a schedule with teeth. This Kansas State tactic of padding your schedule with softies or one potential contender to vault your team into national championship consideration is beyond weak and needs to be remedied.

Those are my three big fixes. I know you have more, so feel free to share them in the comments section.