2008 Woodie Awards
Imperfect BCS better than college playoff
Peter Smelser, Editor-in-chief
Issue date: 10/24/06
Last Updated: 12/26/07
The second set of Bowl Championship Series standings are out and controversy is already starting to boil.
Which team should be second in the standings? Is Texas ranked too high or too low? And what's the deal with undefeated West Virginia and their position?
All these questions and comments will only spur discussion of changing the current BCS system and moving to a playoff to determine college football's king.
However, a playoff for Division I college football is not the answer.
To avoid further controversy the NCAA would need to enact an eight-team playoff. This would add three extra games for the two teams in the championship.
The games that would be required to win the national title would put an incredible physical burden on the players.
Earlier this season Auburn out-slugged Southeastern Conference rival LSU and sealed a 7-3 victory in the final seconds. After the game Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville called the game very violent. Other sports commentators said that the LSU-Auburn game was the closest any college contest had come to matching its professional counterpart.
Just magnify the smash-mouth football played in the SEC, by all teams, to the national level and you can begin to see what a playoff would look like. This past week Alabama, the fourth-best team in the SEC West, took No. 7 Tennessee to the wire before losing.
Teams already play anywhere from two-to-four elite games during the season. If a playoff were added, student-athletes would be forced to win three elite games in a row to claim the title of being number one.
Injuries would also be very likely to occur.
Last year's Orange Bowl saw Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny, winner of the 2005 Bednarik Award as the nation's top defensive player, injured his right knee. During the 2002 National Championship, Miami lost All-American running back Willis McGahee to a knee injury in the early fourth quarter. They later lost the game in overtime. This year the leading Heisman trophy candidate, Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson, broke his collarbone at the end of a 53-yard touchdown run.
There are many other aspects to a team game like college football, but injuries would be a big part of a playoff system.
Hypothetically, let's say last year there was a playoff. In round one of the playoff, Texas quarterback Vince Young gets hurt in the first round of the playoff. Texas then would have to win more games without their leader and best player. It would rob the team and fans of a chance to really see who the best team in the country is.
The national championship in a playoff system would go to the team who is the healthiest at the end of the season. Not necessarily the best team.
The cost of a playoff is potentially too high.
These are student-athletes, not professionals. To ask them to go out and potential ruin careers, so fans can have sense of closure is just selfish.
The BCS is not perfect, but it is better for us to agonize over who gets, then what and wonder what could have been if so-and-so could play.
Which team should be second in the standings? Is Texas ranked too high or too low? And what's the deal with undefeated West Virginia and their position?
All these questions and comments will only spur discussion of changing the current BCS system and moving to a playoff to determine college football's king.
However, a playoff for Division I college football is not the answer.
To avoid further controversy the NCAA would need to enact an eight-team playoff. This would add three extra games for the two teams in the championship.
The games that would be required to win the national title would put an incredible physical burden on the players.
Earlier this season Auburn out-slugged Southeastern Conference rival LSU and sealed a 7-3 victory in the final seconds. After the game Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville called the game very violent. Other sports commentators said that the LSU-Auburn game was the closest any college contest had come to matching its professional counterpart.
Just magnify the smash-mouth football played in the SEC, by all teams, to the national level and you can begin to see what a playoff would look like. This past week Alabama, the fourth-best team in the SEC West, took No. 7 Tennessee to the wire before losing.
Teams already play anywhere from two-to-four elite games during the season. If a playoff were added, student-athletes would be forced to win three elite games in a row to claim the title of being number one.
Injuries would also be very likely to occur.
Last year's Orange Bowl saw Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny, winner of the 2005 Bednarik Award as the nation's top defensive player, injured his right knee. During the 2002 National Championship, Miami lost All-American running back Willis McGahee to a knee injury in the early fourth quarter. They later lost the game in overtime. This year the leading Heisman trophy candidate, Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson, broke his collarbone at the end of a 53-yard touchdown run.
There are many other aspects to a team game like college football, but injuries would be a big part of a playoff system.
Hypothetically, let's say last year there was a playoff. In round one of the playoff, Texas quarterback Vince Young gets hurt in the first round of the playoff. Texas then would have to win more games without their leader and best player. It would rob the team and fans of a chance to really see who the best team in the country is.
The national championship in a playoff system would go to the team who is the healthiest at the end of the season. Not necessarily the best team.
The cost of a playoff is potentially too high.
These are student-athletes, not professionals. To ask them to go out and potential ruin careers, so fans can have sense of closure is just selfish.
The BCS is not perfect, but it is better for us to agonize over who gets, then what and wonder what could have been if so-and-so could play.
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