The seemingly never-ending Bowl Season has begun. It all started with three bowls on a December Saturday, including Northern Illinois beating Fresno State on the blue artificial turf at Boise State. That was the Humanitarian Bowl.
Really?
I’m a human, but I couldn’t generate any interest in the Huskies against the Raisins or whatever in the Humanitarian Bowl. But then, I’m old enough to remember when bowl games had a certain luster about them, and that was because there were four or five of them. This year there are 35 bowl games. Thirty-five.
Only one bowl game actually counts for something, because its real name is the BCS Championship. That one doesn’t get played until mid-January, and it will pit Auburn and Oregon against each other. Number One against Number Two.
The Bowl Championship Series executives and the fans of this stupid system are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back. They think it’s fantastic that the system has worked--the two teams that “should” be in the title game actually are!
Meanwhile, the Football Championship Series, formerly known as Division 1-AA, has a tournament that will pit two 12-2 teams against each other. Both teams played their way into the title game, the way a championship should work. Nobody in 1-AA is crying for Appalachian State, a traditional power and the top seed, because they were soundly beaten in the quarterfinals of a tournament. In the BCS system, App State would probably be in the championship game because they “should” be.
But Division 1-AA, just like Division II and Division III, has a real tournament. It’s had one for years, and nobody has ever claimed a negative impact on academics or any of the other endless baloney that gets thrown around as reasons for Division 1-A, aka BCS, not having a tournament.
I think that should end. The once-proud bowl lineup has lost all its value. When teams with 6-6 records qualify for bowls, how special are they? Flush the bowls; install a tournament.
Here’s my Christmas gift to the NCAA, a proposal for a Division 1-A Tournament. Start with 16 teams--sure, you’re going to get arguments every year about the teams that don’t get in, but that happens in basketball too. And there are 65 teams in the basketball tournament. So pick the top 16 and be done with it.
A 16-team tournament gives you three playoff rounds and a championship game. That totals 15 games--eight in the first round, four in the quarterfinals, two semifinal games and the title game. The top 15 bowl games, which means the five BCS “series” bowls plus the next tier but not the Humanitarian Bowl, can be the automatic tournament game sites for the first three to five years. After that, cities can bid to be playoff sites just like they do in basketball.
If cities want to keep hosting bowl games that attract 6-6 teams, they can. Nobody will watch, which is how it should be.
Announce this plan at the beginning of the 2012 season, implement it for the 2015 season, and by 2020 you’ve got a football tournament. Presto.
The NCAA can send me a thank-you card any day now. I am not holding my breath.
Really?
I’m a human, but I couldn’t generate any interest in the Huskies against the Raisins or whatever in the Humanitarian Bowl. But then, I’m old enough to remember when bowl games had a certain luster about them, and that was because there were four or five of them. This year there are 35 bowl games. Thirty-five.
Only one bowl game actually counts for something, because its real name is the BCS Championship. That one doesn’t get played until mid-January, and it will pit Auburn and Oregon against each other. Number One against Number Two.
The Bowl Championship Series executives and the fans of this stupid system are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back. They think it’s fantastic that the system has worked--the two teams that “should” be in the title game actually are!
Meanwhile, the Football Championship Series, formerly known as Division 1-AA, has a tournament that will pit two 12-2 teams against each other. Both teams played their way into the title game, the way a championship should work. Nobody in 1-AA is crying for Appalachian State, a traditional power and the top seed, because they were soundly beaten in the quarterfinals of a tournament. In the BCS system, App State would probably be in the championship game because they “should” be.
But Division 1-AA, just like Division II and Division III, has a real tournament. It’s had one for years, and nobody has ever claimed a negative impact on academics or any of the other endless baloney that gets thrown around as reasons for Division 1-A, aka BCS, not having a tournament.
I think that should end. The once-proud bowl lineup has lost all its value. When teams with 6-6 records qualify for bowls, how special are they? Flush the bowls; install a tournament.
Here’s my Christmas gift to the NCAA, a proposal for a Division 1-A Tournament. Start with 16 teams--sure, you’re going to get arguments every year about the teams that don’t get in, but that happens in basketball too. And there are 65 teams in the basketball tournament. So pick the top 16 and be done with it.
A 16-team tournament gives you three playoff rounds and a championship game. That totals 15 games--eight in the first round, four in the quarterfinals, two semifinal games and the title game. The top 15 bowl games, which means the five BCS “series” bowls plus the next tier but not the Humanitarian Bowl, can be the automatic tournament game sites for the first three to five years. After that, cities can bid to be playoff sites just like they do in basketball.
If cities want to keep hosting bowl games that attract 6-6 teams, they can. Nobody will watch, which is how it should be.
Announce this plan at the beginning of the 2012 season, implement it for the 2015 season, and by 2020 you’ve got a football tournament. Presto.
The NCAA can send me a thank-you card any day now. I am not holding my breath.
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