Post by wareagle on Jan 10, 2008 8:34:04 GMT -6
BCS vs. Playoffs
Published: 1/9/08, 5:11 PM EDT
This year’s college football season will go down in the books as one of the most, if not the most, unpredictable seasons ever. Four times during the season we saw number one ranked teams lose their position. Then there were those seven times that a number two team could not hold on to its spot, and six of those times the loss was handed to them by an unranked team.
How Does The BCS Work?
The purpose of the BCS, when it was created in 1998, was to produce a championship game while keeping the bowl tradition intact. The BCS recently added a fifth game to be the national championship game. The BCS uses subjective polls, computer rankings, strength of a team's schedule, and number of losses to decide who the National Champion will be.
Well, with a 12-0 Hawaii team being ranked No. 10 and all the teams ranked above them having either one or two losses, this poses a problem. It leaves many people thinking, “Why doesn’t college football have a playoff system?”
What Is The Biggest Argument For Keeping The BCS?
BCS fan or not, the one thing that can be agreed on is that most of the excitement in college football's regular season has come from the BCS poll. Games that would not have interested anyone but those schools, such as the game against Kansas (2) and Missouri (4), drew in well over six million viewers.
The Big Ten and PAC 10 favor the current format because it matches the number one and two teams while preserving the bowl system. More importantly to them, it continues the Rose Bowl tradition. Many people think that this tradition is one that is ready to see its end. Keep in mind that the Rose Bowl game had a very disappointing outcome with UCS over Illinois 49-17. With UGA running over Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl 41-10, maybe a USC vs. UGA Rose Bowl and Illinois vs. Hawaii Sugar Bowl would have been a much better pairing.
The biggest opposition to a playoff system comes from the Big Ten and Pac-10, who say they will pull out from the BSC if a playoff system is adopted. But what if the other conferences decide to start a playoff system without them? The Big Ten and Pac-10 might have to give up on the Rose Bowl tradition and soon join in, just as they did when they joined the BCS the year after No. 1 Michigan fell to a co-No. 1 despite winning the Rose Bowl.
Another common argument against the playoffs concerns academics. There are those that stress that a playoff system would interfere with first semester finals and roll over into the second semester.
What Is The Argument For A Playoff System?
The University of Georgia’s president, Michael Adams, who is also the chairman of the NCAA’s executive committee, has opposed a playoff system for the past 20 years. This has mainly been because of academic reasons. This year he feels the BCS bowls had very unattractive pairings and is asking to put playoffs on the NCAA agenda.
According to the proposal from Adams, the top eight teams would be chosen and seeded by an NCAA selection committee. Four quarter-final games would be played in the existing BCS bowls on New Year's Day. The semi-finals would be the next week at unspecified locations and the title game the week after that.
Another similar scenario has been proposed. There would be teams one through six, which would be automatically chosen from the champions of “big six” BCS conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 10, SEC). Team seven would be the at-large pick of remaining highest-ranked teams from a big six BCS conference. The final eighth team would be the at-large remaining highest-ranked team from a non-big-six or non-BCS conference.
One question that has been posed concerning a playoff system is will the fans get tired of traveling, spending money, and filling seats? And for the teams that will play twice in such a short span of time, are the fans of the winning four teams going to travel to a second game? Are fans of the two teams playing for the title going to travel to three?
The Plus-One Proposal
BCS coordinator Mike Slive has said that they are considering a Plus-One concept, which is not really a playoff. This concept would work in one of the following two ways.
Seeded Plus-One
The top four teams at the end of the regular season would meet. The number one team would play number four and the number two would play number three in two of the BCS bowls. To keep the BCS at 10 berths, either a fifth non-title game will be added or an existing bowl, like the Capital One Bowl, would be added.
Pure Plus-One
All of the BCS Bowls would host their traditional games regardless of team rankings. Then the BCS No. 1 and 2 teams left would advance to a title game.
No matter what your views on a playoff system may be, this season has given college football fans a lot to think about before next season arrives.
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Published: 1/9/08, 5:11 PM EDT
This year’s college football season will go down in the books as one of the most, if not the most, unpredictable seasons ever. Four times during the season we saw number one ranked teams lose their position. Then there were those seven times that a number two team could not hold on to its spot, and six of those times the loss was handed to them by an unranked team.
How Does The BCS Work?
The purpose of the BCS, when it was created in 1998, was to produce a championship game while keeping the bowl tradition intact. The BCS recently added a fifth game to be the national championship game. The BCS uses subjective polls, computer rankings, strength of a team's schedule, and number of losses to decide who the National Champion will be.
Well, with a 12-0 Hawaii team being ranked No. 10 and all the teams ranked above them having either one or two losses, this poses a problem. It leaves many people thinking, “Why doesn’t college football have a playoff system?”
What Is The Biggest Argument For Keeping The BCS?
BCS fan or not, the one thing that can be agreed on is that most of the excitement in college football's regular season has come from the BCS poll. Games that would not have interested anyone but those schools, such as the game against Kansas (2) and Missouri (4), drew in well over six million viewers.
The Big Ten and PAC 10 favor the current format because it matches the number one and two teams while preserving the bowl system. More importantly to them, it continues the Rose Bowl tradition. Many people think that this tradition is one that is ready to see its end. Keep in mind that the Rose Bowl game had a very disappointing outcome with UCS over Illinois 49-17. With UGA running over Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl 41-10, maybe a USC vs. UGA Rose Bowl and Illinois vs. Hawaii Sugar Bowl would have been a much better pairing.
The biggest opposition to a playoff system comes from the Big Ten and Pac-10, who say they will pull out from the BSC if a playoff system is adopted. But what if the other conferences decide to start a playoff system without them? The Big Ten and Pac-10 might have to give up on the Rose Bowl tradition and soon join in, just as they did when they joined the BCS the year after No. 1 Michigan fell to a co-No. 1 despite winning the Rose Bowl.
Another common argument against the playoffs concerns academics. There are those that stress that a playoff system would interfere with first semester finals and roll over into the second semester.
What Is The Argument For A Playoff System?
The University of Georgia’s president, Michael Adams, who is also the chairman of the NCAA’s executive committee, has opposed a playoff system for the past 20 years. This has mainly been because of academic reasons. This year he feels the BCS bowls had very unattractive pairings and is asking to put playoffs on the NCAA agenda.
According to the proposal from Adams, the top eight teams would be chosen and seeded by an NCAA selection committee. Four quarter-final games would be played in the existing BCS bowls on New Year's Day. The semi-finals would be the next week at unspecified locations and the title game the week after that.
Another similar scenario has been proposed. There would be teams one through six, which would be automatically chosen from the champions of “big six” BCS conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 10, SEC). Team seven would be the at-large pick of remaining highest-ranked teams from a big six BCS conference. The final eighth team would be the at-large remaining highest-ranked team from a non-big-six or non-BCS conference.
One question that has been posed concerning a playoff system is will the fans get tired of traveling, spending money, and filling seats? And for the teams that will play twice in such a short span of time, are the fans of the winning four teams going to travel to a second game? Are fans of the two teams playing for the title going to travel to three?
The Plus-One Proposal
BCS coordinator Mike Slive has said that they are considering a Plus-One concept, which is not really a playoff. This concept would work in one of the following two ways.
Seeded Plus-One
The top four teams at the end of the regular season would meet. The number one team would play number four and the number two would play number three in two of the BCS bowls. To keep the BCS at 10 berths, either a fifth non-title game will be added or an existing bowl, like the Capital One Bowl, would be added.
Pure Plus-One
All of the BCS Bowls would host their traditional games regardless of team rankings. Then the BCS No. 1 and 2 teams left would advance to a title game.
No matter what your views on a playoff system may be, this season has given college football fans a lot to think about before next season arrives.
www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?
