Letter to Cowlishaw

Sent this to Tim Cowlishaw this week:

Tim, first-time writer, but long-time reader. As a massive college football fan I've read your columns over the past few years defending the BCS with bewilderment. I wonder if the editors at your paper asked you to take this position on the BCS just for the sake of fostering a good argument? Anyway, the thing about your position is that you seem to throw out the window the very premise for any sporting event or league in existence. What is the object (outside of surviving economically)? The object is to win. The object is to find out who the best is. The object is to crown a legitimate champion. Division 1 college football is about the only significant sporting event or league that refuses to do so. Instead they give us a fake champion and ask us to believe it.

The NFL, the NBA, World Cup Soccer, MLB, college baseball, all other levels of college football, high school football, swimming, track, even competitive cheerleading (thrown in for my daughter), even NASCAR; they all have something in place to crown a legitimate champion via direct competition with each other. But not Div 1 college football. Here we bumble about, whine about protecting tradition, fret over the regular season, and end up with beauty contests rather than champions.

Now, I don't have the time or inclination to study all the economics. But I have no doubt that the revenue generated from a college football playoff would be huge enough to figure out the specifics. It would be so big it would make the Final Four look like a summer rec league. When I even think about it I get excited, but then I come back to earth knowing it won't happen. Instead we get some 17 "winners" who get to close their year with a win because we certainly wouldn't want anyone's feelings hurt. The best sport of them all, and no real champion, year after year. Just a bunch of computers and voters deciding it for us. That is not legitimate. It's a joke. Everyone else can figure it out, but not these lame leaders of college football.

Here's the deal: 10 automatic bids, the 6 current BCS conference champs plus the MAC, WAC, Mtn West, & Conf USA. Six at-large bids. The 6 at-large teams cannot be seeded higher than 11th. So, FL could not lose the SEC and still get a 2 seed. The conf championships have to matter. Takes 4 wins to garner a championship. That would be a championship well earned. The quarterfinal games could be the current 'major' bowls, the opening round games the next 8 biggest bowls, while the semi's would be at one site, like the Final Four. The rest of those ridiculous bowls could continue their games before the playoffs begin. It blows my mind to think how big it would be, and how much fun.

Again, every other sport on the planet has figured out how to crown a real champion. Don't tell me Div 1 college football can't do it, and don't tell me they don't need to. All of the issues that exist: academics, revenue sharing, tradition, etc. can be figured out if these leaders would just sit down and do it. TX high school teams have to play 16 games to win state. They survive academically. So do the 1-AA football players. If the Rose Bowl folks won't play ball, leave them behind. Once the playoffs actually start, believe me people will be so excited they will forget tradition in a hurry. This is not rocket science, these things can be figured out. I've never know of anything with a bigger upside that is just being left on the table. Get on board Tim!

Tomorrow I'll post my 16-team bracket.

S