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Keep the BCS -- with a twist Posted: Friday December 14, 2001 3:01 PM
This was a miserable week for the BCS. (Not nearly as miserable as it was for Notre Dame and George O'Leary, but that's another issue altogether.) At this point, further BCS bashing is redundant. A system that failed last year, but was saved from complete humiliation by Oklahoma's Orange Bowl victory, has fallen completely to pieces. Background: I've been anti-playoff since I began covering major college football 14 years ago. I'm still not crazy about the idea. I still like the premium that ideally is placed on the regular season in college football, but even that has been undermined by the BCS. I used to love the tension that surrounded a crucial regular-season game; one loss and you're out. It's the opposite of everything that makes the professional hockey and basketball seasons abhorrent. But the BCS has ruined even this. Miami beats Florida State in 2000, and the BCS ranks FSU higher. Colorado crushes Nebraska in late November this year, and the BCS ranks Nebraska higher. My argument was always that games like Miami-Florida State and Colorado-Nebraska would be diminished in value if they were mere prelude to a tournament. Turns out the BCS has managed to diminish them just the same. And that is a terrible shame. Yet, in reading and listening to the torrent of BCS dissing that has flooded the 'Net and the airwaves this week, I find two huge oversights: 1) The principal reason that the BCS has fallen apart is that a certain degree of any-given-Saturday parity has descended upon college football. Even a decade ago, when the old Bowl Coalition was first formed, the relative lack of parity ensured that there was a reasonably good chance of stumbling into an appropriate 1-vs.-2 game. But now? Forget it. Teams can beat each other. Miami should have lost to Boston College. The Hurricanes should have been tied by Virginia Tech, playing for its life in the fourth quarter. This is the best team in the country? Yeah, I think it is, but that's just the point -- the margin is smaller than ever. There are no more titans left. In most seasons, even the best teams are going to be threatened with defeat several times, and as scholarship limitations continue to rear their heads, we could someday soon see a season in which nobody escapes with only one loss. Just watch. The BCS is predicated on the idea that the cream will always rise to the top. Just wait it out. Folks, the cream won't always rise to the top. Not anymore. 2) There's been a lot of talk about using the bowls as part of a playoff. It's a nice thought. The Rose and Sugar bowls as the national semifinals, then the Fiesta as the championship game. Plans like that. People who suggest this, basically throwing a bone to the bowl people, don't know enough about what makes bowls work. They aren't just football games. They're tourist attractions, destinations with parades and festivals and parties, planned months and months in advance and designed to fit into the holiday season. Just because you play a national semifinal on Jan. 18 and call it the Rose Bowl doesn't make it the Rose Bowl. The people who run the bowls are in business to operate a successful venture. You can belittle them for this, because it has nothing to do with crowning a national champion in college football, but the fact is, that's what they do. For teams, going to a bowl means spending a week in New Orleans or Miami or Pasadena. Would they do this for three or four consecutive weeks? Even during school break? I don't think so. Players would get tired. Coaches would weary of practicing on unfamiliar ground. Once, yes. Three weeks in a row, nope. So maybe you could keep the bowl names, but not the bowls. How about this for an option? Keep the BCS. Keep the bowls. Then put together a Final Four to play after the bowls are completed. It creates a means for the greedy conference commissioners and bowl people to save money and face. It guarantees that bowls will get big-time effort from their teams. Who would select the Final Four? A committee, like the people who pick the teams to play in the NCAA basketball tournament. The BCS is locked in for five more years. Maybe this would ease a little of the frustration. Something has to give. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to
CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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