BCS vs. NFL Superbowl Champion

[shipps]

This proabably has been talked about before here.But I thought if the Giants win the superbowl this year the best team would not have been crowned champion and no one would have a problem with it.Yet fans are outraged when there is a team that is ranked #1 at the end of season if there is any inkling of a doubt that its not the best team.I believe the BCS is a far more accurate way of crowning the "best team".I think the question really is why the double standard?

[Steve9347]

Every team that makes the NFL Playoffs has a chance to play for the championship. Only two teams that are selected by a computer get to play for the championship in college football.

 

If the Giants make it as one of the lower seeds and win it all they earned it and are the legit champions.

[shipps]

Every team that makes the NFL Playoffs has a chance to play for the championship. Only two teams that are selected by a computer get to play for the championship in college football.

 

If the Giants make it as one of the lower seeds and win it all they earned it and are the legit champions.

But the Giants didnt play but three of the teams that were in the playoffs?These college teams play enough games throughout the season to gage there respective spots in the rankings.Its not just a computer ranking them.Coaches vote?AP votes?

[DrunkBomber]

But the Giants didnt play but three of the teams that were in the playoffs?These college teams play enough games throughout the season to gage there respective spots in the rankings.Its not just a computer ranking them.Coaches vote?AP votes?

They only played three playoff games but they played other playoff teams during the season. The point is that 12 teams qualify for the playoffs and all have a chance to win, like the Steelers 2 years ago and the Giants making it this year. Even if they didnt have to beat the Colts or Chargers, the Patriots did and for the Giants to win they have to beat them. There is no reasonable way to make sure every team plays every other team so there might always be questions about if another team could beat the Super Bowl champs but getting through the tournament structure is more deserving then a bowl game.

 

Look at the big ten. They are against the playoff in college football because they realize if there was one they would rarely have as much a chance as they do by making it to the BCS championship game. I think OSU the past two years playing for the championship proves how flawed that system is. There were a few other teams who would have given LSU a much better game.

[IlliniKrush]

http://cfn.scout.com/2/722251.html

[shipps]

http://cfn.scout.com/2/722251.html

I'm convinced.

[RockRaines]

Look at the big ten. They are against the playoff in college football because they realize if there was one they would rarely have as much a chance as they do by making it to the BCS championship game. I think OSU the past two years playing for the championship proves how flawed that system is. There were a few other teams who would have given LSU a much better game.

Yeah, too bad those teams choked down the stretch. Heres a simple formula, those teams win, they get in the title game, how bout that? Generalize the big ten as much as you want, they didnt belong in the 2002 title game either against the best team that everyone thought would crush OSU, they didnt. Both systems are flawed, but a playoff would obviously be the best, but not having the system has nothing to do with the Big Ten not thinking they could make the title game, thats the biggest load of bulls*** ive ever read.

 

I bet the Big 12 feel the same way with the embarrassment that was Oklahoma in back to back years including the most lopsided BCS game since its inception.

Edited January 27, 2008 by RockRaines

[CrimsonWeltall]

But I thought if the Giants win the superbowl this year the best team would not have been crowned champion and no one would have a problem with it.

 

The best team is the team that plays the best. It doesn't matter if you have the most talent or you're the best "on paper", you have to perform. If the Giants win, they're the champions.

 

Yet fans are outraged when there is a team that is ranked #1 at the end of season if there is any inkling of a doubt that its not the best team.

 

Of course they are. With the BCS, teams are eliminated from the National Championship picture based on opinions, not wins and losses. If the Patriots don't end up champions, it's because they LOST.

 

Any system where you can go undefeated and not be the champion is garbage.

[DrunkBomber]

Yeah, too bad those teams choked down the stretch. Heres a simple formula, those teams win, they get in the title game, how bout that? Generalize the big ten as much as you want, they didnt belong in the 2002 title game either against the best team that everyone thought would crush OSU, they didnt. Both systems are flawed, but a playoff would obviously be the best, but not having the system has nothing to do with the Big Ten not thinking they could make the title game, thats the biggest load of bulls*** ive ever read.

 

I bet the Big 12 feel the same way with the embarrassment that was Oklahoma in back to back years including the most lopsided BCS game since its inception.

I was using the Big Ten as an example. Ive heard many times that the Big Ten is one of the conferences against a playoff, Im not pulling it out of my ass. I personally dont care what conference the teams come from I just know that the past two years the best two teams werent the ones playing for the National Championship and that a team in the NFL that isnt looked at as an elite team shouldnt be questioned if they win the Super Bowl because the system the NFL uses is much better at finding the better teams.

[RockRaines]

I was using the Big Ten as an example. Ive heard many times that the Big Ten is one of the conferences against a playoff, Im not pulling it out of my ass. I personally dont care what conference the teams come from I just know that the past two years the best two teams werent the ones playing for the National Championship and that a team in the NFL that isnt looked at as an elite team shouldnt be questioned if they win the Super Bowl because the system the NFL uses is much better at finding the better teams.

So you think that LSU wasnt the best team in the country this year and Fla wasnt last year? I would like to know who you thought were the best teams.

 

 

And why would ANY major conference be hugely in favor of a playoff? It gives lesser conferences the same odds to win it all and could cut down on bowl payouts and tv airtime. The fans think of the excitement of march madness and the universities think of the fat checks they get to plug back into their institutions.

Edited January 28, 2008 by RockRaines

[DrunkBomber]

So you think that LSU wasnt the best team in the country this year and Fla wasnt last year? I would like to know who you thought were the best teams.

And why would ANY major conference be hugely in favor of a playoff? It gives lesser conferences the same odds to win it all and could cut down on bowl payouts and tv airtime. The fans think of the excitement of march madness and the universities think of the fat checks they get to plug back into their institutions.

No I do think they were the best teams, I just dont think OSU was good enough to be there and the scoreboard agrees. I would have liked to see someone like USC play LSU this year, I think the game would be much more competitive.

 

Im not even saying with the current system OSU didnt deserve to be there. Especially 2 years ago it would be impossible to keep them out, I think the system is flawed. OSU would have gotten hammered this year in a playoff by a few teams.

 

Playoff plunderer

 

 

They shout on talk radio shows, write screeds on message boards and plead with the sports gods in a futile effort to be heard by the faceless Bowl Championship Series. They are the growing number of fans who want a college football playoff. They want it now, dammit. They want to know how to get it done. They want to know who the hell to call.

 

Lucky Jim Delany.

 

The madmen and mad women crying out for the death of the BCS may recognize Delany's name but probably wouldn't recognize his face. They likely have no idea he rose from humble beginnings, took over as commissioner of the Big Ten in 1989 and brokered deals that extended his influence far beyond the Midwest. Chances are they have no clue Delany, 58, has emerged as a man widely considered the most powerful figure in college sports and the biggest obstacle to a Division I-A football playoff.

 

BCS haters may decide Delany is public enemy No. 1. But inside the corridors of college athletics, he is respected, envied and, in some cases, feared.

 

Delany, according to one colleague, can exhibit "Doberman-like aggressiveness." With a bite to match his bark, he further has enriched the wealthiest conferences and cemented the BCS system that has drawn the ire from two of the most powerful men in his own conference – Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr.

THE JIM DELANY FILE

Name: James Edward "Jim" Delany

 

Hometown: South Orange, N.J.

 

Family: Wife, Catherine; children, Newman, 17, and James Chancellor, 14.

 

College: University of North Carolina. Earned Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1970 and earned law degree in 1973.

 

Career experience: Investigator for NCAA enforcement staff, 1975-1979; commissioner for Ohio Valley Conference, 1979-1989; commissioner of the Big Ten, 1989-present.

 

Notable: Helped negotiate $6 billion, 11-year contract with CBS for the rights to the NCAA men's basketball tournament; oversaw Penn State's inclusion into the Big Ten, triggering conference expansion around the country; has served as vice president of the USA Basketball executive committee.

 

Source: Big Ten Conference website

 

But as he has done with the public outcry, Delany largely has ignored the coaches' call for a playoff. He readily admits a playoff could be good for Division I-A football at large but quickly adds, "I don't work for college football at large."

 

From Big Ten headquarters in Chicago, Delany presides over a college sports monarchy. The Big Ten is the nation's biggest conference, a collection of 11 universities that covers an area with almost 25 percent of the nation's TV households and prompts television networks to genuflect. When Delany arrived at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn., this year, employees wore buttons that proclaimed "Bristol is Big Ten Country."

 

Despite the royal treatment, Delany dismisses talk that he is the king of college athletics. But at times one would think he wore a crown.

 

Earlier this year, for example, when Notre Dame's athletic director and the commissioner of the Sun Belt conference devised a plan to modify the BCS, the two men immediately took the idea to Delany.

 

"If you're going to make it work, you've got to get Jim to sign on to it," said Wright Waters, commissioner of the Sun Belt conference.

 

That's one reason playoff advocates have ventured to Big Ten headquarters and trotted out plan after plan, all of which Delany has sacked. Never mind that a playoff is used to determine the football champion in Division I-AA, Division II and Division III, not to mention every other sport sanctioned by the NCAA. Never mind that the president of the University of Florida has vowed to press the issue with his colleagues. Or that commissioners from the other major conferences now say they're open to the idea of a playoff as it gains traction faster than Adrian Peterson accelerating off tackle.

 

Disregarding the howls for change could test Delany's power. For now, he stands positioned to battle not only the likes of Paterno and Carr but also the force of public will.

 

Polls show more than 50 percent of college football fans favor a playoff. Those percentages figure to spike now that undefeated Ohio State will play in the BCS title game against one-loss Florida rather than Boise State, which improved to 13-0 after its remarkable, highlight-heavy victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

 

Eventually the consumer will get what he demands, Delany said. But he cites TV ratings and attendance figures as evidence that the consumer has yet to truly demand change.

 

Defending his assertion, Delany said revenue from college football has grown to $900 million from $200 million since 1990; average attendance for Big Ten games has increased to 71,000 from 58,000 over that same period; and the rising TV ratings and sponsorship dollars suggest the game is as healthy as ever.

 

"There's probably more of an outcry than there was 15 years ago for something different. I don't disagree with that," Delany said during a recent interview in Chicago. "But what I've also seen simultaneously is the growth in interest in the BCS and the regular season.

 

"If the public walks away from our games during the regular season and walks away from television during the regular season and walks away from the bowls, they're saying, We won't support this anymore. We want something else.' But I don't see them walking away from anything."

 

MONEY MATTERS

 

There's no sign Delany will walk away from a very lucrative position.

 

Studies indicate the slightest step toward a playoff – seeding the teams in four BCS bowl games and pitting the two top-rated teams emerging from those games in the national championship – could generate another $50 million. But with a new system, Delany and the commissioners of the other BCS conferences could lose control of the knife that guarantees them a huge slice of the financial pie.

 

The so-called BCS conferences – which include the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC – outnumber the less powerful conferences six to five. Thanks to that slim majority, the six conferences grant themselves automatic bids to the five BCS bowls and this year will take in more than three-quarters of the estimated $120 million the BCS will generate.

 

The annual yield since has widened the financial gap between the haves and have-nots, and since the formation of the BCS eight years ago, no conference has benefited more than the conference Delany runs. He appears determined to protect the Big Ten's economic interests even if it means preserving a flawed system.

 

The NCAA can do nothing about it either. The organizing body for college sports controls the men's basketball tournament and the billions of dollars that come with it because 31 conferences compete in Division I basketball. Furthermore, CBS has agreed to a $6 billion, 11-year contract for the TV rights not just to air games between teams in the BCS conferences, but for a tournament that features the likes of George Mason, Gonzaga and other giant-killers and spurs millions of fans to try to match the glass slipper with the next Cinderella while filling out their 65-team brackets.

 

Despite Boise State's electrifying victory over Oklahoma, college football fans seem less consumed with upsets than showdowns between the traditional powers. That has enabled the six biggest conferences to form the BCS, control about 80 percent of the postseason money and perhaps prompt Delany to declare last year that the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Rose Bowl would abandon its BCS partners if they took even the slightest step toward a playoff.

 

That sentiment has frustrated the likes of DeLoss Dodds, athletic director at the University of Texas who fought for a playoff for 10 years. He finally abandoned his efforts in part because of Delany. Dodds said it became increasingly clear that the alliance of the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Rose Bowl would block his efforts or any others to implement the playoff.

 

Of course without Delany, there might not even be a BCS.

[RockRaines]

No I do think they were the best teams, I just dont think OSU was good enough to be there and the scoreboard agrees. I would have liked to see someone like USC play LSU this year, I think the game would be much more competitive.

 

Im not even saying with the current system OSU didnt deserve to be there. Especially 2 years ago it would be impossible to keep them out, I think the system is flawed. OSU would have gotten hammered this year in a playoff by a few teams.

You wont hear me disagree about this year, but every other team choked, and a young buckeyes team still had enough in them to compete in the game. If it wasnt for stupid penalties and a horrific roughing of the punter, it may have swung the other way. And please dont say USC again, theres no way a team that loses in one of the biggest upsets in football history even deserves to be near the city that the championship game is played in. USC and OSU play for the next two years, so you can very well see if there is a huge disparity in talent on the teams. Still, your point is not made very clearly. Both years you say the best team in the country won the title, well if thats true then the system very clearly worked and played out exactly as it should have been played out. Of course your theories about who would have won have no weight here and I will claim LSU would have gotten hammered by several teams in a playoff this year, nobody knows so its kind of stupid to go out there and make a statement like that.

 

And thanks for posting the article that backs up my statement about money being the biggest driver of the BCS system. Just like I said, it has zero to do with the conference not thinking they could compete, but more about the guaranteed money that is at stake for the larger more prominent conferences.

Edited January 28, 2008 by RockRaines

[DrunkBomber]

You wont hear me disagree about this year, but every other team choked, and a young buckeyes team still had enough in them to compete in the game. If it wasnt for stupid penalties and a horrific roughing of the punter, it may have swung the other way. And please dont say USC again, theres no way a team that loses in one of the biggest upsets in football history even deserves to be near the city that the championship game is played in. USC and OSU play for the next two years, so you can very well see if there is a huge disparity in talent on the teams. Still, your point is not made very clearly. Both years you say the best team in the country won the title, well if thats true then the system very clearly worked and played out exactly as it should have been played out. Of course your theories about who would have won have no weight here and I will claim LSU would have gotten hammered by several teams in a playoff this year, nobody knows so its kind of stupid to go out there and make a statement like that.

 

And thanks for posting the article that backs up my statement about money being the biggest driver of the BCS system. Just like I said, it has zero to do with the conference not thinking they could compete, but more about the guaranteed money that is at stake for the larger more prominent conferences.

I think it is pretty obvious that it was my opinion based on the topic. Out of all the teams that were "choking" at the end of this year I would also say that number one OSU losing at home to U of I belongs in that ball park as well. They wouldnt have needed all those other teams to lose if they took care of their own business either. Just because the past two years people assume the best teams have won the championship doesnt validate the entire system. Maybe the fact that Florida and LSU both easily handled OSU is part of the reason why people think that. If those teams would have had equal competition in the championship game and the game was closer and they showed more flaws people might begin to question if they were the best team in the country. Thats a huge problem with college football. If for whatever reason you have 1 bad game all of a sudden you arent in contention for a championship. Regardless of USC's being upset they still are a good team and easily took care of their Big Ten opponent in the Rose Bowl, the same team that upset OSU.

 

Actually all but 1 of the BCS bowls were blowouts and theyre becoming worse and worse every year. I just think the fact that football fans have to suffer so the big conferences (like the Big 10, see article above) can make more money.

[RockRaines]

I think it is pretty obvious that it was my opinion based on the topic. Out of all the teams that were "choking" at the end of this year I would also say that number one OSU losing at home to U of I belongs in that ball park as well. They wouldnt have needed all those other teams to lose if they took care of their own business either. Just because the past two years people assume the best teams have won the championship doesnt validate the entire system. Maybe the fact that Florida and LSU both easily handled OSU is part of the reason why people think that. If those teams would have had equal competition in the championship game and the game was closer and they showed more flaws people might begin to question if they were the best team in the country. Thats a huge problem with college football. If for whatever reason you have 1 bad game all of a sudden you arent in contention for a championship. Regardless of USC's being upset they still are a good team and easily took care of their Big Ten opponent in the Rose Bowl, the same team that upset OSU.

 

Actually all but 1 of the BCS bowls were blowouts and theyre becoming worse and worse every year. I just think the fact that football fans have to suffer so the big conferences (like the Big 10, see article above) can make more money.

I think you are under the impression that i believe OSU should have been in the national title game, they shouldnt have been close. You can actually track my statements on that throughout the college football thread. They were rebuilding this year and lost 8 all big ten players. They should have been in the Rose Bowl, and thats with the horrible loss to Illinois. But dont compare the loss to Illinois to USC's loss to stanford. They were in the title game on chance, and chance alone. Nobody in the country can agree on which team shouldve been in the game with LSU, in fact there are several Georgia fans that would make a case for LSU not belonging in the game at all. Of course LSU lost to a team that was handled by a Big Ten team that was handled by OSU, so there goes the they lost to, they beat logic that you are using.

 

I would like to know what your method would be, and it better not have any flaws. A 64 team playoff isnt feasible in D1 football. Using all the conference champions doesnt make a whole lot of sense as many of the lesser conferences dont play a schedule as tough as any team in the BCS conferences. In any system you suggest, theres going to be a probability of opinion factoring in as well as chance that the game may not be good. Some teams will be left out, and that would essentially be the same situation we have now. Its all a guessing game and even the bowls do not offer a very level playing field. How many bowl teams played home games this year? USC, LSU, etc etc. Thats flawed in itself. D1 college football is one of the most difficult sports to not only handicap, but also judge quality of teams. Many teams do not venture outside of their home stadium during a regular season unless its required by conference play. Undefeated teams can be a joke (hawaii), smaller conference teams can upset large favorites (Boise St). Certain conference can have down years and still win big games. And some teams can look like one of the best teams ever and go down to an unheralded opponent. The only system that would possibly work as I see would be the playoff system involving teams that qualify for BCS bowls, of course this once again favors the bigger BCS conferences and people seem to want to see that advantage go away. Even with the Bowl week, then having the top two performers play a title game brings a large amount of opinion into the picture. USC is looking like a no doubter to be in that game this year and alot of that had to do with an opponent who not only played badly, but didnt belong in the bowl game in the first place.

[RockRaines]

Thats a huge problem with college football. If for whatever reason you have 1 bad game all of a sudden you arent in contention for a championship.

And yeah, I understand exactly what this is all about, because of the worst game my team played all year, people think that the conference as a whole is bad and that the team is overrated, and because of the worst they played all year, they couldnt win the championship.. Last years BCS title game.