[NU Sports] B-C-MESS!!! B-C-MESS!!!

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> > If it did, then Texas' win over Oklahoma would mean
> 
> That argument doesn't hold water, because it ignores
> the fact that Texas lost to Texas Tech, who Oklahoma

Sure it holds up. Texas lost on the road on the final play of the game to a team that finished 11-1. Oklahoma lost by double digits on a neutral field to a team that finished 11-1. So even without the team names of who they lost to, Texas should win that debate. Throw in that Texas BEAT Oklahoma on the field and they really got screwed.

This year forever shattered the argument that the regular season means something or is some kind of playoff. It's clearly not when the above situation happened. What happened this year was that the interns who have to fill out the coaches ballot and the mystery Harris voters went gaga when OU started running up the score and forgot the "on the field"  so-called "regular season playoff" ... one game didn't matter this year.

Of course, the whole argument was bogus anyway because if the regular season is a playoff, it needs to have a better structure than where one team might cruise through a soft schedule while others run the gauntlet that Big XII teams had to this year and SEC and Big Ten teams have had to in the past.

> I think I've come around to the "plus one"
> idea myself. Put the big four bowl games back on New
> Year's Day, where they should be, and follow that with

I could go for that. Heck, I'll go for anything now except this horrible mess and joke of a system that we have now. Move the big four games to New Year's Day (or eve) and then have a plus-one title game played the weekend before the Super Bowl. Or go back to the old bowl tradition - anything but this!:)

And John added ...

> (i.e. Plus One) as a playoff system would further divide
> college football
> into "haves" (traditional powers, like OSU, USC,
> Texas, Florida, etc.) and

Any more than the B(C)S has? If Congress hadn't forced it to, would they have allowed a non-BCS league school other than Notre Dame in? Probably not. But once given the chance on the field, these BCS busters are now 3-1, the last two wins coming over heavily favored, tradition rich schools in Oklahoma and Alabama.

But they're still shut out of the championship hunt. Boise State and Utah, despite beating tradition rich powers and finishing unbeaten, are not talked about as contenders even though the champions in their year will have a loss. The next step would be to give them a shot at the title on the field, and a playoff would no further widen that divide than the B(C)S already does - it would close the gap.

Plus, if you only had 8 slots, you might encourage scheduling strong foes to raise your profile. The B(C)S used to have that quality-win component. It made sense. It encouraged playing strong foes. It was good for the game and the fans. So, of course, the B(C)S took it out.

Now teams rarely schedule a big non-conference game because there's no incentive to do it. The one school that did it this year to overcome a perceived weak conference - SC - never got any credit for it. Under the old quality-win system, that OSU victory would have meant something.

Trying to impress a selection committee (ala the NCAA basketball route) might encourage more September matchups that matter.

> look like NFL minor league.  The bowls allow the
> opportunity to put some
> interesting matchups on the field and reward teams that are

So have an 8-team playoff and have the bowls as well. No one's saying you have to get rid of the bowls ... just the B(C)S.

Also, please name five interesting non-B(C)S bowl matchups this year. :) I have Boise State-TCU, Oregon-Okie State and ... hmm ... um ... ???

> play 2 games/week - something impossible in football.  Oh,
> and for those who
> want to run a playoff in conjunction with a bowls - get
> ready for stadiums
> much emptier than they are now - the bowls that are not

I really doubt that. If they can get 20,000 people to Boise on 4-days notice for a basketball regional, they can get 50,000 to Miami or Dallas on 2-weeks notice for a football game. Plus, make the game meaningful and interesting and people will show up in the local community, as the bowl games showed before they became meaningless.

> I would favor a reduction in the number of bowls and upping
> the requirement
> back up to a winning record in addition to the Plus One,

Two good ideas. I'll go for both of those.

> likelihood of either happening is close to nil.  The fact

That doesn't mean we should accept it - enough fans demanding more will eventually be heard. Especially since the bowl system seems to have gotten too greedy this year and ratings/attendance have plummeted with the overabundance of games. It won't happen overnight, but that doesn't mean we just swallow the B(C)S line.

More and more people seem to be coming around to the plus-one idea after the past couple seasons ... so things are moving and there is a light at the end of this absurdly messy tunnel.:)

GO CATS!!!
-SjT