Has the Clock Struck Midnight on the BCS?

Another college football Season is coming to an end and once again we are stuck with a big mess at the top of the BCS standings. Because LSU is the only undefeated team they were a lock to play in the national championship game but the team that would join them in the game was not so much of a lock. Behind the #1 ranked Tigers are three one loss teams. So the question then became which team was the best one loss team in the nation. Between the Human polls and the computers the BCS decided that Alabama was the best one loss team edging out Oklahoma State by .0086. 

Wait a minute! Wasn't the BCS supposed to clearly put the top two teams in the country head to head in the national championship game. How can we clearly separate one team from another. The truth is we can't. Not the way the system is set up now anyway. As a matter of fact this has happen more than just this year. In 2000 we were left with a similar situation. Oklahoma was the only undefeated and behind them were FSU, Miami, and the Washington Huskies all with one loss. Miami had beaten FSU but loss to Washington earlier that season. We ended up watching in my option the sloppiest game in BCS history with FSU going down to the Sooners 13-0. It was clear that the hurricanes were the better team but because they loss on the road with a Freshman QB their were locked out of the championship game. Then in 2004 we ended up with four undefeated teams, Oklahoma, USC, Auburn, and Utah. That year USC and Oklahoma ended up 1 and 2 and we watched another terrible game with USC blowing out the Sooners 55-19. That year Auburn was clearly the better team with players Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, and Jason Campbell. So what are we going to get this year. Did the BCS get it wrong again this year with LSU and Alabama? 


The BCS is obviously a broken system that needs to be changed but will never be because of the money at stake, but it's time to work it out. Every other level of football makes it work and so could Division I A football. And sense my mother taught me to not criticize a system without having a solution here is my proposed solution. We could take the top 16 teams with the top 8 seeds playing on their home fields. The second rounds could be played at neutral sites with one of those sites being one of the four BCS sites. The Semifinals could be played at two of the remaining three BCS sites and the Championship game could be played at the remaining BCS site. The Bowls could rotate the Championship game every year as they do now. 

The top two arguments against switching from the current system is that one it would be to many games to play and two the schools and sponsors would lose money. If we added a four game playoff system this would mean the BCS Champs would have played a total of 16 games for most teams and for the ones who have conference championships it would be 17. 16 is the number of games a high school state champion football team would play in a season and also the number of games a team plays in division I-AA football. Also the National Football League has 16 game seasons. Secondly this system would more than likely make more money for the schools and sponsors instead of losing it. A playoff system would mean that more fans could stay optimistic about their team's changes of winning a national title instead of losing interest when their teams lose one or two games in a season. For the top 8 teams the additional home game will bring in extra revenue. The three BCS sites that are not hosting the championship will benefit from this the most because now the games that will be played there will have meaning. 
The major question now is what would happen to the money that is made from the countless bowl games? To me this answer is simple still play them. Any team with a .500 record can still be selected to play in a bowl game. 

A playoff system will solve all of college football problems. It would take the conversation away from what if and turn it to what actually happened on the field. Teams should not be able to win or be eliminated from the national championship picture due to preseason polls. Its only right that a true champion should have to win the championship on the field instead of winning it on a computer program. 

Urban Meyer: Good Fit for Ohio State

Three football seasons ago, Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators were on top of the college footballworld. They had just won their second BCS Championship in three seasons, their Heisman winning quarterback Tim Tebow had just announced that he would be returning for his senior season and they were certain to start the year off in the AP preseason Top 5. The next year didn't even end up in a championship and the following season would be Meyer's worst as a Gator. At the end of the 2009 football season, Meyer announced that he would be stepping down as the head coach of the Florida Gators. When asked why, he said he was stepping down because of health reasons. He also stated that he was stepping down because he wanted to spend more time with his family and watch his kids grow up. Even then, many people, including myself, thought he was stepping down for other reasons. Even if you didn't believe Meyer at the time it seemed a little insensitive to criticize a man who seemed so passionate about what he does for a living.

So after a while, people let him off the hook, but it is raising eyebrows that he is now talking about coaching again. ESPN analysts are saying it's because he now knows how to balance college football, his family life and his health. They are saying he can now get extra help so he won't have to overwork himself. But what good assistant coach worth his salt wouldn't have signed on to coach with the mighty gators alongside Meyer? It's time now to call him on his lies. He stepped down because Tim Tebow's time was up as a Gator and with talented sophomore Cam Newton gone, there were not any spread option quarterbacks left on the Gators' roster. Meyer was stuck with a highly recruited pocket passer John Brantley. Meyer was not talented enough to alter his offense to make it work, so instead of struggling he retired.

Meyer is now coming back to coaching because Ohio State has a highly sought after mobile quarterback, Braxton Miller, that Meyer believes he can build his famous spread offense around. Whatever happened to the great coaches who could coach to the talent that was on their teams? In today's sports, especially college football, there are no real coaches left, just system coaches. This was not spoken about Meyer while he was on top. He was mentioned among the league's best head coaches. But after all the championships and awards, we now know different. Meyer is nothing more than a system coach. A coach who will not survive change or the test of time. And to make things worst, he could at least be a guy who sticks around when things aren't going well, but he is a quitter. I guarantee that the first year he can't recruit a top-notch mobile quarterback, he is going to quit. Consider yourselves warned Ohio State. The few years of success will not be worth the setback when his health problems suddenly force him to retire again.