Time for a Change

The BCS formula spitted out a stunner yesterday, ranking USC No. 2 in the country. I can't figure out whether the Trojans were penalized for beating Washington 51-24, or if the computers downgrade a team for winning 29 games in a row.

Whatever it was, it's long past time that college football end this ridiculous charade and institute a playoff. To put it simply, you cannot have a two-team playoff, when there are more than two teams deserving of a shot at the national title. USC, Texas, Virginia Tech, and Georgia could all feasibly go undefeated this season, and then what do you? How will Bruin fans feel if UCLA beats USC, goes undefeated, and winds up playing West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl? You also can't simply average eight highly flawed polls that all use different formulas.

The bowl system has long outlived its usefulness, and has lost almost all of the tradition it once had. The Cotton Bowl tradition died when it was jipped out of the Bowl Alliance and when the Southwest Conference went extinct. The Orange Bowl tradition died when it left the Orange Bowl stadium. The Sugar Bowl died with the city of New Orleans. The Fiesta Bowl was never anything special. The Rose Bowl still has some significance, being the Grandaddy of Them All, but even that has lost some luster with the BCS taking away guaranteed Big Ten-Pac Ten games. And let's face it, most bowl games are pretty pathetic. (Unless you're a fan of the EV1.net Houston Bowl.)

So here's Walter O'Malley's step-by-step plan to save college football:

1.) Put Notre Dame in the Big Ten. Put BYU and Utah in the Pac 10 (or any two quality Mountain West/WAC teams. Could be Fresno State and Hawaii). This would give the five major conferences all 12 teams each, and allow them all to have conference championship games. (The Big East is not a major conference)

2.) Have an eight team playoff. The five major conference champions (Pac 10, Big 10, Big 12, ACC, and SEC) all get automatic berths into the tournament. There are three wild card spots, but one is reserved for a mid-major. The wild cards are picked by a selection committee (similar to the basketball tournament committee). There may be some fights over the last spot, but at least undefeated teams won't be screwed out of spots.

3.) The first round of the playoffs would take place on the second Saturday in December (the weekend after the conference championship games). This year, that is Saturday, December 10. The first round games would take place at the home of the higher seeded team.

4.) The semi-final round takes place the following weekend (Dec. 17 this year) at a neutral site. This should be one of the old BCS Bowl sites. One game could be in Miami and the other in New Orleans or Arizona.

5.) The championship game takes place every year on New Year's Day at the Rose Bowl. The Rose parade continues like normal. I love that parade.

6.) All other bowls (Holiday, Gator, Humanitarian, etc.) still exist. They are the equivalent to what the NIT is for college basketball. Most of these bowls don't get top-8 teams anyways, so it's not much of a loss.

As you can probably imagine, this plan would be way more exciting for fans, and generate tons more money too. The problem is, this is too simple and logical to ever happen.