Enough with this failed experiment. Let’s settle the championship of our most popular college sport the way we do all others: on the field with a playoff system.
The Bowl Championship Series, a 6-year-old scheme that uses polls, mathematical formulas and computers to decide which two college football teams will play for the national title, didn’t work because it couldn’t work. This season is a perfect example: No major team finished the regular season unbeaten, and three finished 11-1. Since three teams can’t play at the same time, one gets left out. This time, it’s the University of Southern California, which was ranked No. 1 by the two leading human polls but fell to No. 3, behind Oklahoma and LSU, after the computers weighed in.
University presidents have long opposed a playoff system, not wanting to jeopardize the cash pipeline that bowl games provide. But there’s every reason to believe that an eight-team playoff, using current bowl games as quarterfinal and/or semifinal rounds, could generate even more interest. (Think of NCAA basketball’s March Madness, then turn up the hysteria a few notches.)
Decide the college football championship on a gridiron, not a hard drive.
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