Here Lies the BCS: 1998 - 2013

How will the BCS be remembered? I can tell you how I’ll remember it. A flawed, arbitrary, and downright idiotic period for college football. Imagine for a minute having to explain the BCS to someone that didn’t know a single thing about college football. Picture their reaction after telling them that a computer system with an extraordinarily complex formula that only a handful of people truly understood was what determined which teams would be playing in the BCS Bowl games and the National Championship game. It has to look something like this right?

Thankfully, the conference commissioners, along with Notre Dame (quick side note question, why does Notre Dame continue to be part of the national discussion, when they haven’t been relevant in YEARS?) have pulled their heads out of their asses come to their senses and have figured out a four-team playoff to determine college football’s national champion, starting in 2014. One important change, as Dennis Dodd reported a few days ago, the BCS name itself will not be attached to the new-yet-TBD college football playoff title (and rightfully so).

While I would rather have an eight-team playoff right away, I have no reason to believe that the conference commissioners won’t change it to an eight-team playoff down the road. As many times as the NCAA Basketball Tournament field has expanded, one has to believe the new college football playoff will expand at some point.

If you hadn’t heard, a selection committee will be used to determine the four teams participating in college football’s new playoff system, much like the NCAA Basketball Tournament selects the field of 68. Obviously, whether you’re selecting four teams or 68, there are going to be teams that are left out that feel they should’ve been included (oh hey, Seth Greenberg).

Personally, I’m much more okay with a selection committee, which is able to look at a much more comprehensive picture of what teams belong in the playoff than a computer algorithm ever could.  Sure, down the road a few years from now I’m quite certain there will be some sort of major controversy of a team being left out of the playoff that ESPN will #narrative the hell out of, but if it means the BCS is dead, then it’s totally worth it.