Let me start by saying that I am huge football fan who was
taught the game by a father who wanted boys but had all girls. My earliest
influence in life was Lawrence Taylor. I wanted to tackle people and take them
down in the way that he did. I broke my
first bone in sixth grade playing football. For clarification, the other player
was in my way so I ran over her.
Over the years, my Sundays were filled with hours of
football, but my Saturdays not so much.
In the past, I only watched college football, when I was in
college. I would get up on Saturday
morning, get dressed and walk across the street to Bridgeforth Stadium at James
Madison University. That was all the college football I knew or wanted to know.
It was what you did in college; support your team whether good or bad. I knew
several guys on the team and I was there to cheer them on. After college, my interest was no more. However, after dating a college football
fanatic for several years, I have totally submerged myself into the chaotic and
sometimes dramatic world of Bowl Championship Series football.
One Saturday after slaving over a keyboard, I came home to
news of my Alma mater winning the 2004 Division I-AA National Football Championship
(now known as the Football Championship Subdivision or FCS). I was elated and almost jumped through the
roof, but I felt I missed the best part of the win: the entire season. I had ignored college football because it just
wasn’t significant to me anymore, until that day. After that win, I began to watch how college
football unfolds every season. I noticed how passionate people in Georgia
behave about “their” college teams. The
flags on cars and houses, the big stickers on back windows; college football
was serious business. I had been missing out for years, but now I understood
the pride and excitement felt after winning a championship.
I made a conscious decision that I was going to learn as
much as I could about college football. And the first thing I had to attack
were the letters and numbers that my boyfriend continued to toss around. He
frequently referred to the BCS, SEC, Big 12, Pac -10, Big Ten and ACC. I recognized the ACC as the Atlantic Coast
Conference only because I grew up a Duke Basketball fan. I had to assume that they had football teams
as well. So I took to the internet for
my in depth research, starting with this BCS thing that I heard people complain
about all the time.
For people who have been living under a rock as I was, the
BCS or Bowl Championship Series determines each year which college team is the
best in the country. There are a few factors that decide who gets to play in
this championship. First, the top two
teams get automatic berths into the National Championship game. So if by the end of November, your team is not
ranked number one or two; the national championship is not in your future. Secondly, only certain conferences are guaranteed
berths to the BCS games. So if your team is not a part of the ACC, Big 12, Big
East, Big Ten, Pac-10 or the SEC, again there is no national championship in
your future. I didn’t understand why the
BCS/Division I schools couldn’t create some sort of playoff system? I watched
the NCAA basketball tournament every year and that seems to work well.
These first two rules alone narrow the field greatly and
also saturate the BCS top ten with certain conferences. The rankings of each team are determined by the
AP poll, Coaches poll and a computer average. I know that reads like a lot of
jibber jabber, but these rules and calculations are responsible for millions of
dollars being awarded to colleges every year. In my BCS virgin mind, there had to be a
simpler way.
I asked my friend Dominick Brady what he thought about a
playoff system and he denied that there was a need for one. The self professed UGA/SEC football fanatic
feels that a team’s season is the playoff.
“Every game means everything, every week. It’s a roller
coaster and I enjoy the ride.”
I was convinced that his love for the SEC and the fact that
a school in that conference has won the national championship four out of the
last five years jaded his view of the BCS.
He assured me that was not the case at all.
“'I’d be a fan of the BCS anyway because in the FBS
(Football Bowl Subdivision), the season is so much fun. Every week is do
or die. Each week all of the teams in the top 25 have some sort of shot
to make it into the mix. All they have to do is win.”
After talking to him about the BCS, I started to rethink my
views on the FCS playoff. The FCS currently has 125 teams that are eligible to
participate in the playoff. Every week the teams are ranked in a top 25 poll based
on their weekly performance. This is
very similar to the BCS format but at the end of the season a field of 20 teams
participates in the playoffs. It is a win or lose situation; win and you move
on, lose and you go home. There are
several schools in Georgia who could possibly be a part of these playoffs. And
now that Georgia State has a football team and Kennesaw State following them in
2014, who is to say that a FCS national championship would not be in the future
for the state of Georgia.
Based on popularity, the BCS is well known and generates the
most money, but the FCS gives more teams an opportunity to bring home a
national championship and bragging rights. In your opinion, which system do you
think would work better for college football?
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