More BCS Mess

I will first applaud both Clemson and South Carolina for openly declining bowl bids. I would have liked to see Lou Holtz go out on a better note, but both teams needed a severe beat down. It has been suggested that the schools may not have imposed such harsh penalties if it hadn’t been for the Artest fight but if that means that something good came out of that ugly incident, then so be it.

The BCS has declined an opportunity to straighten itself out until 2010 at least. After ABC declined the new package (except for the Rose Bowl) Fox made an offer that was accepted. The BCS will be adding a 5th game to be played at one of the four major bowls on a rotating basis starting in 2006. Some people would like to think that this would solve the problem of a disputed national championship, but it really won’t. Each scenario is different. Last year we had a situation where we needed to have USC and LSU play each other. The year before, it worked out fine, as Miami and Ohio St. were the only undefeated teams that year. Prior to that there was only one team that was the clear number one and a dispute as to who should play them (remember Nebraska getting the shot against Miami over Oregon despite not even getting into the Big 12 title game).

Even this year, it wouldn’t work. Let’s assume there was this 5th bowl game being played at the Orange Bowl this year after the 4 others. With no 1 vs. 2 system, the bowls would pick as they normally do with the BCS as a guideline for various at large berths. The bowl structure would work out as such:

Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Utah
Rose: USC vs. Michigan
Orange: Boston College vs. Virginia Tech/Miami
Sugar: Auburn vs. California/Texas

We don’t know who will win the ACC yet and the Sugar Bowl would have the option of taking either Cal or Texas as they are projected to finish in the 4th and 5th BCS spots respectively. Utah is 6th but there is so much buzz about them that there is no way that the Fiesta Bowl would not take them for an undefeated match vs. Oklahoma.

Anyway, the problem immediately presents itself. Let’s say that the winners of each bowl game are Oklahoma, USC, Boston College and Auburn. BC is an upset win and their record keeps them out of the title game, but you still have 3 undefeated conference champions fighting for a seed in the final bowl game. It’s the same problem as this year. The bowls don’t want it but you need a playoff system. The top 8 teams go to the BCS bowls. Then the winners are ranked and play each other in 3 more bowls. In this example you would have USC play BC in a 1 vs. 4 match, while Auburn played Oklahoma in a 2 vs. 3. It’s a hard road but one that works. Unfortunately, we can’t even begin to dream of this scenario until 2011.

Mrs. X and I will head out of town for Thanksgiving tomorrow so no more updates this week. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.