Everybody hates the Bowl Championship Series

I’m going to ask you three questions. Here’s a hint: the answer to all three is the same.

What’s wrong with college football? What should change in college football? Who is not doing their job in college football?

The answer, of course, is the Bowl Championship Series.

The BCS was put in place before the 1998 college football season to cure an ailment that had lingered for years: the bowl system. But instead of completely reconfiguring a post-season that only added to the arguments over team superiority, the BCS designers put a Band-Aid on a messy gunshot wound.

And it’s leaking.

The way it works is, there are six computer polls that are averaged, and that average is averaged with the average of the Harris and Coaches polls’ averages. And when all those numbers are averaged, it’s still likely we’ll end up with a national championship game that’s, well…average.

Traditionalists will say college football should revert to the way it was. They’ll say USC beating Michigan in the Rose Bowl was all that mattered. They wouldn’t care that even if the Southeastern and Pacific-10 conferences had the two best teams in the nation, they would never meet in the post-season.

For example, in 1978, USC and Alabama shared the national title after both finished with one loss- Alabama’s coming at the hands of the Trojans in the third game of the season. Though a rematch would have been sweet dessert, third-ranked USC squared off against fifth-ranked Michigan in the Rose Bowl, while Bear Bryant’s top-ranked Crimson Tide took on second-ranked Penn State in the Sugar Bowl.

Alabama beat the Nittany Lions in a true national championship game, but could never have complete control of the crown because of its loss to USC. Don’t tell me Alabama wouldn’t want another shot to crystallize its top spot, or that USC wouldn’t want to stick it to the Tide again.

This is a problem the BCS will never be able to solve.

But that’s just one of the budding BCS tumors, and it lags rather far behind a more malignant one. However horrible it must be to have to share the national title, what’s worse is not having a chance at it at all.

Auburn, Oklahoma, USC and Utah all finished the regular season last year with perfect records. Auburn and Utah, however, were left out of the national championship game, while USC went on to slam the Sooners. One could argue Oklahoma’s strength of schedule all they want, but going undefeated in the SEC-no matter what year-deserves a shot at top honors.

A similar situation took place two years ago, with USC the victim, and once again BCS was the culprit. Oklahoma and LSU played for the title because USC’s numbers didn’t compute well. Though the BCS recognized only LSU as national champion, The Associated Press poll, which is voted on by coaches and not computed by arbitrary calculations, saw it differently and named USC its champion.

And it’s happening again.

This year there are three undefeated teams, and until last Saturday there were five. There is no way a human or computer should decide whether going undefeated in the Pac-10 and Big 12 is any better than doing the same in the SEC. But that is what’s going to happen.

As it stands, USC and Texas sit atop the BCS rankings, followed humbly by Miami with one loss and the undefeated Alabama. Now if we put our heads together, I’m sure we can come up with a way to give all four an equal chance at the national championship.

Here’s one: get a bunch of computers as well as current and former coaches to decide which undefeated team is better than another – a decision largely based on personal biases and the teams’ opponents’ records? No, tried that one already.

How about a playoff? You know, it’s novel but it may just work.

Four teams, eight teams, it doesn’t really matter. But college football fans and players need something-anything-to make college football normal. We want one winner and a bunch of losers.

The situation right now is a lot like a Hollywood movie, really. There’s a good guy, a bad guy and a girl. The good guy and the girl are the two teams destined to play for the national championship, struggling through multiple trials just to be together.

And I think we all know who the bad guy is.