Big-Time College Football Deserves a Playoff
As a huge fan of college football, I’ve waited all year for this day: the crowning of a national champion.
So whatcha think? Will it be Delaware or Eastern Washington?
Yes, those two teams will square off in Frisco, Texas, Friday night to crown the national champion in the Football Championship Subdivision the right way: at the conclusion of a playoff.
No, I’m not talking about that joke of a game Monday night in Glendale, Ariz., for the national championship, where the only folks smiling will be the Arizona tourism commission and the supporters of the Bowl Championship Series.
The idea behind the BCS was to be able to use a variety of polls, factoring in all sorts of mathematical models, in order to determine which teams should square off for the national title.
After they show up armed with all of their highfalutin computers spitting out reams of data to show that Auburn and Oregon are without a doubt the nation’s top two teams, dare I say the BCS supporters are still full of crap.
There is no bias on my part against Auburn and Oregon, two fine football teams. But it is nonsense to suggest that this is the best way to crown a national champion. Not only is it undemocratic, but there is no doubt that determining who should play for the title of the best major college football team in America based on a poll is also un-American.
And that’s exactly how the brains behind the BCS want to keep it.
Folks, this is nothing more than a cartel. This current system is designed to keep out the upstarts that are not in the major conferences. This supposedly fair system makes it clear that only automatic qualifiers get a shot at playing for the big money and the big trophy. SEC? Yep. Big 12? No doubt. Big East? Thanks a bunch. Big 10? Hello, baby! ACC? Yes, sir! Pac-10? Sweet.
Yet if you’re from the “Little Sisters of the Poor” conferences — those are the words of Ohio State University President Gordon Gee when he derided TCU and Boise State for even being considered for a national championship game — you have to hope and pray the pollsters don’t screw you. That means the Mountain West, Sun Belt, Conference USA, the Mid-American and Western Athletic Conference all must rank in the top 12 of the BCS poll in order to get the automatic bid.
In the world of the BCS, this is all fair and above board.
Sorry, it stinks to high heaven.
There are a lot of folks to blame for this nonsense, but a lot of it lies at the feet of the presidents of the schools in the major conferences.
In fact, lying is a good word because they do an excellent job of it in trying to get us to believe academics is at the heart of their opposition to a playoff.
We’ve heard for years the ridiculous argument that the presidents put the student first in student-athletes and that a playoff would take too much time and keep them from their final exams.
Yet not a single college president opposing football playoffs can explain why in the Division 1-A — now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision — playoffs are used in basketball, baseball, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball.
For years, football teams in Division 1-AA, sorry, the Football Championship Subdivision, have had a playoff. That means teams earn the title the right way: on the field.
If there wasn’t a playoff in college basketball, Butler would have never been able to advance to the finals last year. Every year, the notion of a Cinderella team advancing into the Sweet 16, Elite Eight or Final Four would be moot because we could just pencil in the power conferences.
In the arrogance of the presidents, coaches and, yes, the media, these are the so-called best and toughest conferences in the nation. Forget those little schools that don’t have the big budgets and TV contracts; the big boys decide who is good enough.
Sorry, not buying.
A playoff is fair and just. Win on the field and keep winning, and you play for the title. Lose? You go home. Simple. Clean. Concise.
Like many fans, I’ll watch Auburn and Oregon because I love football. But don’t think that whichever team wins, they’ll be national champions. They will simply be the best team to win a supposed national title because they hail from one of the cartel conferences.
I’d rather raise a toast to Delaware or Eastern Washington.
Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin.” Please visit his website at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM
