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 hanks
to a shocking and wonderful Ohio State upset of Michigan on Saturday,
my beloved fighting Illini have won the Big Ten championship and
will play in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1984. Or check
that. Thanks to an insane Bowl Championship Series format —
which is meant to match the two best teams in the country against
each other, but never succeeds in doing so — this year's Rose
Bowl will not pit the Big Ten and Pac 10 champions against each
other, for the first time in a gazillion years. And thus one of
college football's grandest traditions has been tossed into the
dustbin of history.
The Illini's
prize for winning the Big Ten is to play in Phoenix, in the Fiesta
Bowl, against God knows who. All this so that college football can
crown a mythical national champion.
Is nothing
sacred anymore? The granddaddy of them all has lost its luster.
For 30 years
now, the Rose Bowl has been for me the only bowl that ever mattered.
Was there ever a better way to start a new year than to park in
front of the TV at 4:00 p.m. on January 1 and watch the Rose Bowl
in the setting sun of Pasadena — with, of course, the added
bonus of listening to the voice of college football, the incomparable
Keith Jackson? Life doesn't get much better than that. And now it's
just gone.
The BCS bowl
format is the worst of all worlds. It has greatly diminished the
grandeur of the college bowls by establishing only one that really
matters. And it does a lousy job of actually choosing a legitimate
champion. Why should Florida, with one loss, go to the Rose Bowl
over Illinois or Texas or Nebraska (also with just one loss)? Better
still, why should the Gators go ahead of BYU — which hasn't
lost any games?
So, either
go back to the old bowl format, and play all the major bowls on
January 1, when God, not CBS meant them to be played.
Or… really
go for the gold — and the billion-dollar TV contract —
and let's crown a real national champion. What's needed for big-time
college football is what Division II and Division III have used
successfully for years: a playoff system. I'd create a 16-team playoff.
Teams would be seeded on the basis of their rankings, so that the
#1-ranked team would play #16, #2 would play #15, and so on. Every
major conference champion would be assured a spot in the playoffs.
The semifinals could be played in the Orange and Sugar Bowls. The
championship would be in the Rose Bowl.
Imagine the
incredible first- and second-round match-ups this year, and think
how hard it would be to fill out your tournament grid.
Miami-Michigan
winner plays
Illinois-Maryland winner
Texas-South
Carolina winner plays
Nebraska-Stanford winner
Tennessee-Washington State winner plays
Oregon-Colorado winner
Florida-Fresno State winner plays
BYU-Oklahoma winner
Done right, this would be potentially bigger, and make more money,
than the NCAA basketball tournament, which is a veritable pot of
gold. It would prevent schools like BYU — with an undefeated
record — from getting shafted by the BCS, and not having a
shot at the national championship. It would create intriguing match-ups
and unbelievable upsets. It would lead to a better overall college
season, because teams wouldn't be terrified of losing a single game
and being out of the BCS game. Miami would stop scheduling games
against Northern Illinois and Troy State.
It would practically
put the booooring NFL out of business, and would make the Super
Bore second fiddle in the world of football. It would bring Las
Vegas out of its recession.
The NCAA has
completely messed up the bowl season. Most of the lesser bowls are
now at risk of going bankrupt, with dwindling viewership and empty
stands. Something radical needs to be done. Let's hope that greed
takes over, and the NCAA and the TV networks come to their senses
and adopt a 16-team, winner-take-all playoff system starting next
year.
As Keith Jackson
would say: WHOA NELLY!!!
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