Government Football
By Tony Breland
For several years, we have heard politicians question the “fairness” of the BCS and the way college football crowns champions at the main level of the sport. Maybe it is my Libertarian streak, but any time I hear a politician use the word “fair”, it makes me brace for a really expensive, and completely stupid idea.
• The BCS was chosen by the member institutions. Membership in the NCAA is voluntary and the members voted for this system. The vast majority of the members are against a playoff. So, where is the monopoly that many of the playoff proponents whine about?
• The BCS takes the results of two different polls and six different computer rankings to decide its rankings. Sure, it is not a perfect system (and it definitely needs reform) but it is not some Bilderberg organization (there’s a reference for the conspiracy theorists) bent on deciding who wins and loses.
• A playoff system can’t guarantee that the best teams in the nation will make the playoffs.
Among the brilliant suggestions offered in Congressional hearings involved a 64 team playoff. Seriously. A 64 team football tournament would extend the season by six weeks. I love college football, but the players and schools don’t need to extend the season for a meaningless series of games. They are students.
One of the problems with the current system, according to critics, is that the polls are flawed. In fact, the AP poll doesn’t participate in the BCS for this reason — yet the AP continues to produce a poll each week. The number one method proposed for selecting teams for an 8 team or 16 team (or the idiotic 64 team) playoff is to take the top teams from the final poll and make them play each other. So, if the polls are so flawed, why are they the logical starting point for a playoff selection?
Another suggestion is to take the winners of each conference and put them in a playoff. Doing so would definitely not give you a playoff with the best teams in the nation. Why? Consider, for example, the fact that a mediocre Buffalo team won the MAC conference title last season over Ball State (who finished the season at 12-2). That one win would have sent an 8-6 (final record) team into the playoffs ahead of dozens of teams with better records. It’s bad enough that the Mountain West Conference has signed a BCS agreement for this season. Does anyone reasonably think Buffalo would have been among the best teams in the nation to be in a playoff? They didn’t make the final Top 25 in any poll. Maybe, in the interest of fairness, Congress can spot MAC teams (or C-USA teams) a few extra wins or a bye to help them advance.
Before I start getting hate mail, which I actually like, let me add that I am not against a playoff in principle (nor am I bashing Buffalo – I pulled for them against Auburn a while back). I am a big fan of the game of college football and I agree that the BCS is flawed. I think the tradition of “jawing”about “coulda shoulda woulda” is part of what makes the comradery among fans special. I am concerned that no one has proposed an idea which would be “fair” or reasonable. No one can ever say the playoffs would match up the best teams in football.
The thing that should concern all of us is that Congress feels it should get involved in deciding what is “fair” for a private organization to do in governing itself. The geniuses who can’t deliver mail without outsourcing want to tell University Presidents how to govern amateur sports. Considering our country’s terrible employment numbers and Congress’ record of complete failure to manage social security, medicare, foreign affairs, budgets, infrastructure, national disasters, etc. Surely they must have something else to worry about.
Here’s a proposal for a playoff: start a super conference. Take Alabama, Florida, USC, UCLA, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, Florida State, Miami, and three other traditional powerhouse teams and break away. Make them all play each other and name the last team standing as the national champ. If your team is not on the list, you can complain to congress.