Let the National Championship Debate Begin (Again)

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Let the National Championship Debate Begin (Again)

Filed on January 7th, 2008 in NCAA Football ⋅ ⋅

Now that the BCS Championship game is upon us, it’s time for everyone to stand up and bitch about the system once again. From this idiot at Deadspin saying that Georgia should have already locked up a share of the title, to the idiots at the BCS who are genuinely considering a “plus-one” format — which may be the worst idea in college football history.

Let me start with the cat from Deadspin — Dan Shanoff. He uses genius logic to come up with gems like “If they had the chance to play LSU in Atlanta, don’t you think UGA would have won?” Sure, that’s a good way to choose a champion. I got news for you Shanoff, they had the chance to play LSU in Atlanta, but they couldn’t beat Tennessee! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, can we please stop with the SEC hog-sucking, and recognize that they are no better as a conference than any other conference. You can look at Florida and Arkansas’ embarrassing bowl losses to recognize that the SEC is not perfect. Florida lost as 10-point favorites to a Michigan team that mustered three points against Ohio State, and Arkansas got absolutely embarrassed by Missouri.

Let me make this clear, Georgia deserves absolutely no part of any national championship. They had their chance to represent the SEC East, but lost on the field. You can’t ask for a better chance than that. Shanoff goes on to explain how LSU will romp tonight, based on their defense being better than Florida’s last year, and Ohio State’s offense being worse then they were last year. Solid logic. No mention that LSU gave up twice as many points as Ohio State did this year, or that LSU allowed 24 points or more in six of their last eight games (Ohio State gave up 24 a total of one time). And before you come back with the “SEC offenses” argument, remember that Mississippi and Auburn did not have good offenses, no matter how you measure them. So enough of this SEC crap — Georgia didn’t deserve it at any point all year, and LSU’s defense is a myth that is not supported by any statistics. That’s right up there with the notion that Ohio State didn’t play anyone all year. (Ask Florida about Michigan) Hell, only five teams scored double digits on them all year. Give them the respect they deserve.

Apparently, losing to Florida last year negated everything else that the Buckeyes have accomplished in recent years. It doesn’t matter that prior to last year’s loss, the Buckeyes had won four straight bowl games, including three BCS games and a National Championship. I’ll tell you — nobody has less knowledge of college football than your typical SEC fan. And Notre Dame fans.

As for the “plus-one” morons — these are people that just don’t get it. You can’t remodel the system to fix what was wrong one year and expect it to work in another year. What happens in the year with two undefeated major conference teams in a plus-one format? They get screwed. Those are years that they should just play each other and crown a winner.

Let me give you a quick example. USC and LSU go undefeated. Ohio State and Texas have one loss each. Rather than USC and LSU playing for the title, they would have to play OSU and Texas instead. USC beats Texas, and Ohio State beats LSU (hypothetically). So undefeated USC plays Ohio State in the title game and loses. So you end up with two one-loss teams, and two two-loss teams. How is this better than letting the two undefeated teams play each other?

Right now, they are tossing around the idea of a “final four.” This would take the top four teams and have them play a mini-tournament to determine a champion. Why not just suck it up and go to a playoff, as is so sorely needed?

“A lot of people look at it and say … maybe it would be better if more than two teams had the opportunity to play for the national championship,” said John Swofford, ACC commissioner. You think? Some people think more than two teams should play for the title. What would you call that? A playoff? Apparently no — it would be a “plus-one” or a “final four”.

If you take a retarded system and tweak it, it’s still retarded. The system that will work is so plain, simple and clear, but these greedy morons can’t see it. The plus-one system will penalize the teams that are truly deserving, and all it does is offer a masking solution for the years where not everyone agrees. Kind of like what a playoff does, only a playoff is infinitely more fair. For the record, here’s what my playoff system would have come up with for this year.

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