How To Cure The BCS Mess

How To Cure The BCS Mess

Here we are again at the end of the College Football season and all the talking heads are mad at how the champion is selected. I propose a plan to cure this mess.

The Rener Plan offers up a 16 teams playoff system that takes into consideration all the arguments for and against the present system, to include preserving the tradition of Bowl Games.

The current system is called the “BCS” (Bowl Championship Series) and it uses two human opinion polls and runs data through 5 computers to determine rankings. At the end of the year the top 2 teams meet in a special bowl game called the “BCS Championship Game”. The system was put into place in 1998. Before this system went into place the national Champion was determined by just the 2 opinion polls. One poll was made up of sports writers from around the country, the other of the coaches of all the Division 1 (as it was called then) schools. Whoever was number one in either or both polls (yes there have been times there were split results) was declared the National Champion.

Of course there was lots of gnashing of teeth and wailing and accusations of cheating and favor granting, so the college presidents got together to develop the BCS. As it stands right now there are 6 conferences that participate, with occasional “at large” bid going to any school outside of these conferences (there are 11 conferences in the division 1A, or the FBS as it is called now), that goes undefeated in their regular season. But only if there aren't 10 teams to fill out the 5 BCS bowls (Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, BCS Championship Game, with each bowl rotating to host the Championship game).

The opponents of the BCS system want an expanded playoff system like they have in the other Divisions (Division 1AA, II, III, etc.). They all claim they want an 8-10 team playoff. The problem is that no one ever states how these seedings are to be made. If we go to just the human polls, then we're back to the old broken system of favor granting and biases. If we use the current BCS system to determine the seedings, then why not just keep this system as it gives us the top 2 and they play anyway, so why waste time and money.

The opponents to the playoff systems claim the players will be away from school for finals week, and that the bowl structure will be hurt and a lot of lesser schools will be denied playing in bowl games (for which the schools and conferences gets money from the sponsors for showing up). They also love the arguing and debates over the ambiguity the present system creates.

So what is the solution? Well I have one that will please everyone.

I call it “The Rener Plan”.

First of all we keep the current system for ranking teams, as this will become important later. Since there are 2 human polls we get input from those emotional intangibles that can't be measured by numbers. We also have the benefit of the non-emotional computer rankings based upon the raw numbers, yards, wins, opponent records, strength of schedule, etc.

Next we cut out 1 or 2 meaningless early games and limit the teams to 10-11 games instead of the 12-13 they play now. This will end the season, including Conference Championship games to the weekend before Thanksgiving.

We set up a 16 team playoff, using BCS rankings. Included in this is all 11 of the champions from the FBS conferences, and 5 “At-Large” teams.

The first round would take place the weekend of Thanksgiving (or the week after if you wish), using 8 of the present “Minor Bowl Games” as the sites of these opening round games (the sites can be rotated on a yearly basis). The second round would be played at 4 more of these “Minor Bowl Games” (again rotated yearly). This will bring about the final 4 teams at the same time the current bowl bids go out. The remaining bowls can then choose from the remaining teams as they wish and play their games in the normal rotation between December 20th – January 2nd.

The final 4 teams will play the “Semi Finals” on January 1st using 2 of the current BCS bowls as the sites (rotating on a yearly basis as the current championship game does now), and the Final Championship Game will be played January 8th (as it now stands).

What this does is to placate those who love the bowl system, worry about academics/injuries and want a playoff. It also allows all the schools to participate.

Sure the first few years the “smaller” conferences might not give a good showing, but t does allow for a “Cinderella” team to manifest (who doesn't cheer for the Cinderella during March Madness). But since these teams are now in the running, the weekly games on ESPN will be more enticing to the casual viewers as they will want to watch for a Cinderella to show up. This means more money from advertisers as ratings increase for these non-Saturday games. Talent would start to even out as players will be more willing to go to these non-traditional schools as now they will know they will be on TV and a chance to showcase themselves in a possible National Championship Game. They will get better and the games will even themselves out over time.

Oh yea for those who love the ambiguity and arguing that goes along with College Football, well there's always the 6th team that should have gotten an “At-Large Bid” to concern themselves with (ala March Madness arguments about snubs).

I feel this is a fair and equitable way to choose teams for a playoff system. It leaves no one out and there is something for everyone.

Come back next week for more tips, tricks, techniques and rants.

Mahalo.


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