Top Ten reasons why the BCS works (yes, works)

By: Danny Sheridan
I know, this is supposed to be a site devoted primarily to Chicago sports, but come on, look around: The Bears have 8-8 written all over them, the Bulls will be lucky to win 40 games, the Hawks are still a year or two away, and there’s nothing to get excited about in the local college ranks (sorry Pat Fitzgerald). So, I gave this post a shot, since I make up about the .01% of the population that is in favor of the BCS. Here are 10 reasons why the BCS works, for the most part.
10. Ratings More people are watching college football now than ever. “Saturday Night Football” on ABC is 33 percent ahead of last year’s ratings. Division I football also set an attendance record last year with a per-game average of almost 47,000 people. And the previous record was set just one year earlier in 2006. Apparently, even the millions of people who complain about not having a playoff system are still watching the games on television or going to them in person.

9. Past history
Go look at the list of national champions since the system was implemented in 1998. Try and pick out one team from that group that doesn’t belong. You can’t. Now look at the 11 teams that played for the championship and lost. How many didn’t really belong? I’ll grant you Nebraska making it over Oregon in 2001, and Oklahoma instead of Auburn in 2004, but that’s it.

8. Debates are fun For six months, arguments pop up everywhere in college football. Should Alabama really be ranked number one over Texas Tech? If Oklahoma beats Texas Tech, do they deserve to jump Texas in the standings, even though the Longhorns beat the Sooners head-to-head? Are Florida and USC maybe the nation’s two best teams at this point? All these are questions getting tossed around, and no one really knows the answer to any of them. My guess is as good as yours.

7. Other bowls would lose significance
Are there too many bowl games? Yeah, probably. We could do without the PapaJohns.com Bowl, Meineke Car Care Bowl, and Armed Forces Bowl. But if we did go to an eight-team playoff, what would happen to premier bowl games like the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta? They would be choosing from a bunch of leftovers. You think the Rose Bowl would be happy about missing out on possibly Penn State and USC, and having to settle for a Michigan State/Oregon State matchup? The revenue those four major bowl games generates right now would take a huge hit if there were a playoff.

6. Teddy Greenstein is in favor of the BCS
Hands down, Greenstein is the best college football writer around, at least in my humble opinion. Here’s a quote from a column he wrote a while back on why the BCS system is better than a playoff; “The BCS isn't perfect, but it delivers what no other sport can—a compelling and often kooky drama that stirs the senses each week.”

5. Every game matters If you took away the BCS and had an eight-team playoff, this week’s Oklahoma/Texas Tech game would be totally meaningless. No matter who won, both teams would likely still finish in the top eight of the BCS at the end of the year. Same goes for the SEC Championship between Florida and Alabama in two weeks. Instead, these will serve as elimination games, because the two winners will likely play for the national championship.

4. The college basketball regular season stinks
There’s a reason people don’t start getting excited about college basketball until right before tournament time. A team can lose five or six games in the regular season and still get a number one-seed in the tournament. In college football, the regular season has actual meaning.

3. No perfect system
ESPN’s Pat Forde, one of the better college football writers around, proposed a couple weeks ago that we take the six major conference winners and two at-large schools to form an eight-team playoff. In that scenario, current conference leaders Maryland and Cincinnati would join Alabama, Texas Tech, Texas, Penn State, Florida, and USC in the eight-team playoff. Oklahoma and undefeated Utah would end up getting left out. So Cincinnati, No. 19 in the BCS, and Maryland, No. 25, would end up making it, while No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 7 Utah wouldn’t.

2. Screw the “little guys” I’m so sick of hearing about how it was so unfair to a team like Boise State two years ago when they finished as the nation’s lone undefeated team, yet only ended up ranked fifth in the final polls. Teams from the WAC, Mountain West, or similar conferences don’t deserve to play for a national championship, no matter what. I’m not just basing that off of what happened to Hawaii against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl last year. If these teams want to make serious arguments that they’re really among the country’s best, schedule non-conference games against the USC’s and Florida’s of the world. This year, it’s possible Utah, Boise State, and Ball State will all finish unbeaten. Of those three, only Utah has beaten a ranked team this season. Also, those three teams opponents combined record is 28 games under .500.

1. College football regular season has “sizzle” What we have now is great. The playoff proponents love winner-take-all. What’s more winner-take-all than a loss in early October possibly eliminating you from the national title picture? That’s the beauty of college football. Every game is more or less a playoff. As a result, college football is unique, and in a class by itself.