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January 4, 2000
Only money denies us atrue national championIt's finally time to play the game. College football's national championship will finally be decided tonight in the Sugar Bowl. And it's been awhile since No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Virginia Tech have played a game -- 45 days for the Seminoles, 39 days for the Hokies. So the players want to play. And the coaches are tired of trying to keep their players in hotel rooms and out of trouble. ABC will finally allow the matchup between Florida State and Virginia Tech to happen tonight. They would probably like to delay it a few more days, just to hype it a little more, although that's difficult to imagine. To call the promotion of tonight's game shameless would be kind. ABC and broadcasting partner ESPN have promoted it on the highlight shows and with live shots during halftimes. There were even cutaways while the other games were in progress. If we have learned nothing else this college football season, we should have learned this is what college football has indeed come to. We will see the winner of a game played by the two top-ranked teams, but whether the victor is truly a national champion can still be a matter for some conjecture. Declaring the winner a national champion assumes the two best teams are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the polls and/of the BCS rankings. Those are facts not in evidence. The case can be made the BCS formula that determines the showdown is, in fact, fair. After all, the formula takes into account not only the two polls, but computer rankings. But let's be honest. Any "formula" that uses the polls isn't that much different than using only the polls. Tonight's matchup is not much less contrived than previous "national championship" games. It still all comes down to money -- the BCS and the bowl games are money-making machines -- and they want the most attractive matchup. The only true way to determine a national champion is for the NCAA to do it the same way they do it in every other sport in Division I, and in every sport in every other division. We still need a playoff system in college football. Sixteen teams is really the largest manageable number of teams for a Division I college football playoff. The NCAA could select the top 16 teams nationally according to computer rankings, or could select teams by region, as is done in Division I-AA, Division II and Division III. Using a nationally-based playoff system would draw the ire of programs in the Northeast and the West. Basing selection upon national computer rankings would mean few, if any, teams from those two regions would participate on a consistent basis. A national system would simply take the top 16 teams -- regardless of location -- and seed them one through 16. Teams would play home-and-home at the highest seed until a champion is crowned. If it's absolutely necessary to have a neutral-site title game, you could schedule a championship game at a present-day bowl location, although I still believe that penalizes northern teams. Make the Floridas and Alabamas play in Madison or Lincoln in December. The regional route would allow less-than-worthy teams from the Northeast and the West regions to be sacrificial lambs in the first round of the playoffs. But those teams would be taking the place of worthy teams from tougher regions. In a playoff based on regional qualifying, the country would be split into four or eight regions. In a four-region bracket, four teams from each region would qualify; in an eight-region playoff, two from each region would make the playoffs. The NCAA should not use a hybrid regional playoff, much as it does in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Such a system is used by the NCAA to draw more teams out of regions than would otherwise qualify. Whether a region-based or national-based system is employed, the NCAA still stands to make a ton of money. In fact, the potential is there for even more money. But what about the bowls, with all their tradition and pageantry? Who cares. Bowl committees, bowl coalitions and now the BCS have done everything possible to prevent the determination of a true national champion. If there is still any sympathy (and interest) left for the bowls, remember, a playoff needs only 16 teams. That would leave plenty of teams available for those consolation bowl games.
Column by Bob Varmette, Journal sports writer
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