Thanksgiving is a time to reflect and appreciate what we have. It’s a time to give thanks, hence the name of the holiday. People generally list the many things for which they are thankful.
One thing for which I am NOT thankful is the BCS.
The BCS is a sham and full of hypocrisy. Year after year, it leaves countless football fans disgruntled and unhappy. There is almost always controversy. BCS apologists, led by BCS executive director Bill Hancock, trot out a number of tired arguments that, frankly, just don’t hold water.
The BCS constantly touts “every game counts.”
Except when it doesn’t. Some games matter more than others. Some don’t even matter at all.
Every Game Counts*
One of the most common arguments you will hear from BCS supporters is that “every game counts.” The theory is that teams can’t afford to make a mistake and lose because it will knock them out of the title chase. Teams need to go undefeated to have a chance, so there is pressure to win every game. All that pressure creates tension and drama, which is why college football is often described as having the best regular season in sports.
At first glance, that makes sense. Stanford, Boise State, and Oklahoma State all suffered defeats that knocked them out of the hunt, lending credence to the theory. But how do you explain Alabama and Oklahoma (pre-Baylor)?
An Alabama lineman realizes that since every game counts, the Tide are done after losing to LSU
Alabama lost in overtime at home to LSU. Since every game counts, they should have been eliminated from title contention… yet in all likelihood, this year’s BCS Championship Game will feature a rematch between #1 LSU and #2 Alabama, a matchup that only about 2-9 states in the country really want to see.
Now, if the other contenders had taken care of business, this wouldn’t have happened. If Boise State doesn’t miss a field goal against TCU, they’d be playing LSU. If Oklahoma State doesn’t fall in overtime to Iowa State or Stanford doesn’t get trampled by Oregon, they’d be in the title game.
All those teams have one loss, so why are they less worthy than Alabama? What makes the Crimson Tide special?
Oklahoma State, for instance, has a stronger resume than Alabama. The Cowboys have beaten five teams in the current BCS Top 25 compared to just two for the Crimson Tide. Oklahoma State has seven wins over teams in the top 50 whilst Alabama only has five, and the Cowboys’ six wins over Division I teams with winning records is twice as many as Alabama has. Oklahoma State has also won its conference where Alabama didn’t even win the SEC West.
Yes, Alabama’s one loss was to the #1 team in the country. However, they lost at home and missed four field goals. How is that better than losing in overtime on the road a day after tragedy struck the Oklahoma State athletic community for the second time in eleven years? A plane crash took the lives of Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke, assistant coach Miranda Serna, former state senator Olin Branstetter, and Branstetter’s wife Paula. It had to have affected the Oklahoma State players and staff. Their heads and hearts couldn’t have been completely there.
The inclusion of Oklahoma in the title discussion was even more galling. While a case can be made for Alabama, there was no excuse for Oklahoma. Prior to its loss to Baylor, Oklahoma was often cited as the team that would jump ahead of Alabama. All of that was contingent upon winning out and beating then-#2 Oklahoma State on the road.
Losing to Baylor eliminates the Sooners from the discussion, but they never should have been involved in the first place. They lost at home to four-touchdown underdog Texas Tech, snapping a 39-game home winning streak. The Red Raiders proceeded to drop their next five games by scores of 41-7, 52-20, 66-6, 31-27, and 66-42, finishing the year 5-7 and thus ineligible for a bowl game. It is by far the worst loss of any title contender.
Wins don’t count for some teams, either. The Houston Cougars, for example, are undefeated yet won’t get a whiff of the national championship game. In years past, TCU, Boise State, Utah, and Auburn have all gone undefeated yet not made the national championship game. In 2008, Boise State went undefeated and was ranked in the top ten, yet the Broncos were relegated to the Poinsettia Bowl.
It’s not just undefeated teams from automatic qualifying (AQ) conferences who are affected. There are 120 Division I football teams, and for the vast majority, none of their games matter. They have no hope of making it to a BCS bowl, let alone competing for a national championship. If you are from a non-AQ conference and are not ranked high enough to start the season, then you have no shot. The season is irrelevant before it starts. Why should fans at Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois, or Colorado State care? It doesn’t matter how well their teams do, they’ll still be left on the outside looking in.
Obviously, not every game counts.
The Regular Season is Like a Playoff
Another common argument trumpeted by BCS supporters is that the regular season is like a playoff. “College football has the best regular season in sports!” they’ll say and then explain that this is because of the lack of an actual playoff. Since “every game counts” teams need to run the table or they’ll be eliminated.
The problem here is that in an actual playoff, once you lose, you’re out. When the Green Bay Packers defeated the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons in the NFL playoffs, the Falcons were done. They didn’t get a chance to come back and play in the Super Bowl.
Like Alabama, the Atlanta Falcons rebounded from this playoff loss to play in the Super Bowl
If college football’s regular season truly were like a playoff, then Alabama would not be going to the BCS title game. Oklahoma and Oregon wouldn’t have had second-chances. Virginia Tech would not be creeping back into the picture.
BCS apologists try to counter that argument by bringing up the end of the NFL season. In the last couple weeks of the NFL season, the top seeds that have already clinched a playoff berth will either sit their starters or only play them for a handful of series. The games are meaningless because the teams have already sewn up a playoff spot. Instead of seeing Peyton Manning, for instance, fans get to see the immortal Curtis Painter. The results aren’t often pretty. The BCS prevents this, or so the argument goes.
Unfortunately for the BCS, that’s simply not the case. By all accounts, LSU can lose the SEC Championship game this weekend and still make the title game because, you know, every game counts. It’s a meaningless game. Many schools already have their bowl berths locked up, rendering their last games irrelevant. Bowls pick based on school attractiveness and how well the fanbase travels. It didn’t matter whether or not Nebraska beat Iowa in its last game, for example. The Capital One Bowl is still going to pick them over the Big 10 runner-up because they travel well. The record doesn’t matter all that much.
Further, how is an NFL team sitting its starters to rest up for the playoffs any different than a BCS school scheduling a creampuff in its non-conference schedule? Is watching Brian Hoyer lead the Patriots in the regular-season finale worse than Alabama run up the score on Kent State, North Texas, or Georgia Southern?
Plus, the NFL’s regular season doesn’t seem to be hurting its popularity much. The NFL is the most popular league in America, and the Super Bowl is the most-watched event in television history. People are still going to watch college football.
Tradition
About the only time you will hear “pageantry” is when someone waxes poetically about bowl games. BCS apologists will bemoan the fate of bowl games in a playoff system and claim that a playoff would eliminate the bowls.
There are several problems with this. One, why would the bowl games have to be eliminated? Why not have bowl games for those teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs? Have the playoff games on Friday night and Saturday, and stage bowl games during the week between the playoff rounds. College football is already on about five nights a week, so it would be like a continuation of the regular season. Teams like Northwestern, Vanderbilt, San Diego State, and South Carolina are rewarded for good seasons despite missing the playoffs, the bowls are retained, and everybody wins.
The tradition argument is another example of hypocrisy when it comes to the BCS. There are 35 bowl games. Heaven forbid we get rid of the rich tradition of the TicketCity Bowl, which debuted last year. Several bowls are actually owned and run by ESPN solely to be aired on television. There’s no tradition or ceremony involved. Fewer bowl games would actually improve the tradition and pageantry of the bowl games because they would have more meaning. There are so many games now that the bowls are no longer special.
Just look at all that tradition! What pageantry!
BCS supporters talk big when it comes to tradition, but their actions speak louder. The unequal revenue distribution from the BCS has caused conferences to fracture and traditional rivalries to end. The Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia, long a heated rivalry, may come to an end because both Pitt and West Virginia are leaving the Big East. When the Big 12 was on the verge of collapse, the smaller schools in the conference basically had to sell their souls to Texas to keep it together so they wouldn’t lose their BCS AQ status. That discord caused both Texas A&M and Missouri to bolt for the SEC, leading to the possible end of the annual rivalry game between A&M and Texas as well as the Border War between Kansas and Missouri, a rivalry that dates back to the Civil War. It’s not just the football rivalries, either. Rivalries in other sports will be affected, too.
The BCS has had an even greater impact among the non-AQ conferences. Tired of receiving less for performing better, Utah and TCU have left the Mountain West to join the Pac-12 and Big 12, respectively. The Utes were a founding member of the Mountain West and had a long history in the WAC. They have gone undefeated twice and won both their BCS bowls, yet they never received a chance to play for the national title.
TCU has reached a BCS bowl twice, going 1-1. Last year, they ran the table but were left out of the national championship game.
Boise State has an impressive resume, several undefeated seasons, and has gone 2-0 in BCS games yet has never made the national title game. In 2007, they were the only undefeated team in the country, yet they finished the year ranked #5. The Broncos are currently contemplating joining the Big East, even though it makes no sense geographically or for the Broncos’ other sports programs. The Big East is the least stable conference in the country, yet several teams are eager to join this sinking ship. Why?
The answer is simple: the BCS.
The Big East currently has an automatic bid to the BCS even though it has done little on the field lately to deserve it. Last year, an unranked 8-4 UConn team earned the Big East’s BCS bid and was trounced by Oklahoma. Meanwhile, a top-ten Boise State team, whose sole loss was on the road to a top-15 Nevada team that finished 13-1, was left out.
This year, only one Big East team is currently ranked in the BCS Top 25. Conference USA and the Mountain West both have two teams in the rankings, yet the Big East will receive millions more dollars from the BCS.
It’s easy to understand the frustration from non-AQ schools. Why should schools like Iowa State and Duke receive all this extra BCS revenue when they have done nothing on the field? Boise State, and TCU and Utah before them, has consistently excelled and been ranked in the top ten, yet receives far less.
As a result, these teams leave their conferences and rivals behind in pursuit of the all-mighty dollar. The rivalry games in the non-AQ conferences don’t garner the same kind of national attention as their AQ brethren, but they mean just as much to the fans involved. Air Force and Colorado State, for example, have a long and storied rivalry, but that history will mean nothing if Air Force joins the Big East. The rivalry will likely end if that comes to fruition. TCU and Boise State have played several thrilling games over the past few years, and that burgeoning rivalry looked like it would become one of the greats. Now, it has ceased to exist.
Student-Athletes and Playoffs
People in favor of the BCS will denounce a playoff as not being fair to the student-athletes. They argue that a playoff will extend the season and cause intrude upon final exams and study time.
If that were the case, then how come every other level of college football has a playoff? The FCS playoffs began this past weekend. There was an 11-game regular season, and were it not for a three-week break between the semi-finals and finals, the playoffs could have been done by Christmas.
How come athletes in lower divisions aren’t held in the same high regard academically? Academics are arguably more important to those players because only a handful will play professionally. Studying and exams are much more important to their future, yet the NCAA says it’s okay for them to play during finals.
Back in 2006, Ohio State played Florida for the BCS title. The Buckeyes had 51 days between the last game of the regular season and the national championship game. How is that helpful to study habits? Ohio State players had to spend two months practicing and dealing with the hoopla surrounding the game when they could have been concentrating on their studies. Plus, all that time off leads to rust and affects timing. In a playoff, the teams would be sharp because they would have spent the past couple of weeks playing.
The bowl games start during finals week for a lot of schools. The bowls take arguably a greater toll on study time and exam prep than a playoff would. Also, people often point out final exams but what about the start of the semester? Schools on the quarter or trimester system typically start a quarter right after New Years. A team playing in the championship game would miss the first week of class. Players would start the quarter off behind and have to catch up. They’d miss out on going over the syllabus and getting a feel for the class.
Money
Money is the root of all evil, and it certainly is at the heart of many of the issues in college football today. All of the realignment drama was caused by money. Athletic departments are bleeding cash, and the disparity between the haves and have-nots is only growing wider.
A playoff could change all that.
Even Jim Delaney, Big Ten commissioner and staunch playoff foe, admitted in 2005 that a playoff would generate three or four times more revenue than the BCS. College basketball’s tournament is a huge success, and a football tournament would be even more massive.
Indeed, football should look at basketball for inspiration. College basketball revels in competition. Teams actually schedule tough non-conference opponents because it will help them come selection time. The big boys like Duke aren’t afraid to play tough mid-majors like Butler and Gonzaga because there is no harm if they lose. Fans love seeing huge non-conference matchups like Michigan State-North Carolina or this Saturday’s Kentucky-North Carolina game, but it’s also a benefit to the teams themselves. Tough non-conference schedules make a team battle-hardened and mentally tough for conference play. The players have confidence in themselves after navigating such a stretch. Teams are rewarded for it.
The BCS forces teams to limit risk. If an AQ school goes undefeated, chances are they will be in the national title hunt. Why risk playing a school like Boise State or Houston and risk a season-ruining upset? It’s not just mid-majors, either. A few years ago, Auburn was ranked in the preseason top ten and considered a threat to win it all. They opened with USC and got blasted. Oregon started the year in the top-five and opened with a loss to fellow top-five team LSU. There is no reward for a team like Alabama to schedule a tough non-conference game because if they lose, they are out of the running. Oklahoma was ranked #3 and played BYU a couple years ago to start the season, but the Cougars pulled off the upset and ended the Sooners’ title hopes.
Just look at Virginia Tech. The Hokies played Appalachian State, East Carolina, Marshall, and Arkansas State in their non-conference schedule. Arkansas State, at 9-2, had the best record of the bunch. Virginia Tech’s one tough game was against Clemson, and they lost 23-3. Naturally, the Hokies are #5 in the BCS and an inexplicable #3 in the coaches’ poll.
(On a side note: Credit schools like LSU and Oregon for having the guts to play tough competition)
Sports fans are a strange bunch. Practically every other sport has some sort of playoff. Baseball had one of its best postseasons in years, and the drama that unfolded down the stretch as teams battled for the wild card spots was incredible. The Grand Slam tournaments in tennis are basically playoffs. The most popular sporting event in the world, soccer’s World Cup, is a playoff. March Madness is celebrated every year.
Many of these same fans, though, decry the idea of a playoff in college football. It’s mind-boggling. Why is it okay in every other sport but not top-flight college football?
Another strange aspect of this phenomenon is underdogs. We love our underdogs, yet we try to prevent them in college football. Undefeated Houston won’t get a shot to win a title. One-loss Boise State likely won’t make a BCS game. Exceptional non-AQ teams have been denied a chance at a championship in most of the past few years. Their schedule is always ridiculed for being too soft.
Where was the uproar when Butler made it to back-to-back finals in basketball? Nobody said they didn’t belong or that their schedule was too soft. People criticized the inclusion of VCU, but the Rams then went on one of the greatest Final Four runs of all time. George Mason’s run to the Final Four a few years back was gripping. Even non-fans were tuning in to follow these teams.
Those were some of the greatest sports moments in basketball’s storied history, and none of them would have happened if NCAA basketball utilized the BCS. Instead of Connecticut and Butler, we would have had Ohio State and Kansas, neither of which made the Final Four. All the drama from March Madness would not exist.
If the BCS were used in other sports, the Giants don’t upset the 18-0 Patriots in the Super Bowl. San Francisco doesn’t win the World Series last year, and instead of St. Louis’ magical run this year, the Phillies and Yankees duke it out.
And arguably the greatest upset of all time never happens:
The 1980 US Men’s Hockey Team doesn’t defeat the heavily-favored Soviets en route to a gold medal.
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