Bcs_Pros_Cons

Cody Maynard Professor Livingston English 101, Composition 1 November 2009 Bowl Championship Series Bowl System When the Bowl Championship Series comes around, it reminds me of the holidays. As nice as the Christmas is without the bowl season, the bowl games put the holiday season over the top. As I begin to watch all of the games, I feel a shower of satisfaction throughout the excitement of a college football matchup. I can’t wait to watch the best team in college football raise the national championship trophy every year. The problem with this is I do not know which game to watch. Sometimes the best teams are not playing in the BCS National Championship Game. By now we knowthat the Bowl Championship Series does not always select the right teams to be put into the BCS National Championship game. Evidence of this most commonly comes up during the 2004 season. A record in the BCS era, five teams went undefeated. Oklahoma, USC, Auburn,Utah and Boise State all went unscathed. Utah and Boise State had played easy schedules and were not given a chance to show themselves in the title game. And then there were three, Oklahoma, USC, and Auburn. Despite playing in what most people believed as the hardest conference in college football, Auburn was left out to dry by the selection committee. Auburn won their Bowl game and USC won their National Championship game with ease over their opponent. They were both number one in the BCS poll. This left experts scratching their heads and looking for answers. Questions arose, “If they are undefeated then why can’tthey be number one in the BCS'” “Who is number one when there are two or more undefeated teams'” I believe the answer to this question lies hidden within the process of selection for the two teams in the BCS National Championship.(New BCS 1) One of the most devastating dents they put in college football was during the 2004 season. The University of Southern California Trojans wasnot selected to play in the national championship. This was in spite of them not losing a game theentire regular season. If that is not enough, USC was also ranked number one in the coaches’ and AP writers’ poll. They ended up being selected to the Rose Bowl and annihilating the University of Michigan Wolverines. In other places, The Louisiana State Tigers had won the national championship game, and were number two in the polls. The BCS computers had no answers;they then decided to elect a first place tie. LSU and USC were co-national champions, and there was no distinct number one in college football. (Improved 2) In the 2006 season, the Bowl Championship Series added another game to its rotation, the BCS Title Game. This would rotate from the previous sites of the Orange, Rose, Sugar, and Fiesta Bowl. Thisgame would feature the number one and two team in the BCS standings at year’s end. People hoped that this would lead to the ongoing of great traditions like the Rose and Orange Bowl. Fans wanted to see their PAC-10 or Big Ten teams in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl, and this would keep that tradition. In the waning moments of the BCS National Title Game, there have been no problems, but, there also have not been many hard calls. No more than two undefeated teams have been in place, and no less than one. The BCS committee has had the past couple years easy. I expect the major flaws and critical slip-ups to come around soon. We all wonder what the BCS Committee will do when that scenario happens. If the BCS is so flawed,why keep it' What are itsreplacements' Well there have been plenty of ideas thrown towards the NCAA and I will be exploring the pros and cons of each scenario and taking a look at what others have to say also. The three most reasonable solutions are: NFL style playoffs: The last idea that was thrown into the laps of the BCS committee would have to be the idea of the NFL playoff format;this would give 12 teams a chance for the national title as the top four seeds would have a first round bye. The basic reasoning behind this would be to look at the NFL and its success, why not try to be like that' Pros of the NFL playoff format would be; more teams with chance for championship, Non-BCS schools given a chance. Sons include: lose tradition in bowl games, demolish revenue and ratings towards teams that do not make it to the playoff. What do others believe about NFL style' I believe that Harvey Perlman has a great argument towards this debate of the plus-one format. Are people going to be as interested during the regular season' From my perspective, I do not believe the regular season would get as much ratings nor hype. Dennis Franchoine had a valid argument too. If there is a playoff then many teams will go home losers. This is bad for moral and most teams would not be able to end their season on a high note. With the bowl games, many teams earn revenue and the also receive gift bags for certain bowl games. With the bowl game system, half of the teams which received bowl bids will end their seasons with a win. In conclusion, I believe that the best way to solve this dilemma would be to have the plus-one playoff system introduced into college football. It may sound as if I disliked the plus-one format all along the way, but through it all I believe that all of the positives outweighed the negatives if and only if the bowl system was still put into place after the playoff bracket was formed. This way we could still create positive moral, revenue, and tradition in the game along with a new twist that could better decide the number one team in the country.