BCS: Best Choice Still for college football

Tim Cowlishaw 11:55 CST Wednesday December 9, 2009

So many flaws and lies in the support of college playoff formats. So little time.

Let's start with the popular notion among fans and media critics that five undefeated teams make this the "perfect" time for an eight-team playoff to settle the national championship.

I would say "poppycock," but I think that word has been trademarked by another in this section.

Instead, let's just look at the numbers.

There are six champions of "big" conferences. By "big," I mean conferences that are going to have to be included in any type of playoff. If you really think the Big Ten and the ACC are going to agree to an eight-team playoff format that does not include their champions, go ponder your fantasy playoff somewhere else.

If you believe that format escapes controversy and really solves anything, let me know how Gators fans respond to that line of thinking.So after your tournament invites Alabama, Texas, Oregon, Ohio State, Cincinnati and Georgia Tech, you are left with two spots. If you give those to your precious unbeatens, TCU and Boise State, that means no spot for Florida – a team ranked No. 1 much of the season and the defending champ and a team that would not have a loss if its conference was like the Pac-10 or Big Ten and had no championship game.

Your next choice is to move on to a 16-team tournament. I read a very thoughtful and reasoned e-mail Tuesday that proposed a playoff with 11 conference champions and five at-large teams. There is no question that there are merits to this argument.

Along with at least one enormous flaw.

A 16-team tournament means the equivalent of four "bowl" games for the title contenders, extra games for others, too. What it means, among other things, is lots of injuries during a very busy December and January.

At a time when the NFL is wrestling with what to do about concussions, a playoff this large is inviting some college teams to play 15, 16, maybe even 17 games in a season.

Ahhh, I know your next suggestion already. You want to cut the regular season from 12 games back to 11, don't you?

Perfect idea. Will that handicap Texas or Florida or Ohio State or the superpowers that are going to make this 16-team tournament year after year?

Not on your life.

What it will unquestionably do is reduce the revenues of the lower-end teams that try to compete with them in their conferences – think Kentucky, Arkansas, Kansas, Texas A&M – along with virtually every team other than the occasional BYU or TCU from the non-power conferences.

You want a real shift in power? No better way to go about it than to make the Sooners and Gators more powerful than they already are while cutting the budgets at Baylor and Mississippi, not to mention at least 90 percent of the Mountain West, WAC and Conference USA.

But there is good news, playoff supporters. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, just sponsored a very important piece of legislation that – well, it won't do away with the BCS or anything like that, actually. But if it ever became law, it would keep the BCS from calling the Texas-Alabama game "the national championship."

Now that's the way to spend your tax dollars, isn't it?

It's a good thing that unemployment is barely into double figures and this country is only waging two expensive and deadly wars at the moment.

That allows us to focus on the real threats to this nation's health, wealth and happiness.

That, of course, is the BCS, which, if you and Mr. Barton have failed to notice, is filling the bank accounts of the Mountain West and WAC this holiday season like never before.


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