Warning: Sports Ramble

I was thinking about the most recent addition to BYU's football schedule--Northern Iowa University (kind of like getting a mission call to...Ogden, Ut [no offense anyone, I'm sure there are plenty of...ah, you get the point]). This team is part of the FCS (formerly Division1-AA--or in lay terms, a second tier division of football; the first tier consisting of 119 teams from generally larger universities), and thus beating them brings no reward and losing to them kills your season (especially for a BYU).

Anyway, it is typical for such teams to play upper tier schools (always on the road) and bring home big paychecks and usually a loss. But, this loss does not really hurt them. The loss does not affect their chances of a national championship (except for perhaps injuries). They have a playoff system (a certain number of top teams get matched up against each other at the end of the year, and the winners play each other, and then play other winners, until the one team that didn't lose wins it all--like winning the superbowl ["hey, a word I recognize"]) that looks at their conference standings (their record against other teams in their own local division) so wins and losses outside of their respective conference don't matter for playoff seedings. Win the playoff and they win the national championship (this is actually very similar to what they do in the National Football League [professional] and in many other competitive sports leagues). So, there is less disincentive for such teams to schedule big-named opponents (in this case, from the top tier division).

With the BCS (Bowl Championship Series--the current system for the upper tier 119 teams), a slip up makes it very difficult (and impossible for half the teams or more) to get to a national championship. There is no playoff, just a championship game and many bowl games that have nothing to do with a national championship). The two teams that play for the championship are chosen by a complex formula that consists of voters around the country from two different polls, and 6 or 7 computer polls averaged together (each of which has its own unique formula). So, getting to the championship game has a lot to do with public perception of how good you are, and very much on having the fewest losses. Teams like BYU that do not play in a conference that garners substantial national respect (they don't play the big glamorous schools week in and week out) must not lose a single game--and even if they don't, they will not get the human votes or love from the computers because of who was on their schedule (or who wasn't). It is virtually impossible for non-BCS schools (meaning that the bigger conferences in the upper tier have automatic tie-ins with the top bowl games at the end of the season--and are called BCS conferences) to play for a national championship. Their chances are even more damaged due to the fact that the BCS conferences automatically have teams go to the bowl games that pay them $17 million to be there, and thus that money goes to the teams that already have the advantages instead of to the little engine that could-type schools.

One thing this system does is discourage teams from the BCS conferences to risk playing other big-named teams outside of their conference. In fact, they often schedule these lower tier division schools and pay them 3 to 400 thousand dollars to come to play them--and who cares about these games?! Thus, these teams can't afford to lose any game (typically) or they lose a chance at the national championship game. This hurts college football because it creates fewer interesting matchups for viewers to watch.

With a playoff, teams would know that if they played and lost to a big name opponent out of their conference that they would still have a shot at the national title because as long as they won their conference (or in some cases finished second, depending on the system) they would make it to the playoff and then actually play to earn a spot in the national championship. Thus, playing and losing to a big name outside of conference would not disqualify them for the national championship (sometimes the best teams slip up early in the season due to new players or injuries, but by the end of the season are playing better than anyone else), and winning against such an opponent would probably reward them by earning them a better spot (higher seed) in the playoffs. In short, the system now makes it less likely that teams will take chances to schedule good opponents, which hurts college football overall from a spectator's perspective (and in the end we are talking about entertainment--though I sometimes suppress this awareness from my self). The playoff system would not only create a more legitimate national champion at the end of the season, but scheduling during the season would likely be better. The little guys from the lower tier have helped illustrate this for us--if we could only stop and listen (pleading eyes to the sky), they could teach us so much!!!(sniff)

That was almost as painful for me to write as it was for you to read--knowing my audience made me say much more than I originally intended so that it would be semi-understandable to non-football readers. Here is my original post I made to football insiders:

Teams from FCS show why playoffs >>> BCS. They are not afraid to schedule against D-1A (FBS) teams, even top teams, because they know that the outcomes will not affect their chances of a national championship (except for perhaps injuries). So, there is less disincentive to schedule big-named opponents.

With the BCS, a slip up makes it very difficult (and impossible for half the teams or more) to get to a national championship, so scheduling big names for OOC games in disincentivised (if you will), and we don't see all that many big OOC games around the country.

With a playoff, teams would know that if they played and lost to a big name OOC opponent that they are OK if they win their conference (assuming the playoffs favor conference winners), and a win over that OOC opponent helps with at-large playoff births.


It's almost as if talking to people from two different planets--you decide who the "aliens" are.