I Already Miss the BCS

Michigan State's head coach is saying that the Big Ten champion deserves a shot at the National Championship.  (http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10073294/mark-dantonio-stumps-big-ten-champ-title-game)  He's right.  The Big Ten champ does deserve a shot.  And so does the SEC champ and the Pac 12 champ (and maybe even the Big 12 and ACC champs).  

College football's season is so short that it is difficult to know which conference is best.  It seems like it's the SEC this year.  South Carolina beat Central Florida (the likely AAC champ).  Ole Miss beat Texas (the possible Big 12 champ).  That's pretty good.  But better than the Pac 12 with Oregon (who killed everyone and only lost within conference) and Stanford (who did the same, only with a win over Notre Dame as well)?  

The uncertainty in conference quality frustrates a lot of people.  Under the BCS system only two teams can be chosen for the national championship.  Right now the major conference teams with the best records get the title shot.  Maybe it would be more fair to choose the conference champions of the two strongest conferences.  Maybe a third option would be even better.  

A four-team playoff is coming next season, but does that really solve anything?  For example, it's hard to see how Stanford or Arizona State would get into a four team playoff this season.  Alabama, FSU (assuming they beat Duke, which I'm less than 100% convinced of) and the SEC titleist would take up three slots.  If Ohio State wins the Big Ten, they would be fourth.  It seems college football is shuffling the cards when it really needs a new deck.

The College Football Playoff will be in place for twelve years, but it's never too early to start campaigning for something better.  In my opinion a return to the BCS -- albeit with several important tweaks -- would be better.

My idea is to have the five major conference  champions go to their assigned bowl games, just like they did in the pre-Bowl Coalition days.  (How many of you even remember that predecessor to the BCS?  I had to look it up.)  The Rose Bowl would almost certainly keep the Big 10 and Pac 12 champions.  The Sugar Bowl would probably keep the SEC champion, though the Cotton would likely put up a strong bid.  I would imagine that the Big 12 would choose the Cotton Bowl and the ACC would choose the Orange Bowl, but who knows?  Maybe the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl or even the Hall of Fame Bowl would put up a strong bid.

Here is how this season would look under the four bowl scenario:

Rose Bowl: Stanford/ASU winner vs. OSU/MSU winner

Sugar Bowl: Auburn/Mizzou winner vs. at-large

Cotton Bowl: OK State (or Texas or Baylor) vs. at-large

Orange Bowl: FSU/Duke winner vs. at-large

It would be the job of the selection committee to fill the at-large slots.  One at-large slot could be set aside for a champion from one of the non-major FBS conferences.  And maybe a highly ranked Independent like Notre Dame or BYU would have preferred access to another at-large slot.  

If the games this weekend fall the way bookies have them, the results might be:

Rose Bowl: Arizona State vs. Ohio State (rematch of the second-best Rose Bowl I ever saw)

Sugar Bowl: Auburn vs. Central Florida

Cotton Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Alabama

Orange Bowl: Florida State vs. South Carolina

Maybe Oregon would get a shot and maybe Northern Illinois would complain about UCF getting the non-major spot.  But it would be pretty fair.  With the possible exception of Northern Illinois, no team would have a very good complaint that they were denied a championship opportunity due to conference affiliation or anything else that is beyond their control. 

A move back to conference-assigned bowls would have negatives, but the positives would be stronger.  A negative is that the selection of the two teams to play in the title game could get controversial.  (More on that later.)  The positives are that more teams get access.  Conference championships get respected.  And players would again embrace traditional bowls.  For example, there's no way that Oregon players would have complained about the possibility of the Rose Bowl if a Rose Bowl appearance meant a shot at the national championship ten days later.

The tricky part of this idea is what happens after January 1st (or, in a year where January 1st is a Sunday, January 2nd).  The day after the last big bowl game is played, the selection committee would have to meet and choose two bowl winners to play for the national championship.  That means that two bowl winners would be left out.  

Leaving out two teams that just won prestigious bowls could be a problem, but I think that in most years it would work itself out.  Let's imagine this year's results go the way that bookies would likely have the betting lines:

Rose: Ohio State beats Arizona State

Sugar: Auburn beats Central Florida

Cotton: Alabama beats OK State

Orange: Florida State beats South Carolina

Alabama would likely get disqualified from title game contention because of their loss to another contender (Auburn).  The selection committee would have to choose between OSU, Auburn and FSU, but at least there would be more clarity.  OSU would have a quality non-conference win and a victory over Michigan State's great defense.  FSU would have beaten one of the best teams in the SEC.  Giving those undefeated teams a national championship opportunity ahead of Auburn would be far more justifiable under this circumstance.

Of course, most years things don't go exactly the way the bookies set the betting lines.  Stanford may beat Arizona State and then dispatch Ohio State.  That would leave Auburn vs. FSU as a clear title matchup.  Mizzouri might stifle Auburn, but lose to Central Florida.  Alabama vs. FSU or Ohio State might be the title game in that case.  And South Carolina has the defense to give them a great chance against FSU.  If three SEC teams and the Rose Bowl champion were left standing after bowl season, then the choice would be simple: SEC champ vs. Rose Bowl champ.

Before any plan like this would be used it would undergo changes, but this should be the structure.  Give all major conference champions (and a few at-large teams) access.  Give the selection committee the job of selecting at-large teams and the championship matchup.  And perhaps most importantly, give the major bowl games more prestige as an end-of-the-season destination that will be attractive to both players and fans alike.