Bowling for Bucks

There's one constant in the American sportswriting universe. Complaining about the BCS. The BCS is the "Bowl Championship Series" and was meant to address a problem that used to occur rather commonly prior to the BCS.

In Division 1 college football, which is the football most people care about (divisions 2 and 3 are from smaller colleges, with far less talent), there are no playoffs. Instead, there are a bunch of bowls which invite teams to play. Some bowls, such as the Rose Bowl, and conference tie-ins.

Most football teams belong to a conference. For example, Maryland belongs to the ACC short for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Each conference has between about 8 and 12 teams. The teams play most of their games in conference. The teams with the best record at the end of the season might play in a conference championship (for a long time, the ACC, with 9 teams, did not have a conference championship, but then 3 universities joined the ACC, to make it 12 teams, and now they have one).

This past weekend was championship weekend for those that hold championships (oddly enough, the Big Ten doesn't hold one). There's usually room for upset, because a team that is vying for a BCS bowl bid must usually win their conference championship, and thus be forced to play another strong team. This hurt many teams this weekend as Missouri and West Virginia lost this past weekend, both with chances to play in the national championships.

But back to the BCS. The BCS originally had four bowls: Sugar, Orange, Rose, and Fiesta. They would take 8 teams. One of the bowls was designated as the national championship, which would rotate every year (one year Sugar, one year Rose, etc).

To decide who played in the national champion, a BCS ranking was set up, which used a combination of polls by people, computer rankings, and strength of schedule (how strong your opponents were and the quality of victory) to determine a ranking. At the end of the year, #1 would play #2. The other bowls would then take the best of the rest.

You see, prior to the BCS, the bowls had affiliation with conferences, and so it was quite common that #1 would not play #2, because, for example, the Rose Bowl wanted the Pac-10 champion vs. the Big-10 champ, and one might be #1, while the other might be #5.

The BCS doesn't remove the bowl system, but at least attempts to put #1 and #2 together. Except, each year, it creates issues. You might have one undefeated team that's good, and they're #1, but have a hard time deciding who #2 should be. There might be several one loss teams, each having a legitimate shot at #2.

This year, there was only one undefeated team, Hawaii, but it was in a conference so weak that no one seriously considered them #1 (indeed, they barely squeaked out many of their wins, including a Washington team that had a losing record). Several one-loss teams had their chances too, but blew it this past weekend. This lead to the final of Ohio State with one loss against LSU with two losses (both in triple overtime).

This year, they decided to add two more games to the BCS. Thus, in addition to the four bowl games, one of the four sites serves as the national championship the following week, which is why they held the national championship on January 8, when it used to be January 2 (then 4th). There were some plans to have a permanent site for the national championship, but instead, one of the bowls serves as the site twice (on a rotating basis).

This allowed Boise State, a smallish university to compete in one of the BCS bowls, and upset a much higher ranked Oklahoma, going for a gutsy two-point conversion with a Statue of Liberty play (a fake pass, then giving the ball to a runner going the opposite direction).

What most sports reporters want is a playoff system. They argue that Division 2 has a playoff system. Why doesn't Division 1? College presidents like the bowl system because it allows for many happy coaches. With something close to 30 bowl games, there are something close to 30 winners. In a playoff system, there might be one winner out of, say, 8 teams. The other bowls would be minor in nature (not that they aren't already).

Some college presidents (why they care is always a mystery to me, but it goes to show you the power of college sports in universities) argue that students would be taken out of class (as if they were picked for their academic abilities).

So every year, sports reporters (more like pundits, since most don't report, but weigh in on their opinion) complain how awful the BCS is, and every year, no one particularly listens.

Eight teams would put some teams in the discussion, though the last few teams would always be complaining. For example, many people see USC and Georgia as two teams that are playing pretty hot right now, but both had two losses, so despite playing good football, they were out of the national championship discussion.

But you can pretty much guarantee that next year, the reporters will complain about the BCS yet again. It's a rite of winter, and allows lazy reporters to rehash the same arguments again and again.