As we are now right in the middle of the holiday season, another crazy season simultaneously descends upon us: college bowl season and the mess that is the BCS this time of year. Every year we seem to have the same debate when it comes to who should play for the title, who got snubbed from a BCS bowl, who is in that shouldn't be, and what to do with the BCS-busting schools. And yet year after year nothing changes in the system leaving us with the same mess year in and year out, and leaving many fans and players unhappy with the results of the somewhat flawed system.
This season the BCS is a total mess, and many teams feel they have a legitimate argument as to why they should be playing in the BCS Championship Game on January 9. There are a total of 5 one loss teams and two undefeated teams in the top 7 of the BCS standings. All of these teams believe they should be in position to play in the title game but only two can actually play in the game. The one argument that gets many of these teams in a frustrated, almost angry position is that the top two teams; LSU and Alabama, are both in the same division of the same Conference; the SEC. But where the real problem comes in is that Alabama will not be the SEC champion no matter what because of a loss to LSU in the "Game of the Century" earlier this month. Despite this loss, Alabama has a rather commanding cushion over the #3 team in the nation; Oklahoma State, in the BCS standings making it nearly impossible for Oklahoma State to pass an idle Alabama team, setting 'Bama up for an easy route to the title game, meanwhile LSU has a SEC championship game to play in which a star player may be hurt, so in a sense 'Bama is rewarded for losing to LSU by getting a bye week and still being able to play in a National Championship game.
Another situation that's not getting national attention, but caught my eye comes from the Pac-12. Oregon beat Stanford by a hefty margin this month, but yet the Andrew Luck lead Stanford Cardinal rank #4 in the country while Oregon is stuck at #9, yes I know Oregon has 2 losses while Stanford only has 1, but if you look at those losses, one of them is to #1 LSU, in a game in which was reasonably close (13 pts) and a close, tough loss to a tough USC team, I don't get how Stanford is ranked ahead of them with the soft schedule they played in non-conference games, and Oregon is in the Pac-12 title game while Stanford sits at home, like Alabama, just waiting to be invited to a BCS bowl without winning their conference.
I think that the best solution to this whole mess would be to set up a playoff system, a tournament, similar to the basketball one, in which you still have the BCS standings but the standings only seed the teams in the bracket, take the top 16 teams in the standings at the end of the year and playoff to determine the National Champion, this way these teams have a chance to prove they belong in the title game. In this system you could also eliminate the month off teams have between the regular season and the bowl games, you could still have bowl games for those not in the top 16; but i think this would be a more fair solution to determine the national champ.
That said, in the current system i believe the BCS actually has it right, i believe 'Bama and LSU are the 2 best teams in the country and should be playing in the title game, i think that's how it would work out in the playoff format, and would agree with the BCS if they had a rematch for the national title, i just see how the other teams have a legitimate argument as to why they should be in instead of Alabama.
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