Because I never posted my post-game thoughts about the classic playoff tilt between Georgia Southern and Old Dominion Saturday night, I thought I’d pass on this brief thought.
While (1) nearly everyone in the college football universe has an opinion about the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and its seemingly arbitrary determination of two teams to play for national title—a format, I think most reasonable people agree, so bereft of merit that fairly intellectual people cannot adequately comprehend is backasswardness—except for (2) the college football presidents and conference officials who stand to make just oodles of cash on the existing bowl system even though (3) the television contract for the rights to the NCAA basketball championship, as democratic a championship format as exists anywhere, pulls in tremendous revenue and a similar contract for football would likely far outstrip that paltry sum, what is being overlooked is how (4) the FCS, also comprised of Division I football schools and very nearly as large as the schools comprising what most people still call “I-A” football, holds a 20-team tournament every year to crown a champion without (5) doing too many hinky things to the regular season schedule or (6) terribly disrupting the fabric of reality, as the larger schools suggest might happen if the student athletes from their larger schools are asked to play 14 or 15 games in a season instead of 12 or 13.
So, if you are Boise State coach Chris Peterson, quit pussyfooting around by talking about a “plus-one” format and point out the rampant hypocrisy of major college football in refusing to acknowledge a perfectly valid and high-functioning playoff system employed by almost half of Division I’s football-playing institutions.
