Short Nerd Chief

ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski: Chaos doesn’t legitimize ignorance or stupidity of flawed system:

[SEC Commissioner Mike] Slive is a smart, well-intentioned administrator, but when he says, “I don’t see what I would call an NFL-style playoff in the offing,” someone needs to remind him that it isn’t an “NFL-style playoff” we’re talking about. It’s an NCAA-style playoff, the kind of elimination tournament seen in nearly every NCAA sport and every NCAA football division except Division I-A. SEC schools won two of those “NFL-style” playoffs last season. They’re called Final Fours.And when he says he’s looking “very, very hard [at] drilling down into that concept” of a Plus-One format (sort of a seeded, one-game playoff game after the bowls), he’s admitting the BCS has major imperfections. Otherwise, why bother?

Exactly.  Fact is, the BCS is the best system for determining the champion, except for all the others.  This season the BCS probably picked the two best teams, although even that’s not certain.  Is Ohio State better than Georgia?  Ohio State ended up with one loss, but its record includes wins over Youngstown State, Akron and Kent State.  OSU didn’t play a single game against a team ranked in the top 20 at the time (although Illinois certainly should have been, in hindsight).  Georgia lost to Tennessee and South Carolina, but they beat Alabama, Florida, Auburn and Kentucky.  Then again, Georgia also only beat 8-4 Troy by 10 points at home.  And what about USC, Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia or Missouri?  Any of those teams would give the Buckeyes or the Tigers a game, and one or two would probably win.

This year was more clear than some years (at least you don’t have more than two unbeatens), but it will never be so clear a playoff is unnecessary.  The usual arguments against a playoff are spurious at best:

1. That would mean too many games, or too much travel, or time away from class.  Tell that to the four remaining Division I-AA teams, which seem to be doing just fine.  Richmond and Appalachian State square off next weekend in the semifinals of their playoff, each sporting an 11-2 record.  If either goes on to win the championship, they’ll be 13-2.  If LSU beats Ohio State, they’ll be 12-2.  That one extra game can’t be that strenuous, and even if it is, the playoff would make the SEC championship game unnecessary, so you could have a playoff and keep the poor, tired Tigers at 14 games.  if you honestly believe that the BCS is better because it keeps Glenn Dorsey in class an extra day or two, you’re an idiot.
2. A playoff would increase the risk of injury.  This is really just the flipside of #1, and equally worthless.  Besides, are there really more injuries in I-AA than in I-A?  Any added injury risk from an extra game is more than made up for by the BCS system, which encourages coaches to leave their starters in blowout games to run up the score in order to impress voters and pad the BCS formula.
3. A playoff would make the regular season meaningless.  The regular season is already meaningless for all but two of the Division I-A schools.  Georgia’s season was essentially over in the second week when it lost to South Carolina.  Michigan’s season was over in the first week when it lost to Appalachian State.  Lose a starter to injury in week one and drop two games, and your championship hopes are out the window even if you finish 11-2.  The regular season would still have meaning, especially if the field was small, and all games but the championship game were played on campus.  The NFL playoffs include 12 of its 32 teams, but that didn’t make New England-Indianapolis or Dallas-Green Bay meaningless.
4. A playoff would deprive fans of something to argue about over beer.  I’ll give you that one, but it’s hardly reason to prefer the BCS.  I’ll also give you “a playoff would deprive the NCAA and its sponsors of money, as they wouldn’t be able to cherry-pick Notre Dame (most years) to increase $$ from the bowl game.”  Money is of course the great motivator.  It’s why Kansas got picked over Missouri for the Orange Bowl, and why a team like Hawaii has to go undefeated to play in a BCS bowl at all.

There is no justifiable reason that Division I-A football should be the only one of the 89 NCAA championships not decided entirely on the field.  None.