I never thought I'd say this, but I am actually going to be rooting for Nebraska for once.
No, the Cornhuskers don't deserve the shot to play for the national title, nor are they even the best team in their own conference.
The flaws of the Bowl Championship Series are obvious for the second straight year. Last year it was Miami and Washington, this year it is Oregon and Colorado. And the list grows of teams who were squeezed out of a shot at the national title by the BCS system.
Originally created in 1998 to crown a clear- cut National Champion, the BCS has produced as much controversy as it has clarity.
With a Nebraska win over Miami in the Orange Bowl, it is very likely that the Associated Press Poll and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll would each have a different No. 1 selection. This is the exact reason for the formation of the BCS'to eliminate a split in the polls by having a distinct championship game.
We can only hope that a Nebraska victory over Miami in the Rose Bowl could be the final straw for the current BCS system. This year, more so than any other, it's clear that the only fair way to decide the champion is to get rid of the complicated BCS formulas and computer rankings and have the title won on the field through a tournament playoff.
The AP and Coaches polls say Oregon is the No. 2 team in the nation. The BCS rankings say it's Nebraska, but Colorado beat Nebraska 62-36 and rank No. 3 in the BCS by a fraction of a point behind the Cornhuskers.
The only way to settle this controversy and to stop it from reoccurring in the future is to implement a playoff system. What college football needs right now is a return to simplicity and purity. The game should be won on the field, not through human voting and computer-generated numbers. The BCS has taken the element of surprise out of college football, shaping the game to cater to the interests of television networks, corporate sponsors and conference commissioners.
The BCS was founded as an agreement between the six major conferences and the four major bowls. The six major conferences are guaranteed at least one automatic berth in one of the four BCS bowls. According to the BCS Web site, each representative team from the six conferences will receive between $11.78 million and $14.67 million for a BCS appearance. The other two bowl berths are at-large berths. The at-large berth teams receive $6 million and the rest of the remaining purse is divided up between the member conferences.
Although the BCS tinkered slightly with the system this past off-season, it's doubtful that any drastic changes will be made anytime soon. The BCS contract was recently extended to the 2006 bowl season, and this current setup is the most profitable for the six major conferences and their member institutions.
When the BCS is said and done this season, each of the member conferences of the BCS will have received over $17 million through the participation of their member institutions. Similar amounts are guaranteed to the member conferences through the BCS every year.
The site also notes that the BCS will donate $40 million over its eight-year history to nonparticipating BCS institutions to \support the game of college football.""
If the coordinators of the BCS, including the commissioners of the six major conferences, want to continue to ""support the game of college football,"" there is a better solution. Restore the purity and dignity of college football and do what is fair to fans and players: a playoff tournament.
