The Ultimate College Football Debate: Playoff System vs. BCS

By Greg Bernstein

The Mountain West Conference recently pitched its proposal for an eight team championship tournament to the BCS, and like every other tournament proposal, the BCS turned it down.  The Bowl Championship Series, which hosted its first bowl games in 1998, has been a hot topic for debate every year. Annually, teams like BYU and Utah make strong cases why they should be given a chance to compete for a championship, and predictably, neither team has ever been able to make a championship game. Most recently, a 12-0, MWC champion Utah only ascended to #6 in the BCS before eventually beating a strong Alabama team in the Sugar Bowl. The obvious argument is “why should an undefeated team not have a chance at a championship?” Although I do agree with the sentiment, the unfortunate reality is that the semantics don’t work. I’ll get to that point, but before I do, let’s examine the arguments for and against a tournament system as seen through the eyes of the competing schools:

Pro Arguments (from a team perspective):

• Undefeated teams will argue that they have done everything in their power to make a championship run. They have won all of their games; therefore, they should have a shot at a National Title.
• Schools will argue that one loss teams will now have a chance to compete for a championship.
• A playoff system would eliminate snubs. Schools that get left out of the championship game would now have a chance at a championship. Think 2004 Auburn Tigers or 2003 USC Trojans.

Con Arguments (from a team perspective):

• Teams in stronger conferences will say that they have much tougher schedules that warrant a higher reward when they win a high percentage of their games. Many will even go as far to say that a one loss team in a power conference is more accomplished than an undefeated team in any other conference. And guess what. They’re right.
• It might be true that non-power conference teams have scheduled difficult out of conference games to make up for their lacking strength of schedule. Even so, what’s winning one game against a ranked opponent when compared to winning three or four?
• A playoff system would eliminate the snubbing of the #3 team, but it would create an even bigger snub-fest of which teams got left out of the tournament. Don’t believe me? Look no further than college basketball. Sixty five teams are allowed to compete for a National Championship, and every year, numerous hours are wasted on analyzing the teams that should’ve gotten in.