Posted by
reasonmclucus on Monday, January 09, 2012 4:32:16 AM
For the first time since the BCS held its first "national
championship" game after the 1998 season, there won't be any bowl
game that can realistically be portrayed as a "national championship"
game.
This
year's game can only be considered as giving the University of Alabama
an opportunity to avenge its loss against Louisiana State
University(LSU). The two schools can only play for the
championship of the western division of the Southeast
Conference(SEC). Alabama cannot even claim the championship
of the SEC from a victory because that would require Alabama to defeat
eastern division champion , the University of Georgia.
LSU cannot prove it deserves a national championship by defeating a
school it has already defeated, particularly a school that mostly
defeated the same schools that LSU defeated. LSU needs to
defeat the champion of another conference in the championship game to
prove it is the best team in the country
An Alabama victory would indicate the two schools are equal rather than
that Alabama is the best because they would each have one victory
over the other. A third game would be necessary to prove Alabama
was the better team. In those sports in which the champion must win
multiple games against the other team, the champion must win a majority
of the games.
The SEC will be the big loser in the game because it will lose its
undefeated record in the game regardless of which team wins. Alabama
and LSU are both undefeated in the so-called championship game. One of
them will lose that status.
The NCAA does allow a conference runner up to play the conference
champion for the national basketball championship, but only after the
challenger has defeated the other teams in its bracket to get into the
championship game.
The NFL allows the runner up in a division to play the division winner
in a conference championship but only after the runner up has defeated
two other teams. Two teams in the same division cannot play each
other in the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl participants must be from
different conferences.
Those who suffer from the delusion that a computer or sports writers,
etc can choose the best two teams ignore the fact that it isn't
unusual for teams rated by writers or computers to lose to
teams that are rated lower.
It's time for people to realize that the claim that a BCS bowl game is
for a national championship is just a public relations
gimmick. The only valid way to determine a national
football champion is for teams to earn their way into a championship
game by defeating other teams that aspire to be the national champion.
Determining a legitimate NCAA major college football champion wouldn't
necessarily require extending the college football season longer than
it is now with the phony BCS championship game. There
would need to be a way to get the number of teams playing for the
championship down to 8 for a 3-round tournament which could include
some of the existing bowl games.
With the ongoing conference changes, the number of conferences
could change in the next few years. Champions from smaller
conferences could play qualifying games after the end of the season,
possibly the same weekend some of the large conferences have their
championship games. The extra game would provide money for the
schools and their conferences.
The first round of the tournament could come just before Christmas or
be part of the New Year's day bowl games. Having the first round
on New Year's would be especially attractive for the Big 10 and Pac 12
because it would allow their champions to play in the Rose Bowl and
still participate in a championship tournament.
The college bowl games aren't nearly as important as they used to
be. Most of them are on cable because they don't attract
sufficient advertising to be worth a bidding war among the broadcast
networks like there is for the Super Bowl.
A true championship tournament could
be as popular as the NCAA basketball tournament is. At the very
least the schools participating in the tournament would make money for
themselves and their conferences.