[BigBollocks]

Even though West Virginia didn't make the BCS Championship, it is clear from Ohio State and West Virginia what gets you into the championship. Play in a horrible conference, make sure that conference doesn't have a championship game, play no threats out of conference, and you're in. Quite simply: be in a BCS conference with no championship game and no difficult opponents, and win. That's it. It doesn't matter who really are the best two teams, and how capable your team is of competing in the title game, just rack up wins however possible. There is no incentive whatsoever to schedule potentially difficult cross-country matchups, as there is no playoff at the end of the season for which your team needs to be battle tested.

Ohio State will get creamed by LSU, Illinois will get pounded by USC, and West Virginia will most likely lose their BCS bowl, but yet we'd have an OSU-West Virginia matchup had the Big 12 not chosen to have a conference championship and West Virginia not expose themselves as obvious frauds.

I think I liked it more when teams just competed for regional championships, as this facade of a "national championship" is a ****ing joke....

[gummo]

I wouldn't call the Big East a horrible conference. They are currently the 2nd rated conference in the Sagarins and were 5-0 in bowl games last year.

[BuddyBear]

Agree with BB. These days coaches and athletic directors at big time conferences are hastily flipping through the Sun Belt and MAC conference media guides trying to find out who the gimie wins are. God forbid they go to their venues to play a game even if it means paying them to come play the game at your place.

Coaches saw earlier this year when Texas went to play UCF and what could have happened.....or when OKST and Minnesota went to play Sun Belt schools at their place.

This system is an absolute atrocitity and totally ingenuious. It invites controversy and more times than not, it does not match the best teams up. If I were USC or Oklahoma I'd go ahead set up a game and call it the national championship game and have a sponsor who issues the championship trophy.

[jjgold]

We can talk all we want, playoff needed period.

[matskralc]

It invites controversy and more times than not, it does not match the best teams up.

Hopefully you don't actually think a playoff would.

[BuddyBear]

Hopefully you don't actually think a playoff would.

Well no. Sports always invite controversy no matter what. However, this level of controversy is unprecedent right now. 5-7 teams are making legitimate claims that they should have the right to play in the National Title game. A playoff would certainly minimize controversy and let the results speak for themselves. The BCS is driven by corporate greed rather than any systmatic effort to ensure the most accurate matchup. I really don't see how a playoff system would not benefit college football....college basketball is a perfect example of how little controversy there is when there is a true playoff system.

[matskralc]

I really don't see how a playoff system would not benefit college football....college basketball is a perfect example of how little controversy there is when there is a true playoff system.

College basketball is also the perfect example of how nobody cares about the regular season!

[HedgeHog]

Conference Championship Games have had the opposite effect as well, where an impressive win helps a team leapfrog a higher ranked team that was off that week.

Agree that a playoff is needed, say 8 teams--but even then the 9th ranked team will certainly bitch.

[matskralc]

Agree that a playoff is needed, say 8 teams--but even then the 9th ranked team will certainly bitch.

At this point, the bitching will never stop. 8 teams means #s 9-16 and their fans/supportersare gonna bitch. 16 teams means #s 17-25 are gonna bitch. You'd have to just throw all 119 teams into some sort of artificial playoff to give them all a shot. Like, you know, the BCS.

[Willie Bee]

Can't help but agree with matskralc here. March Madness is 32 teams heavy in my opinion (though I love watching the first round). However, if the argument for a playoff system is to get the most deserving teams into a bracket, then it's never going to be solved on the college level until you can try and make all conferences equal. By that I mean everyone is in a conference and everyone is held to some scheduling guidelines. Power will naturally shift even in an organized system (see AFC over NFC recently). But it's got to be controlled more before you can really get the 4-8 best teams into some short playoff schedule where you can also placate the powers that currently control the bowls, and that's the only realistic shot at a playoffs you have in the near future I believe.

[jon13009]

The Big 10 has it correct - no championship game. OSU just walked into the BCS championship with good scheduling. Everyone who seems to understand college football says there will be no playoff. Why? A playoff seems to be something everyone wants except those who control the whole crappy system, that seems to reward conferences that avoid any more games than they absolutely have to play.