Every year a columnist writes the same article about how corrupt the Bowl Championship Series is and how unfair the current college football playoff system is to the players and fans. This year it’s the Serm’s turn to take a stab at the one institution easier to criticize than our own government.
College football’s idea of picking a national champion has been messed up for years, and, as usual, this season is shaping up to wreak havoc yet again. The concept of pitting the top two teams against each other at the end of the year has been a utopian ideal in recent years but rarely accomplished. Last year, the two best teams never played each other, and the result was the always rewarding “co-National Championship,” split between USC and LSU. Unfortunately, it seems that a similar problem is on the horizon, this time with additionally perplexing questions. In this late stage of the season, there are still six undefeated teams in each of the major top-10 polls. Undoubtedly, some will lose, but there exists a real possibility that a majority of these teams will not. The current top four teams all have legitimate claims to the number one ranking. USC is considered to be the strongest team in the country by most experts, but neither Oklahoma nor Miami is far behind. Both teams are undefeated and have better -than-likely chances to finish the season spotless. Many also consider an unbeaten Auburn squad to be the preeminent challenger to USC’s crown. With so many possible challengers, it would seem favorable for college football to switch to a playoff system to let the teams settle these things on the field. Despite all the greed in athletics, it’s the one sport that lets money clearly dictate who is the best by deciding who gets to play when and where. The NCAA’s avarice mixed with corporate interest has created this monster because of the revenues big bowl games produce. Unfortunately, there is no McCain-Feingold finance reform on the way. The creation of a playoff system would ruin the existing format of large single game bowls that generate huge television and sponsorship contracts. You would think coaches would be in favor of a fairer way to determine who is the best in the country, but this assumption is wrong. In any given interview, you’ll hear the coaches talk about how the current system makes the regular season more important. Please. Somebody tell the Serm that Big East or ACC play isn’t important in college basketball. What is important to coaches, as well as the suits in the luxury suites, are endorsement contracts, and money and that isn’t likely to change. The NCAA has always been a paragon of hypocrisy. As frustrating as this may be to players and fans, it is in some respects very beneficial: Sports columnists always have something to complain about come late fall.
