The College Football Controversy: BCS vs. Playoffs

Analysis

 

Index

Introduction

Analysis

10 Steps

Theory

Extended Reading List

Hatewatch

Implications

Class-Links

Trivia Page

Bibliography

 

College football is unlike any other sport in the world. Sure the NFL may have better overall talent, but where college football exceeds the professionals is in pure passion. Unlike the professionals, college players aren't out on the field just to earn their million dollar paychecks each year, they play the sport simply because they love it. There are no better fans either, than the students of big football colleges and universities who simply eat, sleep, and breathe the game. Another factor contributing to the uniqueness of college football, however, is the lack of a postseason that provides equal competition for all schools and a definitive champion year in and year out. How many split NCAA basketball titles have there been? That's right, none. How many non-BCS conference teams have made it into BCS bowls games? Once again, the answer is none (1). These are the two main problems that anti-BCS activists have with the system. Their solution is some sort of playoff system that allows a fixed number of the best teams in the country to compete in a single elimination tournament (2). Playoff supporters argue that this would allow smaller, non-BCS conference teams a much better chance to compete on equal grounds with their counterparts in BCS conferences. Another advantage of the playoff system (3), the playoff supporters' claim, is that it provides a single champion each year without any surrounding controversy (4). Much like the other major sports, playoff-style postseasons do not allow for much bickering or complaining because every team that didn't win the championship must have lost in the postseason. The biggest problem many people have with the BCS is that their team has a very good season and wins their bowl game, but never even gets a chance to play for the national title. The lob sided system of payment in favor of BCS teams has also become a concern for fans of smaller, non-BCS teams, whose programs lack the necessary funds to attract the caliber of players that would allow them to compete with larger, BCS conference teams (5).

(10)

Left: Many USC fans felt robbed last year when their Trojans had finished atop several media and coaches' polls, but the BCS selection committee prevented them from getting a bid to the national championship game.

Supporters of the BCS argue that the current system is working well (6). They do not have any problem with the controversy surrounding the national title each year; in fact they believe that a little conflict sparks interest in the game that would otherwise be lost in a playoff type system. BCS supporters also point to the extremely intense and exciting regular that comes from the bowl games in the postseason (7). Each year in college football, multiple teams usually finish the season undefeated. This puts immense pressure on any team with national title aspirations to win every single regular season game. BCS supporters believe that this fact makes all the regular season games more exciting and a playoff system would take away from this (8). The BCS is also a vast improvement on the previous postseason system. Before 1997 and the BCS's inception, national champions in college football were determined by numerous polls that rarely shared the same verdict (9). The result was most often a split national championship and no standard by which to rank all the teams. When the BCS began it fixed both of these problems. Although the BCS still has split champions some years, it does not have the three or four champions that the previous system would sometimes yield.

(1) Rock, Brad "11-0 Utes Make Bowl History" http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595107022,00.html

(2) Strasen, Marty "Sports Fans' Group Pitches Playoff Over BCS" http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGAWRPNP4VC.html

(3) http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGAWRPNP4VC.html

(4) http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGAWRPNP4VC.html

(5) "SFAA College Football Playoff Proposals" http://i.tsn.com/cfootball/articles/20030904/490733.html

(6) http://www.bcsfootball.org/

(7)Wilson, Charlie "College Season Too Good to Change" http://www.mindspring.com/~sartor/gradyhs/south0299_playoffs.html

(8) http://www.mindspring.com/~sartor/gradyhs/south0299_playoffs.htm

(9) "College Football National Champions" http://www.hickoksports.com/history/cfchamps.shtml

(10) http://www.ncaafootball.net/index.php?s=&change_well_id=9994