Plus-one wouldn’t work
Instead of adopting a system of playoffs, which most fans, players, coaches and university presidents want — and which, of course, makes sense — there has been a lot of talk about adding a “plus-one” game to determine a national champion in college football.
In other words, after all the bowl games are played, two teams would be selected to play in one more game for the ultimate crown. The idea is seen as a compromise, not quite a playoff but something close, something to appease us simple folk who like our sports decided on the field.
Problem is, a plus-one wouldn’t work either.
Sure, it might help out in some years. But all you have to do is look at the current 2007-08 season to see a plus-one would be nothing more than another inadequate BCS “tweak.”
USC, Georgia, Missouri, West Virginia and Kansas all have cases to be in a playoff that would include the winner of Monday’s game in New Orleans between LSU and Ohio State. Even if you throw out the last three teams, which lost at the end of the regular season and are perceived as weak (their main flaw is they’re not traditional powers), you’re still left with four national title contenders.
LSU, Ohio State, USC, Georgia.
After Monday’s game it will be down to three. A plus-one would solve nothing.
With several of the bowls that have been played, we’ve already begun what could be a great playoff. As Southern California coach Pete Carroll said, “It would sure be fun to keep on playing and hash this thing out.”
If you’re going to tell me with a straight face that USC and Georgia blew their chances at a national title because they lost in October, there’s this fantastic padded room I’d like to show you. College football is the only sport in which it doesn’t matter if you develop into a great team — because what you did in Week 4, when your redshirt freshman DB was still learning coverages, outweighs what you become.
Remember the movie Hoosiers? An all-time classic. Good it wasn’t about college football because that team lost early — and to lowly East Muncie High for god’s sakes!
Besides, if anyone doesn’t deserve to be in the conversation it’s Ohio State, which played one of the lightest schedules of any major team and lost its second-to-last game of the season. At least two-loss LSU played against the big boys. On the other hand, even though the Georgia Bulldogs “didn’t even win their own conference” (which suddenly figures into the BCS equation now?) they only lost one game, not two, and they played against the SEC big boys. And would you really pick against USC right now?
But forget all those debates, because they don’t really matter.
The bottom line is we won’t get to see these teams play each other. That’s the real crime. So don’t tell me “the regular season is the playoffs,” because it obviously is not.
Even if you wanted to play sports on paper — which is never a good idea — you can’t. There is no so-and-so beat so-and-so, who lost to so-and-so, so…. Some of these teams didn’t even have common opponents.
Plenty of arguments can be made for maintaining the BCS system, but there are no good arguments against a playoff.
The notion that more football would be bad doesn’t really fly with most football fans. Logic and love of the sport seem to get in the way, especially when you’re talking about a small number of elite teams fighting it out for a national title. (Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Oh, the horror!)
None of the tweaks and changes to the BCS system work. It was only a year ago when the BCS National Championship Game became a separate entity and already it is insufficient. But the primary goal in college football isn’t winning, it’s money. At the expense of all else. That’s why winning a major conference guarantees the money of a BCS bowl berth but not necessarily a chance to keep playing for a national crown.
Yet people with a hand in the pie are making more money than ever with the current, so-called championship game, right? And a plus-one would add to the pot. So imagine adding even more games! They could be called… The BCS Playoffs.
Ah, see it sparkle! Click your heels three times. Feel the way it rolls off your tongue.
All of a sudden, BCS would cease to be a four-letter word. The overwhelming majority of fans would be happy, and money would flow like beer on Bourbon Street.
