If Alabama beats LSU tonight – and the Crimson Tide is a 11/2-point favorite – a national championship trophy will be awarded to a team that failed to qualify for the title game of its own league.
I know, there were extenuating circumstances: Alabama played LSU to a regulation-time tie during the regular season, then lost by a field goal in overtime.
A formula that combines the opinions of human pollsters with computer data has determined the Tide potentially deserving of the BCS championship.
Still, there’s something wrong when the second-place finishers in the SEC West are in position to identify themselves as “Best Team in the Land.”
Best team? What about Oklahoma State? Its only defeat was to Iowa State, on the road, by a field goal, in double overtime.
What about Oregon? Sure the Ducks lost to LSU in their opener, in Dallas, and later to USC. But, hey, they won the Pacific-12 championship. Besides, LSU won the national title in 2008 with two losses.
If Alabama wins tonight, the groans heard in Stillwater and Eugene will make the plaintive wails of Axl Rose sound like sparrow chirps.
The frustrating thing about the status-quo system is that it’s fixable. Not fixable to the point of perfection, mind you, but fixable. Here are three easy steps that could bring playoff electricity to the postseason while preserving the relevance of bowl games.
Step One: Restore the luster of the major bowls. I mean, Michigan-Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl? It turned out to be a close game – the Wolverines won with the help of a replay review in overtime – but neither school deserved to be showcased in the Sugar Bowl. Same with Clemson-West Virginia in the Orange Bowl.
If I were appointed grand imperial czar of college football, I’d see to it that the major bowls maintained traditional conference affiliations: The Big Ten and Pacific-12 champs in the Rose Bowl, the SEC champs versus an at-large selection in the Sugar Bowl, the Big 12 champs versus an at-large in the Orange Bowl, and two more at-large teams (preferably one from Texas or Arkansas) in the Cotton Bowl. (Sorry, Fiesta Bowl, but the Cotton Bowl is more storied. Besides, as grand imperial czar of college football, I’m making the rules.)
Step Two: After the major bowls are played on New Year’s Day, seed the four winners – the BCS formula is fine – with the idea of pitting the No. 1 seed against the No. 4 seed in one semifinal, and the No. 2 seed against the No. 3 seed in the other semifinal.
Most college presidents, wary of dismantling the bowl-game structure that has proven so lucrative for their schools over the decades, are opposed to any kind of playoff. It’s a legitimate concern: Fans from, say, Oregon are less inclined to invest in a Rose Bowl trip if there’s a playoff game in New Orleans or Phoenix looming down the road.
My solution? Schedule both semifinals and the national-championship game at the home stadiums of the higher seeds. This guarantees sellouts, without mitigating the desire of fans to travel to a bowl game.
The knee-jerk retort to holding playoff games at campus sites is that it would provide an advantage to the home team. Well, duh. Home field generally is worth about a three-point swing in football.
But if home-field advantage is such a travesty, why does the NFL use it for every playoff game except the Super Bowl? For that matter, why do Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL use it for all postseason games?
Seems to me there’s an old-fashioned trick to avoiding the hostile environment of a playoff assignment on the road: Win all your games, as LSU did. The odds of two teams finishing the regular season undefeated are steep. Three teams going undefeated? Those odds are beyond prohibitive.
Step Three: Advocate some common sense for college administrators fearful of extending an already long season. (Bowl teams that participate in conference championships play 14 games.)
We’re talking about four teams playing a 15th game, and two teams playing a 16th game. If that puts too much of a physical and emotional toll on 20-year-old student-athletes, then stop with the conference championships. The ramifications of eliminating these money-making shams will be soothed by a playoff that generates 10 times as much revenue.
Furthermore, how much stress is there? Until 1964, when the college season usually was limited to 10 games, most starters played offense and defense. Was a 10-game schedule that required 60 minutes of participation any more benign than a 15 or 16-game schedule requiring 30 minutes of participation?
By the way, it’s not against NCAA regulations for coaches to put some of their reserves to work in blowouts. The typical college football roster contains more extras than the cast of “Braveheart,” and yet in October, Houston quarterback Case Keenum was still on the field in the fourth quarter against Rice, throwing touchdown passes – he finished with nine – presumably to stave off an Owls comeback.
Houston won, 73-34.
Back to Alabama-LSU: Given their credentials as SEC powerhouses, it’s not too unreasonable to envision the rivals facing each other, in a hypothetical playoff scenario, a few weeks after the bowl season. It’s not unreasonable to regard the Tide as worthy national champions.
What’s unreasonable is that Oklahoma State, Oregon and even Boise State – each formidable teams undone by a ill-timed defeats, as Alabama was – have been denied a say in the national-championship discussion.
There’s a solution to this mess, but it won’t be implemented until college football is overseen by a grand imperial czar.
While I’m not sure I’d take that job, I’ve learned never to say never.
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
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