The final day of the 2011 college football season is upon us, and it is coming about a week late in my book. The BCS National Championship game has about as much sway for me as killing my nightly plans out to sit back and take in a poker match on ESPN 32. Essentially, this game has about as much meaning as another Lindsay Lohan public service announcement about sobriety. It has nothing behind it. There is literally no more punch behind this game as there ever was in the old bowl system, that quite frankly, was never as damaged as the system that we now have, which is a system, that despite public rage to the highest degree, is rejected almost universally.
The universal statement is one that I share when it comes to the hatred of the system this season. How can a team that did not even win its own division in its own conference compete for a national title without making it there by virtue of an at-large bid in a spanning playoff system? If Alabama and LSU were matching up because they fell together by winning 4 games to meet up once more, no problem here. That they were pitted together because of human interference in a ranking system that is as arcane as a stretching rack? Not good for the public and fan base. The fact that nobody can really sit you down and explain exactly how this thing works? A disgrace.
There have been years past where schools have griped about not making the "title game" because of one loss. The argument that was used against these schools? You lost a game...you had your chance. OK. What about Bama? Did they not lose a game to the very team that they are playing tonight? Did they not have their chance already? Did they not blow it in a blaze of absolute glory? Hell yes they did. It was one of the worst games EVER played back in November. That statement, too, is universally accepted. So the argument that is used is that Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State. At least Alabama lost to LSU. Last time I checked, isn't a loss still a loss, regardless of how it happened? Had Alabama lost to, say, Ole Miss...what then?
Let's not forget that the media has a huge bias towards the SEC. This is a truth that cannot be explained away. Everyone in the country outside of SEC country acknowledges this statement. There are those, inside and outside of SEC country that just cannot stand anyone outside of the class of original powers getting to play for anything. To them I say this. GROW UP! Embrace change and the present. This is no longer 1972. The game has changed, and new powers have emerged. There are powers that now exist outside of your bubble. For the majority of us, we are tired of having the same damn schools shoved down our throats because that's the way that it's always been. You want to hold onto a decaying system of doing things just because of a fear of change, here is a news flash...the world has passed you by in a blinding flash.
The BCS has also spawned a series of other meaningless bowls that have done nothing but clouded the landscape, while knocking down the meaning of the very bowls that they support. There are now 35 bowls in play. I will be the first to admit that new bowls started and failed constantly under the old system, but we now have 35 bowls. We never had anything like it before, and it's not a good thing. There are other bowls that were solid products back in the day that have been neutralized. The Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Orange Bowl are all Bowls that were the icon of post season college football, but all receive second tier status because they no longer host anyone that could be capable of actually being named as champion. If you end up in any of these bowls, you failed in the BCS system. And why call these bowls members of the "Bowl Championship Series". The winners don't have any claim to play for a stake of an actual championship. They have scammed us with the very title of it. There is virtually no difference to winning the Rose Bowl as there is to winning the Idaho Potato Bowl. It means exactly the same thing. You won a bowl game, but that's it. There's nothing else to see here folks, so see you next fall!
America is noticing the disaster. More and more people are clammoring for changem but the powers that be that run the BCS and the Bowls keep on telling you to never mind the man behind the curtain. They want you to believe that nothing is wrong, and everything is fine. They want you to believe it to the tune of billions of dollars. Don't buy in people, because the likelihood that your school will win this thing is beyond a shadow of a doubt unless you live in certain conference zones. If you are non-AQ, don't even worry about it. Bowl ratings overall in 2011/12 are in the tank. The Orange bowl had about a 5th of the ratings of any night of American Idol, with just over a 7 share. That's not good. There are sitcoms that scored better. Ratings for the secondary bowls...yeah, you guessed it. In the tank.
I have always been a traditionalist when it comes to the bowls. I fought the BCS since day one. I realized this in 1998, when as a UCLA fan, I was depressed that we were going to the Rose Bowl. DEPRESSED ABOUT A ROSE BOWL BID!!!! INSANITY!!!! That being said, that until a playoff system is installed, any national champion that is crowned in FBS football is a fraud. There is no basis to it, and it was hardly earned.
In closing, think about this. Every major aport in America is decided by a playoff, with exception to major college football. And every division or conference in every sport is represented in these sports, with exception of major college football. Think about it.
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