Ex-Editor V. Guru

BCS rankings or a playoff system?

The Ex:
Well apparently, the new President, Barack Obama, told Chris Berman on MNF last week that the one thing he could change in the sports world is the BCS into an eight-team playoff. At least I can say I agree with him about one thing. Think of all the buzz there was over Ohio State and USC earlier in the year. Everyone loves when there are two-ranked teams of that caliber playing each other out of conference. We have gotten kind of spoiled seeing #1 seed vs. whoever is going to be #1 seed next in the Big 12 this year though. But hey, it would be nice to see if USC can hold its own against SEC or Big 12 opponents. It shows what conferences are better, and if they do a system like it in NCAA Basketball with a bracket, why can’t they do it in college football too? You keep the BCS Rankings intact to keep the Top 8 teams in that bracket, but give more teams a chance at playing for and winning the national championship.

Guru:
This is a really tough question Ryan. Yes, it is easy to say that the rankings are inconsistent, fraudulent, and even unreliable. However, a playoff system may be the same. Think of this: in a playoff system you take the top eight teams, and seed them accordingly. Does this mean that the rankings are used to figure out the top eight and then there is a playoff system? Aren’t the rankings the problem? No. You keep the BCS rankings the way they are. It allows for the strengths of schedule of each team, and ranks accordingly. A playoff system would have to use something to determine the top eight. If the top eight unbeatens play, this does not take into account their strength of schedule. For instance, North Texas goes unbeaten and makes it over a one loss USC team? Doesn’t make sense, and neither does a playoff system in college football.