2008 Woodie Awards
Pilcher's Mound
Simple math: BCS - C = truth
Erich Pilcher
Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
"Gentlemen, the hopes and dreams of an entire town are riding on your shoulders. You may never matter again in your life as much as you do right now. ''- Coach Gary Gaines, Friday Night Lights.
As the final weekend of October whisked away, we were reminded of Halloweens past. We were reminded that a fall in Iowa is unpredictable and that once again college football is going to fail in its quest to give us a definite national champion. I know the national championship is still two months away but college football has three undefeated teams and no clear-cut way to decide a national champion.
Many naive fans will say that is what the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is for but that system has failed to give us a clear-cut national champion ever since its inception. Some of the best BCS blunders include the 2002 Nebraska team that did not even win it's conference championship but played for the national title and the 2005 undefeated Utah team that prayed for a BCS bowl game berth because the conference was deemed weak. And then there is the one key fact that is left unheard - in 2004 we had co-champions, the one thing the BCS was supposed to stop.
We are coming down the backstretch of the college football season and the three undefeated teams have schedules that local peewee football teams could go .500 against.
That does not mean we should stamp their tickets to history, just keep in mind that anyone can lose on any given day and miracles do happen. But even that may not absolve the BCS because there still is a bias against teams from mid-major conferences. Also, sports fans do not like computer rankings, which can cause more disorder than Darryl Strawberry on a binge. The computer rankings decide which team is going to play in the national championship game. They don't consider what coaches or writers think but meaningless stats along with a mundane system that does not have any prevalence to the game or its athletes.
For years, college football pundits have pleaded and hoped for a playoff system. Now may be the time for the NCAA to look into that. For this purpose I have formulated the Pilcher Plan - if the NCAA follows these steps they should make everyone happy:
1.Remove your heads from your rear ends. Over-aged football "purists" think mid-major conferences are weak and don't play anyone tough. Think again. The Midwest Athletic Conference has given us several upsets over the last few years and the Mountain West is on the upswing, having an undefeated team the past two years.
2. Make the Cotton Bowl a BCS game. It is one of the most storied bowls in history and deserves a rightful place at the top of bowl season.
3. A flawless playoff system. In this system, four BCS games would make up the playoff games and have the top eight teams play a single elimination playoff to decide the champion. The title game could alternate yearly.
Will college football go through with this plan? Probably not. Will they keep providing us with mediocre games and questions about who is the rightful champion? Likely. With no plan in sight to correct this massive problem, sports fans will just have to watch and hope for the best.
Questions? Comments? E-mail Erich at epilcher1@yahoo.com.
As the final weekend of October whisked away, we were reminded of Halloweens past. We were reminded that a fall in Iowa is unpredictable and that once again college football is going to fail in its quest to give us a definite national champion. I know the national championship is still two months away but college football has three undefeated teams and no clear-cut way to decide a national champion.
Many naive fans will say that is what the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is for but that system has failed to give us a clear-cut national champion ever since its inception. Some of the best BCS blunders include the 2002 Nebraska team that did not even win it's conference championship but played for the national title and the 2005 undefeated Utah team that prayed for a BCS bowl game berth because the conference was deemed weak. And then there is the one key fact that is left unheard - in 2004 we had co-champions, the one thing the BCS was supposed to stop.
We are coming down the backstretch of the college football season and the three undefeated teams have schedules that local peewee football teams could go .500 against.
That does not mean we should stamp their tickets to history, just keep in mind that anyone can lose on any given day and miracles do happen. But even that may not absolve the BCS because there still is a bias against teams from mid-major conferences. Also, sports fans do not like computer rankings, which can cause more disorder than Darryl Strawberry on a binge. The computer rankings decide which team is going to play in the national championship game. They don't consider what coaches or writers think but meaningless stats along with a mundane system that does not have any prevalence to the game or its athletes.
For years, college football pundits have pleaded and hoped for a playoff system. Now may be the time for the NCAA to look into that. For this purpose I have formulated the Pilcher Plan - if the NCAA follows these steps they should make everyone happy:
1.Remove your heads from your rear ends. Over-aged football "purists" think mid-major conferences are weak and don't play anyone tough. Think again. The Midwest Athletic Conference has given us several upsets over the last few years and the Mountain West is on the upswing, having an undefeated team the past two years.
2. Make the Cotton Bowl a BCS game. It is one of the most storied bowls in history and deserves a rightful place at the top of bowl season.
3. A flawless playoff system. In this system, four BCS games would make up the playoff games and have the top eight teams play a single elimination playoff to decide the champion. The title game could alternate yearly.
Will college football go through with this plan? Probably not. Will they keep providing us with mediocre games and questions about who is the rightful champion? Likely. With no plan in sight to correct this massive problem, sports fans will just have to watch and hope for the best.
Questions? Comments? E-mail Erich at epilcher1@yahoo.com.