Like most people in Ohio, I was glued to the TV tonight to find out who the Buckeyes would play in the championship game. With Fox dragging out the announcement of each of the four BCS games, we were talking about how important a playoff would be.
It is hilarious to hear the different sports commentators talk about the failing BCS system, but that a playoff will never happen. I heard no less than ten different announcers say, “it is not going to happen for an assortment of reasons.” There is only one reason it will not happen: money.Â
The individual bowl games make a ton of money for the individual sponsors. We will have these bowls forever because everyone makes a lot of money. I heard that the Big Ten lost $4.5 million after Illinois beat Ohio State and it was assumed that the Big Ten would only send one team to a BCS bowl. That’s one team’s share for playing in the game. Imagine what the sponsors are making.
Here is a way to keep what we have, yet have a playoff for the championship. Take the top four teams and have their bowl games count as the semifinal round of the playoff. These two bowls could be the Rose and Orange or the Fiesta and Sugar… it doesn’t really matter. We only need to make sure that the top four teams play in the these two bowls. The winners play the next week in the championship.
Last year they added the extra game at the site of the championship. Did anyone else notice that Georgia and Hawaii are playing in this year’s Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 1. Then, one week later, the BCS Championship is at the same location. They did this last year with the Fiesta Bowl and then the BCS Championship. Two years ago, is was Texas winning the Rose Bowl, not the BCS Championship game.
I think we can pick four teams with a lot less controversy than picking two teams. As an added bonus, the champion would have to win in back to back weeks. That is something a real championship team can do.
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And yet, somehow, we manage to survive with a playoff system for every other sport at every level. How is it that March Madness doesn’t lose a ton of money?
Here’s what’s wrong with the system: the number one ranked team in the nation got that way by sitting on the couch. I’m as thrilled as anyone that the Buckeyes are playing for a national championship, but it’s clear that in order to get to the top, all a team has to do is not lose. So Ohio State beats up on Kent, Akron, and Youngstown. It doesn’t matter who they beat, just so they end up with a W.
I’d favor a system that gets rid of the polls and just uses the computer points. The high school system in use in Ohio is a good example. Teams get points for winning, but also for strength of schedule, based on their opponents’ wins and their opponents’ wins. So the teams with the best records against the best teams rise to the top.
A playoff system would help, too. Move the championship to the third week in January. Start the bowls right after Christmas. Make every Division I team eligible for a championship, and use four rounds of playoffs. Each playoff game is a bowl. Stretched over more time, they’ll get bigger audiences for each game. And they’ll still have 16 major games. The smaller bowls can still continue after the first couple rounds of the playoffs, to have some of the traditional conference matchups.
It can be fixed. They just don’t want to fix it.
I agree that there needs to be some playoff set up. Have you ever seen givemeaplayoff.com? It sounds like there are groups out there that want to change.
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