Monday, December 01, 2008

BCS all up in here

Earl talks about the problems that the BCS faces this year, and me being the expert on everything has weighed in on the subject, but since I also am lazy (and I know a good post when I see one) I will just repost my comment about his post here.

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Here are my two cents on the subject of the BCS.

When we talk about the BCS we need to realize two things:

1. The BCS was a huge improvement over using polls at the end of the season to figure the number one team in the nation. Besides different polls crowning teams national champions there was no guarantee that the number one and two teams in the nation leading up to the bowl games would even play each other. The championship game that we get now at least gets the top two teams to play against each other.

2. The BCS was devised to make the hard decision about what the top two teams are. In the case that there is a clear cut number one and number two all the polls and the BCS will agree and all is good in the land. However the BCS was made so that when there isn't an obvious matchup for the championship game. This means that when the BCS is most needed is when it has to make the tough decision about who are the best teams. So when the BCS is the most useful it will be criticized the most because it is there to pick only two teams. There really is no "win" situation for the BCS because somebody will always feel like they are getting left out.

Now I would much rather have a playoff system, as would much of the civilized world, however I doubt it will happen since there is just too much money tied up right now. Even an act of God (or Obama, whichever comes first) will probably not break the BCS logjam.

However if we do go to an 8 team playoff system we need to keep one thing in mind to keep it from becoming a pissing match. The point of the playoffs is to crown a single champion. And the point of the regular season is to be number one going into the playoffs. If we get to thinking that all our team needs to do is get into the playoff so that they can get a shot at the championship we will just fall down the slope of "well we are ranked 9 but are better then #8, we should get in too!" We can not, no, must not, think this way. We should think that the top 4 teams deserve to get into the playoffs, and the next for teams taken are there just in case there is some dispute about the top 4 teams. So the #8 team that got into the playoffs doesn't deserve to be there, it just got lucky.

If you liked this comment check out my blog. (Translation, I'm just gonna repost this comment over on my blog.)

4 comments:

Verdant Earl said...

I think there is a way to do an 8-team playoff that most everyone would be happy with. But it would involve a PAC10 and Big10 Championship Game...something those conferences are dead set against.

ACC Winner
Big East Winner
Big 12 Winner
SEC Winner
PAC 10 Winner
Big 10 Winner
Top 2 Non-BCS Conf schools

All of these would be assuming that they all finish withing the Top 15 in the BCS poll. Why the Top 15? Because if the cut-off were the Top 8 or Top 10, then the team finishing 9th or 11th could squawk. But if Cincinatti wins the Big East and finishes 17th in the BCS, then they shouldn't be allowed in the playoff. Those spots will then become at-large bids for the top remaining teams in the BCS poll.

Assuming that there were Championship Games in every conference, and everything stayed true to form, we would have the following teams in the tourney this year:

#1 Alabama (SEC)
#8 Cincinnati (Big East)
#3 Texas (at-large)
#6 Penn St (Big 10)
#4 USC (PAC10)
#5 Utah (at-large)
#2 Oklahoma (Big12)
#7 Boise St (at-large)

This is assuming Oklahoma and Alabama win and USC and Penn State win a mythical conference Championship Game. The ACC is shit out of luck because neither BC nor Va Tech will finish in the Top 15. That lets Texas into the mix.

Who is left out? Texas Tech? I guess so. Losing late in the season shouldn't matter more than losing early, but it does and the way that they lost was huge. So it's still not perfect. But it is better. Maybe a play-in game. Texas Tech vs. Texas to decide who gets the ACC's spot. Yeah...I like that.

I would pay good money to see that playoff grouping!

Ookami Snow said...

I see a lot of complaints coming from this system.

I say Top 8 from BCS rankings.

Verdant Earl said...

The only thing I don't like about that is that your team can finish in the Top 8 without winning their own conference. I think that has to be a must-have in the playoff system. You make the regular season matter by giving the major conferences a bid (if they finish high enough) but you still can give at-large bids to teams like Texas.

Ookami Snow said...

What do you think about this system?

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news;_ylt=AlrHN3B.1RcFpyV0D0jId5kcvrYF?slug=dw-playoff120208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns