College Football is broken indeed, but it has nothing to do with the fact that teams from six conferences and Notre Dame are the only ones with a 'clear' path to the Championship game. The problem IS NOT the BCS! The real problem is that the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) is littered with teams that do not belong there. Boise State clearly is not one of those teams! Most of the teams in its current conference, the WAC, are (except for Fresno St.). Their next one, the Mountain West, is only slightly better with BYU and Utah leaving the conference.
Pre-season polls are the other major problem with college football because they influence the opinion of the human polls throughout the season, doing things like giving the Broncos a fast track to the title game should they remain undefeated. I believe, however, that a more even field allows the pre-season polls to better correct themselves.
The upcoming conference re-alignments provide the perfect opportunity to correct whats ailing the game, let's get rid of the teams that do not belong. This improves the quality of the game all around, we not only get a more accurate championship game, we get a better season all around! It also gives teams that are unable or unwilling to invest the resources it takes to be competitive in FBS to actually be competitive in another division. There would be absolutely no backlash to Boise State playing for the National Championship if their schedule wasn't littered with the Utah States and NMSUs of the world.
This is not to insult teams in mid-major conferences, but there is an extremely high level of delusion out there regarding teams' ability to compete. Sure Boise State and Utah can compete with and beat teams from BCS conferences, but why is it that pro-playoff BCS bashers always seem to forget that Hawaii was slaughtered by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl? I'm not going to list which teams I think should be cut from FBS, that's obviously the hard part, but I'm not proposing a drastic cut, going from 120 to 100 schools would make a big difference.
An even more awesome solution would be to cap it at 100 and promoting champions from other divisions while dropping bottom feeders on a regular basis, the way many soccer leagues function. Like that would ever happen!
Bottom line: I don't think BCS supporters deserve to have Boise State crash the championship game to teach us a lesson in fairness. I think playoff proponents deserve to have Boise State in the championship game, maybe even against a team from that other media darling, the SEC. The result will hopefully shut them up for a couple of weeks.
A college football playoff is a popular idea, and that is because the sports media wants to condense the sport into a neat little package that can be sold to the masses every December the way March Madness is sold. Real college football fans: Texas fans, Alabama fans, Florida fans, USC fans, Ohio State fans, Michigan fans, Boise State fans, and all other fans that have something to root for other than their bracket, think a playoff system is a bad idea. The college football season is the most perfect season in sports because every game matters.
Week 1 Predictions:
- #2 Ohio State -28.5 over Marshall - OSU had an opening day scare last year against Navy, but they're coming out of the gates to prove they belong at #2, Marshall lost 52-10 at Va Tech last year, a good comparable.
- #15 Pitt +3 at #24 Utah - Pitt has a hell of a team, they're my pick to win the Big East
- #14 USC -22 at Hawaii - 22 points is a real bargain here, HI can't score like they once did
- #4 Texas -30.5 over Rice - UT playing a home game at Reliant Stadium
- Michigan -3 over UConn - Rich Rod's redemption year begins
- Mizzou -11.5 over Illinois - Last year Missouri crushed Illinois on the road in their 'transition' year, I expect them to be better this year
- #16 LSU (pick) over #18 UNC - Expected to be a close game, LSU wins on home field advantage
- Northwestern -5.5 at Vanderbilt - Vandy has a new coach, Northwestern has a very good one
- #12 Wisconsin -20.5 at UNLV - Wisconsin is another team that starts the season with something to prove
- Texas Tech -14 over SMU - SMU is a team on the rise, but I think Tech approaches this game as a must win to start the Tuberville era
- #6 Virginia Tech +2 over #5 Boise State - If someone's tired of hearing about how great Boise State is and how they're going to the championship game, its Va Tech. I do think its a close one.
-Kanan
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