BCS vs Playoffs

First off, BCS stands for Bowl Championship Series. It was created in 1998 to decide the best college football team in the nation. Also, there are four other BCS bowl games. The Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. One of these four goal is declared the National Championship Game, and the winner of the game is the Champion. The other three bowls, contribute competitive football, between top teams. The BCS provides weekly rankings of the top 25 teams in the nation. The top two teams at the end of season play in the Championship. The list of top 25 teams is decide by three factors:

1. The Computers

2. The Coaches' Poll

3. The Associated Press (AP) Poll

What do the computers decide on? The computers decide the top teams on four criteria:

1. Wins and Losses

2. Strength of Schedule

3. Oponent ranking

4. Other stats (eg. scoring avg. and amount games are won by)

Recently, however, the computers have been given less weight in the formula. Humans account for two-thirds of the outcome compared to the previous one-fourth.

Pros

1. A post- season playoff would remove some of the human bias.

2. Teams who lose games early will still be motivated to play, since they will still have a shot at the championship, if they make the playoffs. For example, USC loses their second game of the season, and there are 4 other teams who are undefeated. Since, USC will not make the championship, they will not be motivated to play the rest of their games. The playoff system would correct this because even with one loss, they will still have a shot at being national champions, thru the playoffs.

3. A playoff would allow each school to receive a proportionate share of funding. Since BCS conference teams automatically qualify for a BCS game, the BCS schools receive a greater amount of bowl earnings. Also, the money generated from football is used for academics among other things.

4. Most NCAA national championships are decided with a playoff system

**Fortunately for Playoff lovers. The BCS contract will need to be renewed after the 2010 season. However, it has been stated that change is unlikely.

Cons

1. It would extend the football season by at least a month. This would keep the players out of school.Or the regular season would have to be shorted.

2. Similar to the number 2 of the pros, a playoff would place less importance on regular season games.