Did you know that division one college football is the only college sport that doesn’t have a playoff system? If you follow college football, then you are already aware of this travesty. College football’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system needs to be changed because in many situations, there is not a clear-cut national champion, and is unfair to mid-major and smaller conferences. The current BCS is conspired by a set of computers that take many things into account in deciding who is number one, two and so on. The BCS takes in strength of schedule, wins, amount by which you won the game, and other things to determine who will play in five games, the National Championship, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. The six biggest conferences, 66 teams, always have a set spot in the BCS system as their conference winner will always have a spot in a BCS game. One slot is set aside for ‘non BCS’ schools, such as the Mountain West Conference. The system is too complicated and shows a brighter side to, “human error.”

The BCS system does not work properly as it does not determine an undisputed national champion consistently, and leaves deserving teams out of a chance for a national title. In 2004 the LSU Tigers went 13-1 and at the end of the postseason they were ranked # 1 in the coaches poll. But that same year, the USC Trojans went 13-0, and were ranked # 1 in the Associated Press Poll. This means that there was a tie as who was the national champion that year. There cant be a tie in the national championship, right?

In 2007 the Boise State Broncos went undefeated during the regular season and then went on to beat an Adrian Peterson led Oklahoma Sooners in one of the best games in college football history. At 13-0, they got at least a share of the national title right? Absolutely not. Poor Boise State was cheated out of a national championship share-let alone an entire title-because a series of computers didn’t like their “strength of schedule”. Boise State player’s coaches and fans were left wondering

Another case was handed to us just this year. Utah beat four ranked teams, crushing Alabama, and still did not have a chance to be champs. Utes quarterback Brian Johnson said, “What else could we have done?” The answer is to change conferences; it is the only way a mid-major school will EVER win a national championship in college football, with the current BCS system. Sorry Boise State, sorry Utah but your not in an exclusive club called “66 of 119: Were just better”. These are all great examples why the system is flawed, and something needs to be changed.

If the system is so bad, why hasn’t it been changed already? How would they go about a playoff system? The BCS hasn’t been removed due to the revenue and ignorance of university presidents. They receive great amounts of money for their university with television contracts and overall revenue that the game brings. The BCS makes over 100 millions dollars annually on the five games played, with that number growing each year. The NCAA, the BCS heads, major university presidents, network television heads and conference commissioners would have to meet for a very long time and work out the kinks in negotiations for this at all to be possible. These people really have no incentive to change, they have their money now, and they are happy with it, changing is scary, as they are not one hundred percent sure that they will get the same ridiculous amount.

There is still hope for a successful college football postseason. There has been calling by many for a college football playoff system, especially for the past few years now. Even President-Elect Barack Obama has showed support for the idea of a division I college football playoff system. A lot of talk has been made about this-but talk is easy. I believe that the best thing for college football fans, players, coaches, university presidents and television network heads is an eight game playoff system.

Why eight teams? Let’s be honest, sixteen teams would be too big of a time span and too many games would have to be played. It would be too overwhelming physically for teams to have to play that many games. I also think that it would be too big of a time span for these STUDENT-athletes, they would miss class. Eight teams is a perfect number of schools. Browsing over the last few years’ rankings after week fourteen, there is little dispute about who would be in the top eight.

A great thing about having eight teams is it is not too overwhelming for a school or its players. The playoffs are started the third week in December then the next two Saturdays, so it actually ends the season sooner that before, leaving time for students to prepare for the spring semester. I also think that this would end the interference college football encounters with the National Football Leagues playoffs.

The first four games are called whatever you like; I’d prefer the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowls, for traditions sake. Then the two semi-final games can either be generic names, or they can be bought for millions of dollars by big corporations like the other bowls have been. This system creates extra revenue because of television contracts that help universities, the NCAA, and those same television networks. Another great thing about the system is that it actually determines a clear, undisputed national champion every single year, which is really the point of it all.

Another key point of the system would be is that there is no subjugation of conferences, meaning that whatever teams are the in the top eight after week fourteen, get into the playoff system. One dispute that I foresee with it is that the eighth ranked team that gets in may have some controversy. Some say that people will not travel to their team, which I disagree with completely. When the University of Wyoming got invited to the Las Vegas Bowl in 2004 against the UCLA Bruins, there were more Wyoming fans than there were UCLA fans. You cannot tell me that fans wouldn’t follow their team, especially if it is an exciting playoff system.

And don’t give me that garbage that “The integrity of the regular season would be lost.” Are you kidding me? Studying the previous years top 8 teams there is a bagel in the column where two loss teams are. That’s enough incentive to try and win every single game, or you have a big chance of not making the playoffs, hello Texas Tech. Youd don’t think thee schools want the number one seed? Look at the NCAA tourney last year, all number seeds (it matters). And you don’t think these kids have pride? Having an undefeated season is unbelievable experience for anybody, especially for the prominence it would bring to the schools. The regular season would not lose an ounce of veracity; teams have too much to play for.

College football’s postseason is in shambles. How do we begin to rebuild? With the eight team playoff systems I proposed earlier, there would be more games to be shown that are more television contracts, aka more money for everyone. Start off by implementing a playoff system that is attractive to not only fans, but network and university, and conference heads as well. As president elect Barack Obama would say, “YES WE CAN!”