Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Don't aruge: The BCS Sucks

I recently had a Facebook post about the BCS which started quite a bit of debate. I am not a fan of the BCS. In my mind, you either return to the old bowl system (which is about tradition) or you go to a real playoff system. To me there’s no in-between, as this BCS system is really about enriching the ‘elite’ conferences and keeping Congress out of its backyard, not crowning a champion or protecting tradition.

But my friends and family made some interesting arguments, which I will completely smash.

Tradition. Think about the children!
Argument: College football is steeped in tradition. Rose Bowl. Orange Bowl. Fiesta Bowl. These conjure up memories of glory past. And the bowl system enables so many teams to end the season with a win. It’s actually a great way to end the FBS football season.

My take: Crap, crap, more crap. There’s not more tradition. The Rose Bowl still pits the Pac-10 champ versus the Big Ten champ – as long as neither of them is in the BCS championship game. Where else is there tradition? There’s so many bowls now, unless you’re a sportwriter or an avid gambler, it’s unlikely you’d be able to name even half of them. Unless you think we really need to protect the tradition of the Eaglebank Bowl. Thirty-three bowls; more than half of the FBS plays in a bowl. It means nothing anymore.

Playoffs? We don’t need no stinkin’ playoffs
Argument: Lots of sports (like some Euro soccer leagues), golf, tennis, etc. don’t have a playoff champion. They may not even name a champion. Why do we even need a ‘true’ champion in the FBS? The BCS and the bowls are a better way than a playoff.

My take: This one is intriguing, but I don’t buy it. I couldn’t find another NCAA sanctioned sport that doesn’t have a champion (including tennis and golf). Don’t think we can use pro golf and tennis as good comparisons because they’re individual sports, and they have champions of certain events, so it’s not as if they rate people via sportsmanship.

Euro soccer is an interesting example. Let’s take the EPL. The champion is determined by which team earns the most points by season’s end, points earned via wins and draws. If the world’s most popular soccer league, does it, which can’t FBS football?

Well, for lots of reasons. First, there are 20 teams in the EPL, not 120. And the champion of the EPL goes onto the UEFA Champions League, which is a tournament, which also leads to UEFA Super Cup. So, there’s not really a good soccer example.

The regular season will cease to be good you idiot!
Argument: Playoffs dilute the regular season. Look at the NBA or NHL. The regular seasons exist purely to determine playoff seeds, and with half the league making the playoffs, what does the regular season matter? And NCAA Division I basketball is another good example, with 64+ teams making the tournament. The regular season is merely a prelude.

My take: I completely agree that the NBA and NHL regular seasons are not as meaningful as they should be. 82 games to determine playoff seeding? Give the best teams a bye or something. And NCAA basketball lets in too many teams. I would prefer 32, or maybe 40-something with top teams getting a bye.

But if you have a 24-team tournament (see my solution below), only 20% of the FBS would make the playoffs. That seems reasonable to me. And many games at the end of the regular season would be determining playoff participation, which is much more compelling than who goes to the Capital One Bowl.

The solution
But the FBS? There are 120 teams. If you made a 24-team tournament (or something like that), the regular season might have even more meaning than today. Think about this format:

  • Each conference in the gets a big, even the Sun Belt. That’s 11 automatic bids.
  • Thirteen teams get at-large bids, which could be selected using a system similar to the BCS system or picked by a committee. No conference could have more than three teams in the playoffs. Seeding is then done, 1-24
  • The top eight seeds (which can be at-large), get byes.
  • The rounds go like this
    o Bye round: seeds 9-24, with 9 playing 24 and so forth. Top seed hosts. (First week of December)
    o Round of 16: 8 top seeds vs. 8 bye round winners, matches determined by seed (Second week of December)
    o Quarterfinals: Remaining 8 teams play, matches determined by seed, at 4 pre-determined sites (Third week of December)
    o Semi-finals: Remaining 4, matches determined by seed, at two predetermined sites (New Year’s Day)
    o Championship: Jan. 8 at a pre-determined site (unless it falls on a Sunday)

What might it have looked like this year? Here we go.

  • Twelve automatic bids: Georgia Tech (ACC); Texas (Big 12); Cincinnati (Big East); Ohio State (Big Ten); East Carolina (Conference USA); Central Michigan (Mid-American); TCU (Mountain West); Oregon (Pac-10); Alabama (SEC); Troy (Sun Belt); Boise State (WAC)
  • Thirteen at large bid (picked using BCS rankings): Florida (SEC); Iowa (Big Ten); Virginia Tech (ACC); LSU (SEC); Penn State (Big Ten); BYU (Mountain West); Miami (ACC); West Virginia (Big East); Pittsburgh (Big East); Oregon State (Pac 10); Oklahoma State (Big 12); Arizona (Pac 10); Nebraska (Big 12)
  • Seeds (I picked, mainly using the BCS rankings, but adjusted the top. And I was lazy and put the small conference champs at the bottom.):
    o 1. Alabama, 2. TCU, 3. Texas, 4. Cincinnati, 5. Boise State, 6. Florida, 7. Oregon, 8. Ohio State, 9. Georgia Tech, 10. Iowa, 11. Virginia Tech, 12. LSU, 13. Penn State, 14. BYU, 15. Miami, 16. West Virginia, 17. Pittsburgh, 18. Oregon State, 19. Oklahoma State, 20. Arizona, 21. Nebraska, 22. East Carolina, 23. Central Michigan, 24. Troy
  • First round would look something like this: Troy @ Georgia Tech; Central Michigan @ Iowa; East Carolina @ Virginia Tech; Nebraska @ LSU; Arizona @ Penn State; Oklahoma State @ BYU; Oregon State @ Miami. Some really cool games in here.

Just writing about this makes me giddy. How cool would this have been? Instead of playing for the meaningless Las Vegas Bowl title, BYU and Oregon State could have been playing several weeks ago to see who would battle Boise State in the Round of 16. Good golly! Anyone who has a problem with this needs to get their pulse checked. This would make the FBS season freakin’ awesome! And at the end, we would have only one undefeated team (if any) and a champ.

Let’s make happen people!

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