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I just read an interesting idea pitting the winners of the MWC and WAC in a kind of championship game with the winner getting an automatic BCS berth. I think the idea is interesting. My biggest problem with the idea is that this type of set up basically suggests that the MWC and WAC are comparable conferences that should share a BCS berth. Not to knock the WAC too hard, but they just aren’t as good as the MWC. That’s why the teams in the MWC left. In fact, if Boise State were to move to the MWC, then you might as well call it the MWC automatic BCS berth, no? Which other team in the WAC will be able to beat the MWC champion?

Sure, at the end of the day, the possibility of an automatic is probably better than not getting to a BCS game. However, something about the idea just doesn’t feel quite right. Even if a game between TCU and Boise State before a BCS game would be a lot of fun to watch this year.

I was reading another article that had a similar theme and was extremely well written. I started to write a comment, but then it started to get so long that I decided to just write my own article.

In essence his article mentioned the Utah Attorney General’s anti-trust lawsuit against the BCS that should take place sometime this summer. To fully make sense of what I am saying you will need to read Jeremy’s article as well as the comments. Hopefully it will make some sense either way.

Do I think the BCS is unfair, absolutely.
Do I think this lawsuit will result in a playoff, or even a better system, no.

But, this is the best laid argument I have seen. Every other attempt to take down the BCS has been nothing more than a cryfest about how our team got left out and we should have gotten in, blah blah blah. The huge factor that continues to grow is that the Major BCS schools, meaning the ones that consistently have a title shot like USC, are saying we need a playoff.

What that says to me is that this is no longer simply a question of who should play in a BCS bowl, but that it has sincerely become a question of crowning a TRUE national champion. That is the argument that has needed to be raised to create change.

Let’s face it, the big conferences and networks are going to get their money one way or another. What I have really started to take issue with is declaring a national champion when there is a legitimate case for multiple other teams. If any major sport were to simply pick two teams based on polls and they played one game to determine the Super Bowl Champion, or the winner of the Stanley Cup, then there would be outrage. Why is college football the only exception to the rule in the world?

Of all the sporting events in the world, from pee wee sports, to the high school, to professional sports, and even to the Olympics, there is a playoff in place. Sure there is debate over what teams should make it, but now that I think about it, when was the last time you heard a country cry about not making it into the World Cup, or even the playoffs in major US sports? There is a system in place that makes sense and ultimately crowns a true champion.

While there will always be people making excuses about why their team didn’t win or why their rival did. However, there is no legitimate argument to take away their title.

Now the idea of sending the 11 conference champions plus 5 at-large bids to a playoff is completely stupid to me. There is no even remotely decent argument that the conference champion of C-USA, WAC, Ivy League, MAC, or even in some years the MWC champions have any place playing for a national champion. Last year evidenced that even the BCS conferences don’t always warrant a BCS bid. There is no reason to make it even that complicated.

I have written this before, but it could be very simple. You take the top 8, or 16 though I prefer 8, and put them against each other with their ranks as seeds. Add the Cotton and Holiday bowls, or others if you prefer, to the original 4 BCS bowls. They rotate yearly through first round games and the seminfinal games. Then you pick an entirely separate place, picked just like the Super Bowl and most leauges’ all-star games for the National Championship.

This creates even more money to spread around, and the major conferences would still get their cut because their teams would be the ones making it regularly. At the same time, smaller conferences would have just as much chance. There would be no argument that smaller teams don’t deserve it, because they would HAVE to schedule better teams to get ranked in the top 8. Going undefeated would not be enough for a non-BCS school.

I really don’t understand why they make it so complicated. Everyone in the world knows it is about money and nothing else. Don’t give me the time argument, because the national championship is already more than a week later than it used to be.

This may not be the best answer, but it seems like a legitimate one for me.