The Anonymous Source

Congratulations to Boise State, the 2009 Division I-A Champions.

No, really. I’m serious.

Consider that they beat everybody on their schedule. They were undefeated, as in they won 14 games and lost a grand total of zero all season. Every team that was placed in front of them, they beat. How can anybody dispute their claim. (Okay, really I am claiming it for them, but that’s not the point.)

After the terrible Fiesta Bowl, BcS honks are citing it as proof that neither ‘mid-major’ would have beaten the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama is regarded in most circles as the best college football team in the nation this season. Most people also agree, or make peace, with the Texas Longhorns as the Crimson Tide’s opponent in the “Title” Game. And it is probably true that the Broncos would not have defeated the Crimson Tide in the “Title” Game this week. But that is the key word, ‘probably.’

In reality, we will never know if Boise State would have beaten Alabama, or if the Tide could have made it through Cincinatti, Texas Christian, and Texas in succession. That is the real tragedy of the BCS – and the pre-arranged bowl system before it, which sounds even dumber. That we don’t get a true national title game is bad enough, but we get robbed of some really exciting playoff games on the way to that title game.

I know I am not the first, or the last, with the suggestion of a playoff system, even this specific plan,  to supplement these innumerable bowls. Note the word supplement in the previous sentence. I am not ignorant of the money these bowls make for people – I honestly don’t know who makes money on the bowls, because it is not the schools – so they can continue to invite irrelevant 6-5 teams to play each other in the Internet-Company-That-Will-Go-Under-Next-Week.com Bowl while the relevant teams will enter the 8-team playoffs. Oh, I can hear it now…

“But how,” you ask, “is choosing 8 teams any different than choosing the top 2?”

Easy, six of those teams will be the winners of the BcS conferences – or, as the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon aptly calls them, “the cartel” – with the other two spots going to the winners of other conferences. Those two “wild card” teams will be selected by a committee set up to do just that. It is not as hard as it seems – this year it would have been TCU and Boise State in a clear cut, 30-second meeting.

(Yes, conference winners. Conference championships should mean something, otherwise they should be abolished. Sorry, Teabow sycophants, the Gators failed to win their conference, so better luck next year. Also, Notre Dame, Army and Navy: Join a conference for crying out loud! In basketball, Notre Dame plays in the Big East, with Army and Navy in the Patriot League. Why they aren’t in conferences in football is ridiculous. Ok, tangent over. Back to the column.)

The seeding would be based on the polls (or, if the cartel has invested so much money in those darn computers and wants to use them, the worthless BcS Standings). For example, the 2009 seeds would have been, using the Associated Press Poll:

1. Alabama (Southeastern)
2. Texas (Big 12)
3. TCU (Mountain West)
4. Cincinnati (Big East)
5. Boise State (Western Athletic)
6. Oregon (Pacific 10)
7. Ohio State (Big 10/11)
8. Georgia Tech (Atlantic Coast)

The first round would be home games for the top 4 seeds, making the schools involved more money than the neutral-site bowls while giving home field advantages to those who earned it. It would also be a huge boost for a school like TCU, which would host a major-conference school like Oregon which is a rarity for the mid-majors. The four winners would then go to a rotating combination of the 4 BcS Bowls – Fiesta, Orange, Rose, and Sugar – in the semi-finals, finals, and the consolation game.

Using this season as the example again, the Rose Bowl would be the title game, with the Orange and Sugar Bowls being the Semi-Finals and the Fiesta Bowl being the consolation game. I threw in the consolation game in order to keep the 4 BcS Bowls on a higher level than the others, but it isn’t a deal-breaker for me.

Once more, with feeling –  This season would have featured a first round of Alabama-Georgia Tech, Texas-Ohio State, TCU-Oregon, and Cincinnati-Boise State in Tuscaloosa, Austin, Fort Worth, and Cincinnati. Then the four winners would have reseeded and played in the Orange and Sugar Bowls for the right to advance to the Rose Bowl, with the losers of the two bowls going to the Fiesta Bowl in the consolation game, leaving the other “bowl-eligible” teams unaffected.

One argument against this that I have heard over the years is the lengthened schedule interfering with academics. Ha ha! What a silly idea! In reality, we would be  adding two games to the schedule during a time when these “students” are usually not “in class.” Besides, its not as if they will be spending more time at practice, in the weight room, or studying film than they do during the season. A season which, by the way, takes place during the fall semester.

The first round would be the four games on the same day, starting at noon, 3.30, 7 and 9.30 on whatever networks want to pay to broadcast them. What day, you ask? This season, the first round would have taken place on December 19.

(Before you blow a gasket about finals, three bowl games were played that weekend featuring six schools that went a long way from home to play in them. Not to mention that everyone knew the matchups on December 6, giving 13 days to prepare.)

The Orange and Sugar Bowls would have been played on December 26 at 4.30 and 8p, with the Fiesta Bowl (consolation) on January 2, and The Rose Bowl Game (title) played on Monday night, January 4 at 8p. The Rose Bowl could be the same day, but I personally like the title game being that night because it gives fans one last Monday Night Football for the season (the MNF season ends in Week 16 every year).

There, it’s that simple. College football controversy solved, no money lost (actually some gained with the four first round games), and the bowl system preserved. Alas, the cartel will never agree to something this simple, so keep dreaming, boys and girls.

For the record, the 2010 season would work out roughly like this: First round marathon on December 18, followed by Fiesta and Orange Bowls on December 25, the Rose Bowl (consolation) on New Year’s Day 2011 – like that accidental tradition?! – and the Sugar Bowl title game on Monday night, January 3.