Barring a surprise, the BCS will announce later today that Oklahoma and Florida will play for the National Championship on January 8th in Miami. Florida punched its ticket by beating previously undefeated Alabama while Oklahoma won the Big 12 Championship by beating Missouri. Both teams are worthy of playing for the title, but then so are a number of other teams and that is why we need a playoff system in college football.
Consider Texas, which beat Oklahoma when the two teams played on a neutral field. The only loss on their schedule came to Texas Tech in Lubbock on a last-second touchdown. Or USC, which lost to Oregon State on September 25th, but has been perfect since. Penn State’s only loss of the season was a 24-23 defeat in Iowa. What about Utah and Boise State, neither of whom has lost this season?
You can make an argument for nine different teams being worthy of a shot to win the title, but the BCS mandates that only two get the honor. College Presidents have been resistant of allowing a playoff system because of the disruption to the school year, but a “plus-one” system would alleviate those concerns. Under that plan the top four teams in the BCS standings would be seeded and then take part in a two-round tournament. It isn’t a perfect solution and you would still leave some deserving teams out of the picture, but it is a much better system than what we have today.
Photo, left, of Quentin Chaney with Morris Madu by AP/Charlie Riedel; Photo, right, of Tim Tebow by AP/Stephen Morton
