Living down here in the heart of SEC country, I have run into my share of die-hard college football fans. This time of year, my Facebook news feed is filled with the usual sentiments like, "Roll Tide!", "Geaux Tigers!", and "Hotty Toddy!" (although not that last one so much this year). I understand the enthusiasm. College sports instills a sense of pride in people that many pro teams can't (Pittsburgh Steelers not withstanding). It may be their Alma Mater, It may be a regional devotion, or it just may be that you like the coach or the tradation of the school. Whatever your reason is for following and rooting for a team, I'm sure it's legitimate. Therefore, what I am about to say will no doubt upset you.
NCAA Division 1A football, also known as the FCS, has never had a legitimate national champion. All the claims by various teams (including my own Alma Mater, Pitt) that they are 4-time or 7-time or 2-time national champs, are bogus. This is why I refuse to engage in any conversation about the national championship... because it's all bogus.
The reason it's bogus is because there has never been a system in place that produces a legitimate national champion without a heavy emphasis on computers, mathematical formulas or the opinions of sports writers and coaches. The only system that can produce a true national champion is one that has a playoff system with at least 16 teams.
It can be done. It is already done in other college football divisions, not to mention ALL of the other major college sports in all divisions. So why is football different? Money. The schools' football programs have too much at stake to give up a possible payday by playing in some meaningless game as a reward for losing half of their games. Pitt will be playing in Birmingham, AL this year against SMU and I really couldn't care less.
How many times have we filled out a 64-team bracket in the month of march and then had our hopes and dreams crushed as the number 1 seed that we picked to win it all was defeated? If the writers and computers picked the top 2 college basketball teams to play for the championship each year, we wouldn't see teams like Butler or Valpariso or Gonzaga make a name for themselves.
If 2 losses knocked you out of contention for the Super Bowl, then the New York Giants would have never had the chance to beat the Patriots and ruin their perfect season. The notion that the BCS championship game is the deciding game to determine a national champion is just plain ridiculous. Even a "Plus 1" scenario where you have essentially a three-team playoff is stupid.
A 16-team playoff will still utilize a computer system, perhaps even the existing BCS ranking system to pick the top 16 teams in the country and then the rest will be decided over a course of 4 weeks on the field. Please don't talk to me about the kids losing study time and how the lesser bowl games would suffer. The other football divisions do a playoff, so that destroys your argument about study time. As far as the other bowl games go, they can still pick whatever 6-6 teams they want to play against each other and have their little meaningless games. They can give the schools their million-dollar payday and everyone will be happy.
So, for now and for as long as it takes to bring a playoff system into the fold, I will put an asterisk next to all national champions in the record books. Even the 9-time* national champion Pittsburgh Panthers.
*Pitt has claimed 9 national championships. But there were actually 17 seasons in which Pitt could lay claim to the national championship or a share of the national chapionship depending on what of the several disputed systems were used. Kinda shows how messed up the system was and still is.
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