State of the Union: College Football

For those that know me, you know my love for College Football knows no bounds.  Not sure what exactly it is:  the pageantry, the rivalries, the tradition, or the fact that its not the NFL.  (I feel that the NFL is too homogeneous) But I do want College Football to thrive. 

A huge eye sore for College Football is the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).  I have been opposed to the BCS, specifically for the fact that it does not address the one problem it was designed to remedy: A National Champion.  The only thing that the BCS has insured is that #1 plays #2 shortly after New Year's Day.  What we have been seeing lately is that defining #1 and #2 has become much more problematic than originally thought.  Each season there is something that throws a wrench in the works of this delicate system.  The BCS ignores a deserving #3 team.  The BCS also puts more weight on big conferences, especially those that have conference championship games (or have a Touchdown Jesus).  Take this season for example which will mark the second year where the one undefeated team does not get the opportunity to play for a National Championship.  Then, have a couple more seasons where the title game includes some not-so-recognizable teams like Missouri, Kansas or West Virginia and maybe enough people will be vocal enough to make a(nother) change.

The knee-jerk response is a call for a playoff system.  While I would love to see a 16, 8 or even a 4 team playoff, the 800 pound gorilla that is college football tradition ain't going to budge on that one any time soon.  I'm realistic about playoffs, rather I know not to get my hopes up for it.  There is too much money in bowl games, so schools do not want to see less money.  Not to mention the fact that half of the bowl teams end their seasons with a victory.  Throw in a playoff and those two "pluses" are completely removed. 

I love my college football, but there are plenty of things that need improvement.  ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski spells a couple of them out pretty well, especially the aforementioned BCS issue.