The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Today, college football bowl games begin. Let me celebrate with a statement with which almost no one will agree: The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a pretty good system.
The system uses polls and computer models to determine the best two teams in the nation. Those two teams play in the National Championship game, which this year will take place on January 9.
The system has few fans. Two congressmen, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) have formed the Congressional Collegiate Sports Caucus. One of its main purposes is to force collegiate football to switch to a playoff system. In 2009, Barton introduced a bill in the U.S. House to do just that.
“Everybody is just tired of the BCS system,” said Chris Petersen, the coach of the Boise State Broncos. Petersen is one of the hottest coaches in college football. His Broncos are currently ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll. UCLA recently offered him $4 million dollars a year to coach the Bruins. He turned down the offer.
In July 2009, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the BCS is violating anti-trust laws. Sports Illustrated described the Justice Department’s response:
If the letter Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) received Friday from the Justice Department is any indication, get ready to watch the worst fears of the BCS overlords come true. Then get ready for some form of a college football playoff -- because that's where this is headed. When the dust settles, power conference commissioners either will compromise to preserve their partnership with their bowl cronies, or the BCS will cease to exist.
According to the letter, the Justice Department (the rock) may launch an investigation to determine whether the BCS violates antitrust laws. Meanwhile the Obama administration (the hard place) is willing to explore several options, including encouraging the NCAA -- which runs 16-team playoffs in three other football divisions -- to take over the postseason, asking the Federal Trade Commission to examine the BCS and pushing legislation that could "target universities' tax-exempt status if a playoff system is not implemented."
But at least this year, the BCS has performed brilliantly in choosing the top two teams for the championship game. Those teams are Lousiana State and Alabama. LSU, no one will dispute, performed better than any other team in the country. It was the only major-college team to have an undefeated season, which included wins over Alabama and Arkansas, respectively ranked number 2 and 7 by the Associated Press poll.
Perhaps controversial to some is the second choice, Alabama. However, it lost only one game; it played a very tough schedule; and its only loss was to LSU. Indeed, in the latter game it actually tied LSU but then lost the tie-breaker by three points. According to some betting markets, Alabama is favored to defeat LSU in the national championship game.
Clearly, the BCS performed well this year. Perhaps the BCS is similar to the way Churchill described democracy—the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.
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Comments:
Jan '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
I will agree - I like the BCS system. I know it may seem unfair to certain teams who feel like they don't get a shot a national title, but I don't think a playoff system would necessarily be better. For one, the bowl system is unique in American sports. It also makes every game in the regular season count - if there was a playoff, once a team had locked up a playoff berth, the remaining games may be of less importance. Finally, it gives me a week of football! A playoff system couldn't do that.
It's not perfect, but I doubt a playoff system would be either. And I'm conservative - so don't change it!
Apr '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Well in one sense, it is better than having elitist sports writers solely pick the winner. But the BCS has created a hierarchical system that favors certain conferences, has also established some as "Mid-Major" conferences, and the also-rans. Very un-democratic in my opinion. I don't know if a pure play-off system would be the best but there are definitely problems with the current system that should be hashed out.
Oct '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
I love sports including college sports but college sports is full of all kinds of perversity especially the giant price fixing scheme for labor that the NCAA is.
Feb '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Professor Groseclose, your argument is thus: The BCS's job is to pit the two best teams in the country against each other. LSU is the best team in the country and Alabama may be the second best. Therefore the BCS system works - or at least it is the least worst. I am sorry, but a "possibly Alabama is the second best" does not convert to Alabama necessarily being the second best. There is a legitimate argument for Boise State, Oklahoma State, and Stanford being the second best. You cannot just assert that this is the least worst system without explaining why it is better than the playoffs seen in the NFL and in FCS. If your argument is that a playoff like the NFL does would not work because these players would miss too much school then your argument is not for placing the two best teams in the country against each other, but rather it is for the two teams some people think are the best, and you ignore the fact that FCS has a playoff and it works great.
Edited on December 17, 2011 at 7:35pmFeb '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Full disclosure, I am a Boise State alum, and I absolutely want the best argument for my team. I see my team constantly denigrated, just look at Craig James voting them 23, and I see a playoff as absolutely the best way to reward these players for their hard work. If the regular season chooses the best teams then the New England Patriots should have played the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl last year, but because we had a playoff to show what happens when the best 12 teams in the country play each other to narrow it down to the final two we have much more of an undisputed national champion. I can guarantee you far more more people see the Green Bay Packers as the legitimate Super Bowl champions of last year, than people see Auburn as the national champions (not to say they couldn't have proven it in a playoff, just to say they didn't).
Jul '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
The NCAA has a very financially lucrative stranglehold on our young athletes. The NCAA is neither liked nor respected by a large number of different entities who deal with them.
Either 4 or better yet 8 team playoff system would be my choice.
Geaux Tigers! Stuff the Tide!
Edited on December 17, 2011 at 7:19pmFeb '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Every game count? So if LSU lost their conference championship then they wouldn't have made it to the national championship? If Boise State won against TCU they would have made it to the National Championship? If Oklahoma State only won by one point against Oklahoma they wouldn't have made it to the Fiesta Bowl? If Virginia Tech lost by 28 points to Clemson they wouldn't be in a BCS bowl game? (oh wait, that happened.) If Michigan lost to Michigan State they wouldn't go to a BCS Bowl game ahead of Michigan State who made it to their conference title game?
Face it, the BCS bowl system does not make every game count, not by a long shot!
Oct '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Tim Groseclose
Perhaps controversial to some is the second choice, Alabama. However, it lost only one game; it played a very tough schedule; and its only loss was to LSU. Indeed, in the latter game it actually tied LSU but then lost the tie-breaker by three points.
Clearly, the BCS performed well this year.
*Stunned silence*
Alabama had a very tough schedule? They only beat two teams that are currently ranked in the AP and Coaches Poll (one of which is #23 Penn State), and didn't play either of the top two teams from the SEC East. How is that very tough? I suppose they have the self-fulfilling preseason polls.
We don't know who the second best team in the country is, and it isn't clearly Alabama. Two out of the five BCS games are worth watching this year. Pretty lousy system, if you ask me.
Oct '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
That Kellen Moore will start for 50 wins with only a single BCS game is an embarrassment to the system. The MWC finished fifth in conference rankings, but no-one's watching because the money isn't in the cool states. What a joke. The MWC and Big 12 have every reason to be angry.
Jan '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Dancing has judges. American Idol has judges.
Why? Because there, the contestants compete against some imaginary standard of excellence or perfection, and the judgment is based on how close they came to it. It's not interactive. There's nothing wrong with judged contests, but it's a different kind of game. If you're singing, you try to hit the note, no matter what other contestants did. Other players don't disrupt your effort. So, really, you're not playing against anyone else; you're playing against a standard.
Football, on the other hand, is interactive. A receiver doesn't simply run ten yards and then cut left ... he makes decisions based on how the defensive back plays him. He's not running his route against some imaginary perfect standard; he's trying to get open.
Football is played against the other guy. The decision is (and in my opinion should be) made on the field.
Edited on December 17, 2011 at 8:24pmDec '10
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
College basketball has a perfectly good system in place. Why not just use it for football? It would make things a lot easier, and would allow a bracket system for football! And, as everyone knows, picking the brackets is one of the most fun sports moments.
Mar '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
A pox on all your houses.
The BCS is a crock, designed to replace the previous crock. which was concocted out of the votes of the sportswriters selected by the AP. Any collection of sportswriters has the aggregate attention span of a similarly sized collection of sugared-up kindergarteners.
Under the old system, if Big Name University got crushed by Podunk Technical College, the game wouldn't really have had much of an effect as long as it occurred early in the season. Further, if the #1 team beats the #2 team - a result which the poll supposedly predicted -- there will be a new #2 team next week. How exactly did the predictable results of one game between two teams make a team not even present better than either of them?
The only thing to be said for the BCS is that it at least attempts to add a little strength-of-schedule leavening to the rampant dimwittery which preceded it. And since the starting position of the BCS is determined by the sportswriters anyway, and isn't anything other than a beauty pageant....
Garbage in == garbage out, for all values of garbage.
Oct '10
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
I once heard the old system described this way: Take the NCAA Basketball Tournament, play the entire tournament until one top 2 teams are left, and then vote one of them National Champion.
The BCS is similar but different: Take the NCAA Basketball Tournament, vote out all but 2 teams, and have them play for the National Championship.
The only good thing I have to say about this year is there is absolutely no doubt going in what the best Conference in the country is this time. Go SEC!
Feb '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
I don't know if I would go that far. The only real good teams were Alabama, LSU (and maybe Georgia) in the SEC. South Carolina was not the same after losing their star running back, Arkansas should have lost to Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, their only notable wins were against Texas A&M (2nd half choke artists), S.C. (w/o running back), and Auburn who was ranked largely b/c of last season. So if your definition of the best conference is having a couple great teams, and a lot of middle of the road teams then they were the best. But Big 12 had a great team (Oklahoma State) and several "upper echelon" teams (Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas State).
May '10
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
I'm for any system that would have awarded the Boise State Broncos the honor of being rendered into glue by LSU. (Sorry, Ultra Vires....)
Sep '10
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Does anyone in their right mind believe that Connecticut and Butler were the two best basketball teams in the NCAA last season? Those two weren't even close.
Sure, a playoff is fun to watch, but it doesn't crown the "best" team, it simply crowns the hottest team at that time.
I love the Bowl System. It is incredibly unique, and provides plenty if intrigue for fans of the college game. I just hope the Rose Bowl turns out a little better this year.
Feb '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Mark, that is the beauty about a playoff. Teams like Butler and Connecticut don't need to worry about what anyone "believes," with a playoff they are allowed to prove whether or not they are the best. I don't understand this "hottest team" argument; it is almost like saying "of course my team is the best in college football, but don't make them prove it." If they lose in a playoff, it is just because they weren't the "hottest" team at that time, stands true for the national championship as it is right now, if LSU loses it just means they weren't the "hottest" team at that time, and Alabama was the hottest?
That is why the game is played, because you shouldn't be allowed to dismiss a school just because you think you are better than them. In every game you have a spread, now we can either allow the teams to play and prove on the field who is better, or we can say "Alabama you are 3 point favorites (in their last game vs. LSU) congratulations you win, we won't make you risk losing to LSU in case they get hot."
Feb '11
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
No need to say sorry, I am with you 100%! Ok, maybe 99%, I am in favor of any system that allows LSU the opportunity to render Boise State into glue; just like I don't think the government should provide happiness, they should only provide people a setting where they have the "opportunity" to achieve happiness.
Sep '10
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Connecticut finished 9th in their own conference. Butler lost 9 regular season games, including to such powerhouse teams as Youngstown State, and UW-Milwaukee (twice!).
These were not the two "best" teams in college basketball last season. That is ridiculous.
Dec '10
Re: The BCS System in College Football is Maybe Kinda Sort-Of Okay
Leave it to a social scientist to think that 12 data points constitutes a statistical sample.
:)
Part of the great story of a sports champion is the journey. There's a struggle, there are miracles, there is strategy and overcoming adversity.
I don't really want to have a national champion, I want to see a struggle to be national champion. I want to follow the games, look at the bracket, find out what they have to do to move on.
Unless you're a fan of that school, you'll ignore most of their games until a conference championship. Then it's the national championship game and its over.
I guess the current system maximizes revenue inasmuch as every bowl game is equally useless until the championship.
The bowls, however, are silly. Half-empty stadiums, broadcast on The Ocho, etc.
There's a bowl game in Yankee Stadium on Dec. 30. If they are lucky, temperatures will be in the mid-30s. I don't know if it's a reward or a punishment.