2008 Woodie Awards
BCS not up to standards, playoffs in need
Anthony Calabro '08
Issue date: 12/1/06 Section: Sports
A three team race for second emerged as the college football season comes to an exciting finish. There is, however, one problem with this race.
It will likely end in a tie.
If USC defeats rival UCLA and the Florida Gators beat Arkansas in the SEC championship game, then there will be three teams, including Michigan, that can make major cases for the right to play Ohio State in the national championship game.
Who should get the number two ranking? Better yet, how should we determine who should get the number two ranking? Definitely not the BCS system.
Every other major college sport has a playoff. Division I-AA, II and III college football all have a playoff. Computers shouldn't be the ones determining who plays for a championship. ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski renamed the BCS. He now calls it the FAC (Flip A Coin).
Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer believes that while this system is innovative for its time, it is not logical.
Every sports fan apologizes for using logic.
No. 1 Ohio State plays a No. 4 Florida and No. 2 USC plays No. 3 Michigan. The winners of those two games play for the National Championship.
It almost makes too much sense. This is called the plus-one system. All the NCAA has to do is add one more bowl game to determine the true champion.
No computers. Only the players determine who gets the crown. The NCAA still refuses to budge and the BCS continues to confuse the masses of fans and coaches.
School presidents nixed the idea of a plus-one BCS format two years ago stating they did not want a college football season leaking into the second semester.
Yet just this year the NCAA added a twelfth regular season game and a fifth BCS bowl game which moved the championship game to Jan. 8. This date is passed finals.
The fifth bowl game was made to give smaller schools the chance to play in the big game and "receive more exposure." The BCS bowls generate about $110 million for the big six conferences. The smaller schools only receive about $6 million.
It will likely end in a tie.
If USC defeats rival UCLA and the Florida Gators beat Arkansas in the SEC championship game, then there will be three teams, including Michigan, that can make major cases for the right to play Ohio State in the national championship game.
Who should get the number two ranking? Better yet, how should we determine who should get the number two ranking? Definitely not the BCS system.
Every other major college sport has a playoff. Division I-AA, II and III college football all have a playoff. Computers shouldn't be the ones determining who plays for a championship. ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski renamed the BCS. He now calls it the FAC (Flip A Coin).
Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer believes that while this system is innovative for its time, it is not logical.
Every sports fan apologizes for using logic.
No. 1 Ohio State plays a No. 4 Florida and No. 2 USC plays No. 3 Michigan. The winners of those two games play for the National Championship.
It almost makes too much sense. This is called the plus-one system. All the NCAA has to do is add one more bowl game to determine the true champion.
No computers. Only the players determine who gets the crown. The NCAA still refuses to budge and the BCS continues to confuse the masses of fans and coaches.
School presidents nixed the idea of a plus-one BCS format two years ago stating they did not want a college football season leaking into the second semester.
Yet just this year the NCAA added a twelfth regular season game and a fifth BCS bowl game which moved the championship game to Jan. 8. This date is passed finals.
The fifth bowl game was made to give smaller schools the chance to play in the big game and "receive more exposure." The BCS bowls generate about $110 million for the big six conferences. The smaller schools only receive about $6 million.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
One Hundred Yards
posted 12/06/06 @ 1:53 AM EST
Another alternative is described at [1] using the Swiss system tournament. It's specifically designed for short tournaments with large number of participants and provides excellent games in each round and a robust system to determine the beat team. (Continued…)
Post a Comment