BCS Final 4!

The New Orleans Super Dome home of the BCS Title Game says,  "I'm waiting!"

All we ever wanted to see was #1 play #2 and until 1998 we didn’t have that luxury. Remember in back 1997 when #1 Nebraska played in the Orange Bowl and a #2 Michigan played in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day. They both won their respective games and they were both named National Champions? Then we spent the next year arguing about who was better. That happened so many times before the BCS that I care not to remember. All we ever wanted to see was #1 play #2. Now that we’ve got them playing folks are still complaining. I hear you in the background saying, “We need a playoff like the NFL.” That sounds great but it doesn’t make sense and here’s why.

There are 120 teams in the FBS division formally known as Division 1.Within the FBS ranks there are 3 or 4 levels of competition, from the very best teams #1 LSU and #2 Alabama, down to the worst, #119 Akron and#120 Florida Atlantic. The NFL has only 32 teams and 12 of them (37.5%) get to go to the playoffs. If we did the same thing in college football we’d have to put 45 teams in the playoffs if we want to be fair, right? Plus we’d have to get rid of the bowl structure as we know it. You can’t put 45 teams in a playoff because this isn’t basketball. You can only play one game a week not 2 like they do in the NCAA Tournament. All we want to see is #1 play #2 bruh!

If you just have to tweak the BCS I propose that we do this. Start the season a week earlier and make it mandatory that every conference play a title game. Right now not every conference plays one and that isn’t fair to those that do. Once the dust settles then on the first weekend of December there should be a Final 4! Have #1 play #4 and #2 play #3. The higher ranked teams would play at the crib. The two winners would then play for all of the marbles in January in the BCS Title Game! The argument is always between #2 and #3 anyway. Then everybody else would play in the bowls normal. I don't want to hear about #5 being left out because they were too far down the turn pike to be relevant. Problem solved.

Also don't try to use the silly argument that you have to win your conference to play for the national title because what about those playing in the SEC? They've got 3 out of the top 5 teams in the country. There can only be one champ but Alabama and LSU, are clearly at this point, the two best teams in America. Either one of them would win the other conferences easily. I'm just keeping it real. Remember my class "Sports 101" when I taught you to take your heart out of it. Those that don't want to see a rematch of LSU/Bama if they should happen to win out are simply thinking with your hearts.

You can't ever touch the bowls because it would be unfair to 106 schools because there are only about 14 schools or so that have the players consistently enough to complete for a national title. I’ll name them: USC, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio St, Michigan, Alabama, Florida, LSU, Georgia, Florida St, Miami, Auburn and Notre Dame if their administration would get their heads out of the sand. So what do you tell the other schools? It was nice doing business with you. See schools like Purdue, Miss St and Arizona will never play for the title because they don’t get the players those schools previously mentioned get. If there isn’t a bowl for Purdue to play in after they’ve won 6 to 8 games on a good year what are those kids even playing for. Sure every 30 years or so they’ll get a player that everyone slept on like Drew Brees or Bob Grease and win the Big Ten Championship. However, they won’t ever play for a national title. It is what it is.

So by taking the bowl games away we cheat college football of the pageantry that is college football. It’s a playoff starting week one anyway. I still hear you saying that those bowls are meaningless, we’ll… not to the kid playing at Missouri, Ole Miss or Western Michigan. The bowl game is their Super Bowl not to mention the revenue that the schools receive as a result of playing in those bowls. Do you realize that each bowl has a guaranteed payout just for showing up? If you’re fortunate enough to get to a BCS bowl it’s a $17 million payday whether you’re playing in the title game or not. The mid level bowls like the Chick-Fil-A, Cotton and Outback pay $3 million each. The Sun Bowl which Purdue has participated in previous years pays out $1.9 million. Even if you play in a bottom tier bowl like the Emerald it’s worth $850,000 to your school.

So if you were the presidents of Fresno State and Wyoming would you have voted for a playoff or accepted the invite to the 2009 New Mexico Bowl which paid them $750,000 each just for showing up? See the greatness of college football is the pageantry and the excitement of the regular season and the culmination of events with the bowls. If I’m an LSU fan I’m not only concerned with the Tigers, I’m concerned with all the chess pieces moving around them. Now really… did you want to take all of that away just to see LSU and Alabama anyway?


Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Follow me on Twitter:@jaygravesreport