Amateur Sports News Network

:: Welcome to Amateur Sports' coverage in the Chicagoland Area ::

SPORTS

Weather in

Chicago area

<a href="http://www.superpages.com/cities/weatherforecast.html"><img src="http://img.superpages.com/cities/weathericons/console.gif" border=0 alt="SuperPages.com Weather for Chicago IL"><br>Weather Forecasts</a>

MEDIA

PODCAST

Article Manager

Amateur Sports
subsidiary of S.C. Fitch Enterprises, Inc.
4710 Lincoln Hwy, Suite 350
Matteson, IL 60443
708.201.1781 voice
708.231.8266 fax

You can also catch us at:
just click at icon below

Powered by

Amateur Sports BCS Proposal...

MATTESON - The way the current system is developed, can anyone truly be honored to call themselves the best team in college football? Or dare I ask, is the FCS (formerly 1-AA) smarter than 1-A?

If college football is purely about amateur competition, then why does it allow sport writers' and a computer to decide who should play for the championship? If this method was used in the MLB, heck the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies would have never made it to the World Series... if this method was used in the NBA, it would always be stacked with the Lakers, Spurs and Suns, and teams like the Hornets wouldn't have a shot because of power rankings and strength to schedule. With that in mind, can anyone please drop me an email and explain to me what is "strength to schedule" especially when certain teams plan their schedule around lower class teams for a quick victory and payout as well as belong to a not so competitive conference i.e., Big Ten. Then ask, why won't any SEC, Big East, ACC, and/or Big Ten teams play Utah or Boise State during the regular season?

The brutal truth is that this system we've got right now, is broken and has many flaws. But as long as TV networks are willing to pay a gazillion dollars to air the BCS, ESPN, nothing is going to change.

Let's just look at things today... the arguments for who should be going to the championship are endless. There’s the OU lost to Texas who lost to Texas Tech who lost to OU triangle. There’s Alabama’s argument that had they lost earlier in the season instead of now, they would still be a contender. Utah - no losses. USC - “we’re the best and we can’t help that our conference was bad this year.” Penn State has an argument in there somewhere. Florida’s loss was a fluke.

Poor Texas are left out of the championship game despite beating the Sooners 45-35 on a neutral field earlier this season.

Bottom line, there’s 8 (9 if you include Boise State) who have legitimate claims to be in the National Championship Game.

Even our president-elect, Barack Obama, has joined into this conversation. "If you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear, decisive winner," Obama said recently on " 60 Minutes." "We should be creating a playoff system."

Yes, the Big Guy-in-Waiting used the occasion of his first interview since winning the presidential election to talk about the absence of a college football playoff system. A TV audience of 24 million heard him say he wants an eight-team playoff.

In my opinion forget the "plus one" compromised once upon a time talked about... that's like giving someone a quarter when they need a dollar. But, what if college football had a full blown 8 team tournament - WINTER MADNESS (I've already filed for the trademark on this name - ☺ ) consisting of a selection show, brackets, office pools, bracketologist.... the whole shebang.

I've been playing around with this hypothetical system for some time and decided now is a good enough time to share it with you all. Here is what I have come up with the optimum solution would be to have a 16 team tournament, just like March Madness. In this case, all 11 division 1-A conference winners will would receive an automatic bid, based on how they finished. Thus, Utah, who is undefeated, doesn't get screwed. But, considering most people I polled are not interested in a 16 team tournament, I cut it in half to accommodate the top 8 teams. I even went one step further, I incorporated the existing BCS standings.

NOTE: I ditched the idea of certain conferences getting an automatic bid such as Big East (records) and ACC (records).

Here is how it would be setup based on this years polls

click image to review

Imagine…

The rematch potentials - OU vs. Texas, Florida vs. Alabama
The magical Cinderella story potential with Utah’s magical season or Joe Pa’s return to the top OU’s or Texas Tech’s unstoppable offense clashing with USC’s immovable defense. Perhaps most importantly, the games would MEAN something. As it is, there is only one game that has determines the national champion. The other games, as glorious as they are, mean very little. Do you remember who won the Sugar Bowl in 2008? It was a great game, but didn’t mean much. What about the 2008 Fiesta Bowl?

For those who say it would make the season too long, keep in mind, this system would add two games to the schedule. Just two. The big game could still happen a week after New Year’s Day.

In an ideal world where all of the BCS Bowls got along and didn’t fight for prominence, the 4 quarterfinal games would be those bowls…

…and that is where the roadblock lies.

One of the biggest cons I received polling people as I developed this playoff system was as follows:

		The season would go too long. Again, only two more games will be added to the existing schedule. Worst case, the season would start one week earlier and one of the bye weeks would be eliminated.
		What about travel? You can't ask these athletes and fans to travel up to three different sites in back-to-back weeks. Not sure how to rephrase the above statement, this proposal only added two more games and I don't think that asking a lot especially when none of the existing BCS games will be played for the next 30 plus days. Go figure!
		What about their grades and exams? College teams travel with teacher assistants (TAs) as well as tutors for the most part not to mention many classes are available online. But to put things into its rightful position, if a team plays on a Saturday in one of these playoff games, they would leave Thursday, so the student-athletes would miss Friday. As we all can remember, if you knew you were going to be out of town or not in class, what did you do? You informed the instructor and got the work in advance. In it's simplest form, is this any different. Not if we want to add some physics to this situation, one day off the campus will not hurt football student-athletes when in fact, basketball players, in the month of November, December and March, are away from school, days at a time. Now if finals are scheduled you take your exam early just like normal students would do if they knew they were not going to be in class on a certain day. I'm certain the institution would make the necessary accommodations for this.
		And my favorite, wouldn't a playoff minimize the regular season. In a word, NO... in fact, I think a playoff would enhance the playoffs. Take Florida... they are the only team that lost a game on their home field but are playing right now for the championship... all of the other team in the BCS with 1 lose came on the road or a neutral sight. In addition, in the current system, if you lose early and run the table for the remaining portion of the season, well, you can qualify for the BCS championship and/or appearance - take Ohio State last year and Penn State this year as well as USC.

CONCLUSION

One thing is for sure, you can't argue money. If my proposed playoff system is used, other companies can sponsor these games and all of the traditional BIG names can still hold claim to their bowl i.e., Tostitos. Come on, you don't think State Farm, Microsoft, and/or Google wouldn't want to sponsor a bowl game? What about GoDaddy?

Currently, we are letting computers take over college football. As I asked before, name another sport that allows outsiders to decide who plays for the championship? A true championship is played on the field and not in a hard drive or a whiteboard, and especially not by writers, bloggers and Congress.

“Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him.” ~Woody Hayes

NOTE: As I completed this article, news came flying across the wire that Congress is submitting legislation to end the BCS system - click here.

NOTE: We are proud to announce that for the entire month of December, S.C. Fitch Enterprises, and all of its affiliates including Amateur Sports News Network, ASNN365.com, and Amateur Sports Gallery will be assisting Connection for Abused Women and their Children (CAWC) on our web site.

Here is your opportunity to stop hating the media and actually become it!

We are always looking for additional personnel. Click here if you are interested. If you would like to submit a story, score, stats, or even photos, click here.