Beamer Weighs In On BCS With the biggest game of college football’s regular season out of the way and just one or two games left on most teams’ schedules, its time to talk BCS. It seems that every year there is some controversy over which teams should play for the national championship. With over a hundred teams playing in Division I-A, is it even possible to narrow it down to just two teams? The championship game/match/race is the most talked about event in every sport, but college football seems to be the only sport where the game doesn’t necessarily answer the question of “Who’s the best?” It was only three years ago when USC and LSU both accurately claimed to be champions. USC took home the AP title while LSU hoisted the BCS trophy in a scenario that the system was created to prevent. Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer thinks that there is an easy resolution to the BCS mess. Beamer knows all about BCS controversy; his eighth-ranked Hokies battled undefeated, third-ranked Auburn in the Sugar Bowl to cap the 2004 season while USC blew out Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl for the championship. “I think the obvious solution is you take the top four teams at the end,” said Beamer in his weekly press conference. “Let them play in two of those BCS games and then have a championship game the next week.” Beamer said that despite his friendship with Lloyd Carr and his respect for the Michigan football program, Ohio State and Michigan should not play again for the national title. “You’d get rid of so much. If you’re saying four teams then Michigan’s going to be one of those teams and Ohio State’s going to be one of those teams and then whoever else. If they win in those (tournament) games, then they should play the following week.” As it stands, Michigan is the only team in the BCS top 15 with a guaranteed a one-loss season. All the other teams still have games left to play, some against each other. Assuming there are no major upsets in the next two weeks, two through six in the BCS should shake down as follows:
Beamer may just be on to something. Throw out the last two bullets because Boise State doesn’t play in a BCS conference and the Big East champion needed to go undefeated to stay in the hunt, and you have three teams that can make legitimate arguments for participating in a national championship game. With a four-team playoff, that argument would be settled on the field instead of on the message boards and in media. Of course, with any playoff, someone is going to be left out. “There’s always controversy about that third team,” said Beamer. “I just don’t think there would be nearly as much controversy about that fifth team. If you took the top four teams, then is that fifth team in the category to win a national championship? Some years maybe yes, but more years than not I just think it would solve a lot of problems.” Beamer said that he doesn’t see a “plus one” scenario coming to fruition any time soon. “It probably makes too much sense,” he joked. “I’ve heard some talk, but I haven’t heard a lot of talk about it…In reality you want to get the two best teams at the end of the year to play for the national championship and this would go a long way towards that.” He also said he felt that the Auburn team he faced in the Sugar Bowl deserved at least a shot at the title, something that a “plus one” game would have afforded. A large scale, March Madness-style tournament will never happen. With 32 bowl games and so much money given to participants, there is little pressure on athletics directors to change the current system. Some have noted that under the current format, 16 teams go home happy while in a tournament only one does. Asking fans of tournament teams to travel for more than two weeks in a row is also asking a lot. The BCS isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But if it did, what would be left to argue about? Besides, hating the BCS format is a unifying concept in a sport characterized by its rabid fan bases and intense rivalries. |