Next Question Please

Here is the next question in the ongoing BCS debate with Derek.

“Please excuse me if I time out while writing this. We only have dial-up connections where I'm from...You often say the regular season is a tournament with one loss eliminating teams from a shot at the championship like the basketball tournament in March. However last year my team went through the season undefeated and still did not warrant a chance at the national championship? What would you say to teams who do not get to schedule 9 games against schools with 40,000 students and play in the Mountain time zone with little tv coverage unless we play on a Tuesday afternoon, but go through their season without a loss. Is the national championship closed to us forever? And if so why are we a division 1-A program?”

D. Hawkins- Boise, ID

The plight of mid-major conferences is the biggest thorn in the side of the BCS. I think we can all agree that mid-major conferences generally have less talent than the bigger conferences, or else they'd be the teams in the major conferences. But there are rare circumstances (like last season) when teams like Boise State and Utah go undefeated through the regular season, and the inability to deal with that is the biggest failing of the current system. But here are a couple points to keep in mind.
1) With a playoff a mid-major conference team would qualify about as often as such a team earns a BCS spot now, which is to say very rarely.
2) The bowl system would be weakened further by a playoff, as 7 out of 28 bowls would be given greater importance, instead of just one taking center stage. That means less money and prestige for the other 42 bowl teams, of which in most seasons you would be one.
3) This is just a guess but if 8 teams make a playoff that lowers the standard. Which means major conference teams with weak non-conference schedules could still make the playoff, disincentivizing scheduling good mid-major teams during the regular season, which is also is bad news for you.
That's a long answer to a simple question. So let me break it down. I feel your pain but don't think you'd be much better off under a playoff. Next time you want to go undefeated do it in a season where aren't any undefeated big conference schools, like 2003.