BCS: "Beyond Common Sense"?

For many, college football is not just something to do on a Saturday when your wife is out shopping with the kids, it’s a lifestyle that lasts from Labor Day to the first few weeks of January. For the many of us who do view college football as a lifestyle, we all know about the BCS Bowl system controversy.

            The controversy is over the substitution of a playoff system with “The Bowl Championship Series.” The bowl system is as follows, the top two teams that are ranked first and second at the end of the year in the BCS standings will play in the National Championship game. The champions of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, and the Southeastern conferences each receive automatic bids into a BCS bowl game after the regular season. Champions in Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn a bid only if they are ranked in the top 12 of the BCS standings or ranked in the top 16 if they are ranked higher than a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic bid.

            Personally, I see this system as completely unfair to teams outside of the “Big Six.” There is no reason that any team should receive automatic bids to BCS bowl games. It causes too much controversy and uncertainty over who is actually the best college football team in America.

            The only solution to this 10-year, ongoing problem is a collegiate football playoff system. This system would last just as long as the current BCS bowl system lasts and would take the champion of EACH of the 11 division 1A college football conferences. The 5 conference champions ranked highest would receive automatic bids into the playoff and the other 6 conferences would play one game with another conference not in the top 5. They would take up 3 spots in the playoff, which would make it an 8-team playoff. This playoff system is described in more detail at this website.

            I believe that this playoff system, if instituted, would create a much better atmosphere for college football and would silence any doubt over who the best team in the nation is. Therefore making the National Championship game that much more exciting.