I Love the BCS

Wait, that can't be right, can it? Did I just write that I love the Bowl Championship Series, the single most horrible way to decide on a national champion in any sport ever, can it be? Well, it be, and now I'll tell you why.


All the BCS has done is create controversy and debate. Our country was founded on debate, it's what makes the US great and what drives our nation, so why shouldn't college football be the same way? Sure, the debate we have as a nation usually leads to changes to the result the majority wants, which college football will never have, but it is still great to debate who should really be playing for the championship and who the eventual champion should be.

Since 1998 the BCS has used a combination of different polls (human and computer) and formulas to spit out a ranking for the top 15 teams in the country and eventually have the top 2 teams play in the national title game. It started out as a great idea, having a unanimous, unquestioned, undebatable national champion. Since the NCAA doesn't actually crown a national champion, the two major polls; the Associated Press poll (teams voted on by writers) and the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll (teams voted on by coaches) were responsible for crowning the national champion. Before 1998 the problem seemed to be the two polls seldom agreed on who the champ was, so there was always the debate over who the true champion was.

The only reason the two polls seldom agreed on a champion is because of conference contracts with certain bowls. Two really good undefeated teams would rarely end up playing in a bowl game against each other. So the BCS was created to match up the 2 best teams (hopefully) in a national title game. Unfortunately, because of how the formulas weighted certain games, in 2003, Oklahoma didn't win its conference, but still played for the championship and was soundly defeated. This lead to changes in the formula, which didn't really do anything to help, there was still great debate last season over who should even play in the game.

Why do I love the BCS then? Because no matter what system is in place, there will always be debate and controversy. The BCS just simplifies it because certain polls have to vote the national champion to be the BCS National Champion. In the year mentioned before, 2003, LSU was the BCS Champion and had to be the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll National Champion, because of a contract with the BCS. However, the other major poll, the AP Poll, voted Southern California its National Champion, because it wasn't obligated to vote for the BCS champion as its champ, giving us two champs when the BCS tells us we should only have one. Sound confusing? It is, but it's great to discuss.

The fans are never going to have the playoff most of us want, so we need to make due with what we have. The BCS is never going to be perfect, so let's just keep up the debate. After all, what would sports columnists and talking heads preach about during the college football season if there were no controversy? Think of how plain the columns and tv shows would be, Mariotti and Paige wouldn't have to call each other childish names, and Kornheiser and Wilbon would probably just drink tea and read the paper, who wants that?

Now that you know why I love the BCS, here's some great facts about college football champs, you may not know.

-You may also realize what I wrote above is just crap, and that a playoff is the only real way to crown a champion in anything. Although I do love the debate college football brings about, it really needs a playoff. It at least needs the NCAA to step in and crown the National Champion and not let it up to polls to figure out who the best team is.


Division 1A college football has been crowning a National Champion every year since 1869 (with 1871 as the only exception) and not once has the team been recognized as a national champion by the NCAA. Since 1869, any combination of 33 different polls and ranking systems have been used to determine the champion. The oldest poll is the Dunkel System which has been used since 1929.

Because of the use of so many polls, there have only been 26 unanimous national champions (which is the ultimate goal). Sure, 4 of those unanimous champions have been named in the 7 times the BCS National Title game has been played, but 3 times there have still been multiple champs. By the way, the team with the most unanimous championships...Yale, with 9.

The unanimous champs have been:

2004: Southern California
2001: Miami
2000: Oklahoma
1999: Florida State
1995: Nebraska
1972: Southern California
1971: Nebraska
1963: Texas
1948: Michigan
1942: Notre Dame
1917: Georgia Tech
1909: Yale
1900: Yale
1892: Yale
1891: Yale
1890: Harvard
1889: Princeton
1888: Yale
1887: Yale
1885: Princeton
1883: Yale
1882: Yale
1878: Princeton
1876: Yale
1873: Princeton
1870: Princeton

(It's no wonder those Yale/Harvard matchups used to mean something)

Every other year, at least one other team was crowned the national champion by some poll or ranking system. In 1980, '73, '70, '60, '51, '35, and 1921, there were 5 champions crowned by different parties, and in 1981, Clemson, Nebraska, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Texas, and Southen Methodist were all voted as National Champions. Hell, I'll bet that many of you didn't know that in 1942 the Helms Athletic Foundation voted Wisconsin as the National Champion. That's right, Wisconsin has a natioanl championship in football!

Even after the BCS crowned its first Champion in 1998, Tennessee; Ohio State was voted the champion by the Sagarin Ratings, in 2002 BCS Champ Oklahoma shared the title with Southern California, voted as champion by Dunkel, Matthews, and Sagarin, and I already discussed 2003 BCS Champ LSU sharing its title with USC.

Basically, without a playoff, we will never all agree on who the number 1 team in college football is at the end of the season. Since the NCAA takes in so much money per year through college football, why can't they just take over and crown a true National Champion?

(Here's the link to all of the National Champions since 1869, which polls/rankings voted for them, and what makes up the different polls)

-Until next time...