College Football & The Flawed BCS

I’m writing this strictly from the perspective as a college football fan, something that is never taken into consideration by top executives anymore.

Back when I was younger, New Year’s Day was on the same level as Christmas morning for me. I would wake up, early in the morning, and know a full, uninterrupted day of college football was ahead. It was beautiful for anybody who loved football. TV stations not known for broadcasting football games televised games; ABC, CBS, and NBC virtually had the entire day dedicated to college football. I would hold the remote control in my hand and flip channels seeing college football on many channels. It was the ultimate day for college football fans. College basketball has March Madness, with multiple games played all throughout the day, and years ago college football had one day similar in comparison. To me, those were the glory days of the college football bowl season.

Somewhere along the way, college football fans were robbed of their beautiful New Year’s Day. I do not remember the exact year but I believe the trend started when I was in 8^th grade, the 1995 football season. The majority of games still played on New Year’s Day but there was one game in particular moved to January 2^nd; Nebraska vs. Florida for the national championship game. This was the trendsetter for college football. The following year the Orange Bowl was held on New Year’s Eve with games getting moved to the left and right at a rapid pace.

Along with stretching the college football bowl season over two weeks an absurd amount of bowl games were introduced. Each year produced more and more bowl games allowing more teams to become bowl eligible. In the glory days I referenced above, playing in a bowl game rewarded a team for successful year. Now, there are so many bowl games that half of the teams in Division IA are eligible to play in a bowl game. To me, the value of becoming bowl eligible is not what it used to be. If a team finished .500 with a 6-6 record they are eligible to play in a bowl. Why are we rewarding mediocrity? This is on par with giving all kids trophy’s after a game, not keeping score during a game, or everybody’s a winner – and do not even get me started on that! As a society we continue to reward being average. There is no reason why a team who finished .500 should play in a bowl game. I’m an Iowa State, they finished .500 this year, and I still hold true to my opinion. I must say this one more time, we must stop rewarding mediocrity!

I’m not blind to what happened. There is too much money to be made over the bowl season, and money talks. Speaking of money, that leads me to the BCS.

Remember, I’m writing this as a true fan of college football.

As long as I can remember I heard many college football fans lobbying for a playoff in order to determine a true national champion. For too many years arguments could be made that two teams should be national champions: 1994 with Penn State & Nebraska, 1997 with Nebraska & Michigan just to name a few. The compromise for this was the Bowl Championship Series, or the BCS. By using human polls and computers, the wealthy, who claim their top priority is to give the college football fans what they want, believed the BCS was the answer to every fans prayer.

I believe I speak for the majority of college football fans when I say the current system is flawed. The most noticeable problem is the inability for smaller schools to get the respect they deserve. Over the last decade, schools like Boise State, Utah, etc. have done an excellent job recruiting, thereby turning their football program into an elite program. The problem is these schools do not play in a major conference, i.e. SEC/Big 12. The BCS noticed this and allowed for smaller schools to receive “At Large” bids into BCS bowls. Unfortunately for the smaller schools, if they do not start the preseason high in the rankings they stand no chance of playing for the national title. This is old information to anybody who has even the slightest knowledge about college football; and I’m fully aware there is a whole lot more I did not cover.

Here comes what has really been under my skin. Last year, Alabama had an amazing team. They were one quarter away from beating Florida in the SEC Championship to play in the BCS National Championship game. Alabama’s reward for an amazing year was an invitation to the Sugar Bowl against Utah, a small team from a small conference. Alabama played in the mighty SEC, which caused everybody to believe this was a classic mismatch. Guess what happened? Utah showed Alabama how to play football. This small school that had no chance of winning defeated a team that was one quarter away from playing for the national title! The problem with this was Utah won. The other problem was the BCS became extremely aware the “small schools” could play football. Just a few years before Utah defeated Alabama, Boise State defeated the mighty Oklahoma Sooners who played in the Big 12. A scary truth was staring the BCS and the major football conferences in the face; money could be lost if these small schools continued to play in the top money games.

This is my college football conspiracy theory.

This past season was a beautiful year in college football, one that I felt more than proved a playoff system must be implemented. Alabama, Texas, TCU, Boise State, and Cincinnati all finished the season undefeated. Florida only had one loss, to Alabama, in the SEC championship. If ever there was a season to cry playoff, this was it! The Rose Bowl already had two teams by keeping the tradition of the Big 10 vs. the PAC-10. Qualifying for BCS bowls were Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, Florida, Boise State, TCU, Iowa, and Georgia Tech.

There was no denying Alabama would meet Texas for the title, but with the rest of the games, I felt some serious controversy could develop. I wanted to see TCU play Florida, Boise State play Iowa, and Georgia Tech play Cincinnati. If TCU and Boise State played two proven schools, from two proven conferences, and won, it would cause the confusion I longed for.

Instead the BCS took the easy way out. TCU and Boise State played one another, which proved absolutely nothing. Every fan knew both schools were two of the best programs in the country. The beauty of the bowl season is to watch David vs. Goliath, to watch Utah upset Alabama, not to watch David vs. David. The BCS took the easy way out. I believe, with what transpired in past bowl seasons, the BCS believed both TCU and Boise State would win their respective bowl games. The media and the college football world is in love with the SEC, so the fallout of a SEC program, like Florida, losing to a small school would be catastrophic. If both Boise State and TCU had been allowed to play major programs, and won, the college football world would not be allowed to ignore them anymore. Instead of giving the fans what we wanted, the BCS gave us TCU vs. Boise State. Thanks but no thanks.

Do you see the conspiracy here?

By stretching the bowl season out for two weeks, introducing bowls like the Humanitarian Bowl played in Boise, Idaho, and allowing for the wealthy to determine the bowl schedule has severely hurt the beauty of college football. A bowl game played in Boise, Idaho. Really, I mean really? I’m sorry if I offended anybody who lives in Boise, Idaho but I trust you get my point.

I guess the last question I want to ask is, what ever happened to what the fans want? Aren’t we the ones who actually generate the revenue?

Agree or disagree?