I’ve never been a fan of college football. Why? Because 1) there are so many ridiculous plays that occur every week—a reflection of the relatively low level of play compared to the NFL and 2) there is never a clear cut “champion”—a bunch of sportswriters and computers decide who the “best” team is instead of football teams playing it out on the field.
This year is a perfect example of the BCS’ worst nightmare. There are ten teams this year with which you can make a very strong argument that they deserve to play for the national championship. Why should a bunch of sportswriters and computer algorithms decide who gets to play for the national championship? If that’s how the powers-that-be in college football want it to be, that’s fine, but that basically means they are content with running an irrelevant sport. What’s the point in playing any sport if there is no clear concept of a winner? Isn’t that the reason why you play the game?
This isn’t to say that you can’t play a game just to play. I like shooting hoops or throwing the football around just to pass time. College football is a real sport; or actually, it should be a real sport but it is not. Without the establishment of a playoff system, college football is no more of a sport than elementary school kids playing HORSE. I would argue that a college intramural basketball tournament is more of a *real* sport than college football is, just for the fact that the final result is one clear winner.
If I was a college football player, I would not want to play if there wasn’t a playoff system. What’s the point in practicing and playing through a grueling season if you might not get a fair shot at being crowned champion? That’s the predicament that players on eight teams are in right now.
The NCAA should mandate a ten game season, ban all conference championship tournaments and institute an eight team playoff at the end of the season where the teams are picked by a selection committee, similar to the NCAA basketball tournaments. This would allow the season to finish by January 1st, allow eight teams to compete for the national championship, and make college football rival March Madness as having the most exciting finale of any sport, amateur or professional.
Unfortunately, the powers-that-be in college football are not so rational. They are so stubbornly tied to their tradition of bowl games that they can’t do what is so obviously best for the sport.
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