Before I rant about college football and the BCS I wanted to mention the passing of Sean Taylor early this morning. He was a member of the 2001 Miami Hurricanes National Championship team and along with Ed Reed was the best hitting safety I ever saw in college football. He also on the biggest stage, intercepted two passes in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl Championship game (pictured above), which I was at, nearly winning the Canes another championship. After some very hard times on and off the field he was starting to come into his own with the Washington Redskins and was a pro bowl selection last year. As a die hard Miami Hurricanes fan, a sports fan and a caring person, it is a very sad day.
As good a player as Sean taylor was, the state of college football is equally as bad. The hypocrisy that is college football baffles me to no end and it makes me sick. This year has been like seemingly no other with all the losses by top teams, with number ones and twos falling like dominos. However, it seems to happen every year regardless of whether there are two clearly top teams or not, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) doesn’t work and causes controversy.
This year it seems that if Missouri beats Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game they will most likely play West Virginia assuming they beat Pittsburgh which they should. This would create the worst possible scenario for college football, pitting two unattractive teams against each other for the sports biggest prize. However, neither of these two teams in my opinion are any good. They benefit from playing in weak BCS conferences and benefit from the SEC and PAC 10 being overloaded with talent where the top teams beat each other. Neither Missouri, West Virginia or third place Ohio State for that matter would stand any chance against a team like LSU, Florida or Georgia from the SEC. I would imagine any of those teams would be a double digit favorite against either of the top 3 BCS teams. That nonsense aside, why isn’t there a college football playoff system?
This is the age old question where very wealthy and out of touch college presidents claim everything from it ruins the integrity of the game and the tradition to the players wouldn’t have time to study for finals during the playoffs. Both of these we know to be complete lies and just exemplifies the hypocrisy that is college football. Every single other sport in college sports has a playoff system-every single one, including all other college football levels except for division 1A.
Why is this? It’s because of the television revenue brought in by the big name bowl games and the BCS. It has nothing to do with the student athletes and their academic curriculum, believe me. Saying that is like saying the US invaded Iraq to help the people of Iraq because of humanitarian reasons and not oil and assorted other political reasons-spare us the lies and don’t insult our intelligence.
What I don’t understand, is why they can’t make the same or more money in a playoff system. It would generate much more interest and truly pit the two best teams against each when they can win it on the field and not through a computer generated rating score. What is everyones favorite sporting event of the year-the NCAA basketball tournament because it is exciting and the championship is won on the court, it carries on for three weeks and the country is riveted. Why not in football? Have an 8 or 16 team playoff over 3 or 4 weeks with the final few games rotating as the major bowls, nobody cares about the tradition of the bowls-they just want to see the best games with the best teams on the field-thats it!
As long as the sham that is the BCS is preserved, college football fans will be deprived of their right to see the best teams play for the title. The days of spilt titles are allegedly behind us but in 2004-what happened? There was a split title between USC and LSU because Oklahoma somehow slipped past USC and into the BCS title game because the computer said so. The problem is that fans and players of LSU and USC are both deprived of being true champions of that season and are forced to share the title, like Michigan and Nebraska in 1997, Miami and Washington in 1991 and Georgia Tech and Colorado in 1990-what a joke!
The BCS was allegedly designed to have the best two teams play in the title game. That has happened on occasion, most recently when Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl 2 years ago but much more often than not it hasn’t worked out and somebody is always left unhappy except for the University presidents counting their money. Just let them play the game on the field and let the best team win–isn’t that the essence of sports and competition-especially “amateur” sports.
Shame about Taylor, the BCS is the biggest joke I’ve ever heard of and the NCAA should be ashamed of itself
All those crazies in the south are gonna go nuts that no SEC team will be in the title game
I couldn’t agree more with what you said about the playoff system. It is infuriating that they dont have one and try to invent excuses for why not.
These players are in school, getting a real education, they dont have time for a long playoff system, what about their finals? term papers? thesis? Come on, education comes first.