The Bloom is Off the Rose
The case for a college-football playoff system.

Stephen Moore is president of the Club for Growth.
November 28, 2001 10:25 a.m.

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!!!