Obligatory BCS post

Ah the wondrous BCS, mysterious system of silliness and profit exclusion. There are several things which are "good" about the BCS, such as intentionally set up games between schools in different areas of the country who haven't played each other before. The Texas OSU 1 vs 2 game of 5 years ago or so was an example of this, and it was competitive throughout with Vince Young eventually winning out in Overtime. There are also some years where the top 2 teams are fairly obvious and you can't really make much of a complaint. However in recent years Boise State and to a lesser extent TCU have risen to a new competitive echelon, but neither has ever risen higher than the #3 seed (and even that seems to be a difficult accomplishment).

One of the things the BCS does to ensure that specific conferences stay dominant is ensure that Boise and TCU play each other in bowl games if possible, if Boise hadn't lost the same thing would be happening this year. Unfortunately that game is just as legitimate of a "National Championship" as the prescribed duel between two larger schools. Boise in particular has done outstanding in bowl games and against supposedly superior conferences and teams, but as of yet has not been allowed to sniff at actually playing in the game. Looking at the future of sports discussion again they also talk about the BCS (naturally) and Joe Pos' take is that it is still a "mythical" national champion, Boise State could have claimed themselves National Champions last year without too much of an issue, apart from not having a crystal football to their credit (though they could just get it from someone else).

Another issue that's brought up is that a college playoff system would be immensely more profitable to the NCAA than the current system is, anywhere from five to ten times as much revenue generated. However, since conferences themselves basically control the system at this point they don't want to hand over control to the NCAA and would rather make less overall as long as they have more fleeting power over the system (and again there is a great fear that Boise and TCU could destroy the better conferences for the most part and make the whole system look foolish. Obviously a playoff system would be fairer and more interesting, with the addition of profit it seems a must for any profit seeking system, which the NCAA undoubtedly is, but it is still very unlikely to happen in the next decade unless something drastic happens.

So, let us all watch and see if TCU can destroy Wisconsin, though I would have preferred an SEC opponent for them. If it happens 10 years in a row or something maybe something will change, albeit TCU is slated to join the Big East in a couple of years making it sort of a moot point. UConn is in the BCS games this year with an austere 8-4 record, we should watch with glee as they get annihilated. Unfortunately I'll be at work while the MSU game is going on, but I'll just watch it online later so I can still write something vaguely intelligent about it. Once Boise State joins the Pac 10 and dominates every year I think the BCS will be reaffirmed in their current position, though if it stays outside there is some vague chance of their success in altering the system a tad.