Guest Author Bryan on the BCS Mess

I'm not sure enough could be said of the mounting problems the NCAA will face because of the Bowl Championship Series. Well, actually enough has been said, and I'll just take this opportunity to offer one more. This year, above any should be a realization for Miles Brand and the rest of the brass at the NCAA to openly explore what options there is in creating a playoff system to end the season, and finally give us an undisputed college football champion. I would not hold my breath if I were you.

That's right, please do not hold your breath, and actually do not waste your breath talking about the subject in bars or at your workplace. If the NCAA had already found a way to create a playoff system in which they would make the same amount of money that they do with the BCS, we would see USC playing Auburn in the championship game. That will not happen, unless of course Oklahoma loses to professional dirt bag Gary Barnett.

College football, like all sports, is run exclusively by corporate sponsorship. Tostitos, Fed-Ex, Nokia, SBC, are just some of the names affixed to the bowl games you will be enjoying during the holidays. According to the Football Bowl Association, this year $187 million will be paid out to all schools participating in bowl games this year. That much money can really buy a lot of sculptures to decorate the quads of all of these schools, and maybe, I don't know, buy a computer or two. In the end though, we will have three major schools: USC, Oklahoma, and Auburn, who will contend that they should be in the championship game, and we will have one of those schools bitching about why they should have been in there.

The BCS is inherently wrong, but it is the only thing we got. Sure, we could leave it up to the polls but then we go back to the split champions like we did in 1997 with Michigan and Nebraska. What it does show is that with computers doing a third of the picking, we are doomed to failure. Somewhere, Stanley Kubric is smiling.

The idea of a playoff might not be as viable as one might thing though. I do not wish to beat the horse and talk about how the money aspect of it will ensure we will not see it soon. But even with taking that out of the equation, we will still see a BCS type system plague us forever. Any playoff system will surely have eight, twelve, or maybe up to sixteen teams, but with two different polls that sometimes are quite different how is it that we would decide what teams qualify? After that, you have the major conferences who will vie for their conference champion to be automatically in the playoff. Sure, that puts a smile on the face of Boston College fans, but I got news for ya' the Big East ain't what it used to be.

Actually, the anti-climatic ending that the BCS provides us is really the best option. Ratings are up, and corporate sponsors are licking their lips at trying to get their name upon anything that is played on New Year's Day. I am not worried though, we will have at least two undefeated teams at the end of the year, Beano Cook will be a celebrity again, and we'll do this all again next August.