Editorial Final Draft

For me, there is nothing better on a Saturday in the fall than watching the Wisconsin Badgers play a game at Camp Randall Stadium. For many college football fans, this same mentality is shared for their favorite team. Like many sports, there are many hot button issues in the game and in college football, no topic heats up more argument than the BCS bowl system. For those who don’t know, the BCS stands for the Bowl Championship Series. The reason is because in the past couple of years, schools from smaller conferences have been going undefeated and not played in the National Championship game when they and others feel like they deserve it. Look, the BCS is not perfect and yes some teams get the short end of the stick, but like it or not, historically the BCS has been fair and it works.
People first talk about how unfair the BCS is and how it is near impossible for small schools to even be considered to play for the title. But it is possible for them; they just need to be able to beat high profile schools like USC and Texas. A high school football team could probably go undefeated in college football if they play some of these teams that schools like TCU and Boise State play. Not to mention that there are dozens of polls, like the coaches and media polls that go into consideration to calculate a BCS average. Also, teams are graded by numerous factors in determining how good teams match up with each other, including strength of schedule, conference strength, road wins, not just your record.
Another thing that has pissed me off is when people say that the BCS has never worked because the wrong teams have been chosen to play for the National Championship. Just look back at the past national title games and see who has played. I can only think of maybe one or two times, with Ohio State in 2007 and LSU in 2003, where it was somewhat questionable that a team was playing for the title. And for the fact that teams in the non-automatic qualifying conferences have a completely “impossible” journey to even be considered for a national title, which is very untrue. If those teams want to throw their names into the hat, then I have one suggestion for them, BEAT THE BEST TEAMS. Boise State is taking that chance in going in extremely hostile Oregon next year and if they win that game, they will definitely be look at on a much higher level because they beat a tough team on the road.
Like I said before, though it is not perfect, it is working. If teams perform highly during the season by playing against tough competition, then the BCS will reward you over other teams. Hopefully the whole get rid of the BCS madness will end soon so then we can stick to just watching our favorite teams and cheering them on to victory.