Fixing the BC-mesS

I wonder if the Big 12 will really be able to stay together. Will it become the Big 10 and will the Big 10 become the Big 12?
I wonder if anyone will read this whole thing because it is kind of long.
Anyway, whenever the carousel stops turning it will be a perfect opportunity for the NCAA and the BCS to fix what’s wrong with college football’s method of determining the national champion.
Like we do in my keeper fantasy football league whenever we have mass ownership turnover or make major rules changes, we throw all the names back into the draft and start over.
It’s time to hit control, alt, delete on the BC-mesS and start over. If I’m not mistaken (and I usually am) the BCS is under contract until 2013, but coaches under contract are fired all the time. So ….. what the heck.
I have two plans that I think will help eliminate all the justified complaining.
Plan A: Tweak what we have in place now
The first thing we need to do is eliminate the pre-season coaches’ poll (and Harris Poll if they release one prior to the season). The Associated Press can do whatever it wants because it’s not part of the BCS, but don’t take a coaches poll before the season. All it does is taint the season. It gives 10, maybe 15 teams a legitimate shot a national title and/or BCS berth and the rest be dammed.
Wait 4 or 5 weeks. Let some things play out. The good teams will still be there. The pretenders will not. And the teams that may not have been in the top 10 in a pre-season poll will have a chance to be there.
If we had waited 4 or 5 weeks last season, maybe Cincinnati, Boise State or TCU debuts in the poll at 1 or 2 or 3. Who knows?
Just as a refresher, in the pre-season poll Boise State was 16th , TCU was 17th and UC was 29th. Week 5 they were 6th, 9th and 10th respectively. That shows me they were worthy and had gotten the attention of the coaches, but the pre-season poll held them back because Florida and Texas were there first.
Under the current format, the preseason No. 1 team will stay there unless it loses, even if other teams are playing better as the season progresses. Pollsters are reluctant to drop an undefeated team from No. 1 unless plays really poorly 2 or 3 weeks in a row then has a bye week or something like that.
The next thing is to tweak the actual BCS formula. I’m all for using computers to help neutralize the fact that coaches will vote for teams from their own conference even if another team is more deserving.
That’s fine.
But I would like to see non-conference schedule strength have a more prominent place in the formula. Texas shouldn’t have to play Ohio State, Florida, Tennessee and USC in non-conference games, but if nothing else, games against Troy, San Diego State, North Dakota State and Florida A&M (do they even play football?) should somehow weaken a team’s standing regardless of the outcome and the score.
As part of the re-working, let’s emphasize losses as well. I’m not good with numbers, but there should be a way to reduce a team’s BCS rating for every loss. The rule of thumb is that if you are going to lose, do it early so it gives you a chance to climb back up. Losses should hurt more than that.
Finally, just as a housekeeping item, no team can participate in the BCS if it didn’t win its conference or finish second in the regular season; or win it’s conference championship game.

Plan B
Use the BCS for a playoff of sorts. To make this possible the following needs to be done first:
• Eliminate one regular season game and end the regular season the week before Thanksgiving.
• Move conference championship games to Thanksgiving weekend.
Proceed with the season, BCS ratings, etc., as normal or maybe with some of the things I suggested in Plan A.
When we get to the end of the season (remember, the week before Thanksgiving) the top 12 teams in the BCS play in what I will call the Eliminator. The top 4 teams get a bye, the other 8 teams play at the home of the higher ranked team the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is when most conference championship games are currently played. The losers are done until their bowl game.
The winners play the following week, again the higher ranked team hosts. The losers of this round are done until their bowl game and the following week we have two games ….. the national semifinals, if you will.
To give a reference point, we have played up to the week before Christmas, using this year’s calendar. Teams are typically off during this time so the season has been extended by just 2 or 3 weeks. I think the NCAA can deal with that.
Now, how do we incorporate the BCS games into this?
The 12 teams in the Eliminator would be the teams under consideration for the BCS games as it stands now. Rarely are there 3 teams from one conference in the top 12, but in my model, conference affiliations don’t matter.
We can still have the stand alone “National Championship” game and have 5 major bowls (Cotton Bowl included thanks to the Taj Ma-Jerry Jones) hosting their games. That’s 12 spots …. 12 teams that began in the eliminator.
Bowl alliances can remain in tact, such as the Big 10/12 and Pac However Many in the Rose Bowl, unless one or both of those teams make it to the title game, just like it is now.
Teams outside of the top 12 would play in whatever bowl game they would play in according to their conference’s agreements.

OK, you probably think this is too far fetched and too confusing. But could it be any worse than what we have now?