NCAA Football Post-Season–A Vote for the Underdog

Posted on January 4, 2009
Filed Under Personal |

I had the awesome privilege of playing sports in high school and college and believe they can provide a great way to build character and discipline within a young person’s life. However, I also realize that not everyone shares my love for college sports, so I apologize to all of you who don’t care one lick about NCAA football. However, I have had these deep negative feelings about the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) for such a long time, that I needed to say something about it…maybe just to get if off my chest and get it out of my system…a catharsis, I suppose.

Why does the BCS bother me so much? Why have I held such contempt for it?

Primarily, I think it is my constant rooting for the underdog, the little guy. Which could likely come, I hope, from the Lord, for He certainly has a heart for the lowly, the downtrodden, the oppressed. He chose most of us though we were not wise, influential, or of noble birth, but instead chooses the foolish, the weak, the lowly and the despised (1 Cor 1); He selected little David over the older sons (1 Sam 16); He whittled Gideon’s army down to a humble force; He chose Israel not because they were numerous, but because they were the fewest.

So, a system that preserves the privileged and keeps the little guy from having a shot doesn’t seem right to me, doesn’t seem fair. It is, quite frankly, un-American!

Under the BCS, only the elite schools can participate. Underdogs are not allowed. A David will never conquer Goliath in the BCS because the Davids don’t get invited.

And, I’m not sure why it is called a “Series” either. There is no “series”. Only two elite teams are selected for a single game, from which a national champion is coronated. Can you imagine doing this with “March Madness”…just taking the top two ranked basketball teams and letting them play in the championship game? I don’t know the specifics, but my guess is that rarely do the number one and number two ranked teams end up playing in the finals. In basketball, we let the heart and determination and play on the court decide who the champion is…and it has frequently been an underdog that wins, not one of the the top two ranked teams.

And sometimes it is even a David, a Cinderella team that shows the nation that it is possible for the little guy to overcome the odds, to have the heart of a champion though he is smaller and comes from a school that doesn’t have all the money and funding and recruiting capability of the elite.

Some might say that football is different than basketball. The lower ranked teams just don’t stand a chance against the higher ranked teams. Really? Look at this year’s bowl games so far:
–Of the bowl games where unranked teams played against ranked teams, all four unranked teams won: LSU, Arizona, Oregon State and Vanderbilt.
–Of the bowl games where ranked teams played, so far the lower ranked team has won 5 of the 8 match-ups.

Polls and rankings don’t determine winners.

Every NCAA Division I coach should be able to tell their players at the start of the season that they can win the national championship. Why should the coach of Utah have to tell his players: “Guys, even if you win all of your games this year you can’t be the national champion because we just aren’t one of the elite schools in the nation. Sorry. But play your hearts out anyway.”

There is something wrong with this. (By the way, Utah players did go unbeaten this year, 13-0, but they won’t be allowed to compete for the national championship).

So, I have come up with a solution.

Here are the objectives:
–Give every Division I team a shot at the national title;
–Crown a champion based upon tournament play;
–Place a premium on winning your conference;
–Reduce the number of post-season games; and
–Retain the traditional bowl games

Here are my NCAA Football Tournament Rules:
1. There are eight tournament slots, seeded as follows:
–The 11 NCAA Division I conference champions are first ranked from #1 to #11.
–Conference champions ranked #1 through #5 go into the tournament seeding pool along with two at-large teams from the national rankings. These seven teams are then seeded in the tournament.
–Conference champions ranked #6 & #7 play a pig-tail game for the 8th seed in the tournament.
2. The pig-tail game is played the last Saturday in November on the higher ranked team’s home field.
3. The quarterfinals are played the first Friday & Saturday in December on the higher ranked teams’ home fields.
4. The losers of the pig-tail game and the quarterfinal games are assured a traditional major bowl game bid.
5. The semifinals are played as traditional major bowl games on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas.
6. The national championship is played as a traditional bowl game two weeks after the semifinals in early January.

Now, if the tournament had been played this year, based upon the top-25 rankings, this is how it would have looked (these would have been dynamite games, especially knowing the winners would move on):
–Nov 30, pig-tail game,
_____Boise State vs. Cincinnati (at Boise)
–Dec 5, Friday night, first quarterfinal:
_____Alabama vs. USC (at Alabama), seed #4 vs. #5
–Dec 6, Saturday, remaining quarterfinals:
_____Oklahoma vs. Boise State/Cincinnati, (at Oklahoma), seed #1 vs. #8
_____Florida vs. Penn State (at Florida), seed #2 vs. #7
_____Texas vs. Utah (at Texas), seed #3 vs. #6
–Dec 19 and 20, semi-finals, which kick off the bowl games,
_____Friday, Oklahoma/Boise State/Cincinnati vs. Alabama/USC
_____Saturday, Florida/Penn State vs. Texas/Utah
–Jan 3, national championship, bowl game

All of the traditional bowl games would still be played, kicked off by the semifinal bowls, and would include the automatic bids given to the losers from the pig-tail and quarterfinals.

No one could complain anymore about not getting a shot. Winning your conference would be the key to getting in. For a long time, I thought that only conference champions should play in the tournament, letting the bottom six play three pig-tail games to get in. But it seems better to me to allow for two at-large teams. It would be hard to imagine that a conference champion with a great record wouldn’t at least make the pig-tail game, especially if they were undefeated. Bottom line—everybody gets a shot at it. No elites.

One of the standard objections to a post-season tournament is that it would add too many games to a school’s football season. But assuming all of these teams would have played in a bowl game anyway, this solution only adds one extra game for the quarterfinals and one extra game for the championship. Six teams would only play one extra game and two teams would only play two extra games. (One more for the pig-tail team if it went all the way, which would be a great Cinderella story).

The other major objection is that people like the traditional bowl games, which I have retained. Three of the bowls would be used for the semifinals and final games.

So, we have an 8-team tournament that preserves the traditional bowl games, gives the non-elite schools a shot at the title, puts a premium on winning your conference, and adds only 6 total games to the overall football schedule—one super quarterfinal weekend in early December and the National Championship game. Only fans from two schools, the finalists, will be faced with traveling to a second bowl game–which I can’t imagine they would mind at all.

And that final bowl game would crown a true NCAA football champion.

Well, thanks for letting me vent. That’s all I will say about it.

Give the little guy a shot.

(I feel much better now!)

Comments

18 Responses to “NCAA Football Post-Season–A Vote for the Underdog”

  1. Mark B. on January 4th, 2009 9:22 pm

    I agree! In fact, I’m a blogger who had similar thoughts in a posting:

    “Wednesday, December 31, 2008
    Who Will Win the “Who Cares Bowl?”

    Let’s consider why everyone seems to call the NCAA basketball tournament “March Madness.” It’s the time of year where David gets a crack at Goliath, battles are waged on neutral ground, the outcomes matter, fans love it, and the NCAA and networks make a lot of money.

    On the other hand, consider the bowl season that comes with Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Tis the season to be apathetic, when meaningless bowl games can be watched (or ignored) ad nauseam.

    The NCAA could create an exciting (and profitable) football tournament and still keep the bowl season for other schools. After the BCS conference champions are determined (this year that date was Dec. 6), a single elimination tournament, whose 8 participants are determined by the final BCS standings, would begin the following Saturday. The quarterfinals and semifinals would be played on successive Saturdays (this year it would have been Dec. 13, 20). After a two week break, the big four BCS Bowl games (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta) would play out to determine the final rankings of the top 8 teams in the country.”

    How ironic!

  2. Micah D. on January 4th, 2009 10:21 pm

    I heard President Elect Obama is also for a playoff race for the NCAA football championship. If the NCAA doesn’t change their act quick, Congress might step in and install a BCS czar. I think only more government could mess the BCS up more than it already is.

    by the way, i like your idea.

  3. Harry on January 5th, 2009 1:00 am

    I like your idea. But like the world, football is played for money. The people with sword call the shots. Maybe, just maybe, Oaklahoma or Florida would ask the Utes for a game. That would make money and be a great game. By the way, I love the Truth Project. I very much the way you present it. My little candel is being ravished by the hurricane, but like you said, God likes the little guy glowing in the wind…….

  4. Dan H. on January 5th, 2009 11:18 am

    Dr. Del,

    I think you’ve got a great system laid out…!

    It’ll likely never happen because of the money involved (as Harry mentioned earlier) and of course there’s politics to be considered also.

    Money, politics…? Hmmm… Sounds like a bad combination to me. ;–)

    Dan…

  5. daniel on January 5th, 2009 5:48 pm

    so glad to be a part of this project…

  6. Mike on January 5th, 2009 6:22 pm

    Talking about David and Goliath… Did any one see the interview with the son of one of the Hamas leaders on Fox News? He has converted to evangelical Christianity and is on a mission to reach millions of Muslims with the Gospel! Del, I am thinking this young man would be interested in the TP. Who knows what God might do?

    The BCS is, in my opinion, indicative of a culture that tends to glorify stupidity. Why do we pay property taxes, let the government take our money interest-free to give us “social-security”, allow a state highway to be closed for three months in the summer to put in a culvert, (where I grew up a bunch of farmers put one in on a forsaken county road in a couple of days) and adapt a tax system so complicated that we can reduce unemployment just to run it? One can almost get bitter thinking about these things! But it’s better to light a candle and just do what the good Lord gives us grace for!

    Keep lighting candles!

  7. Chris on January 6th, 2009 9:04 am

    Never thought I would be talking football on TP. In any event, I have an even more radical idea (that would never happen!). Ready?…..Don’t declare ANY national champion. You have your conference champs and leave it at that. Any national champion scenario always interjects “opinion”, including Del’s. After all, who gets to rank the conference champs 1 thru 11. Who decides the “at-large”?
    Speaking of unfair, I am happy to be involved in the most unfair game of all, life. As a chld in Christ I already know the final score and that I will be on the winning team….now if only Vegas would take bets on that.

  8. Jon on January 6th, 2009 10:30 am

    I have thought for some time that in college football, winning your conference should be required for eligibility to win the national championship. This would keep the regular season meaningful, one of the concerns that is often raised when any kind of playoff is suggested.

    With this in mind, I would take the top eight conference champions–presumably the six BCS leagues, plus two others–and have them play four bowl games around New Year’s. The eight teams could be seeded, or (my preference) the traditional associations of conferences with specific bowls could be maintained–Big East and ACC to the Orange, SEC to the Sugar, Big 12 to the Cotton or Fiesta, Big 10 and Pac 10 to the Rose.

    The four winners would play two semifinals the next weekend (January 10 this year). Again, you could seed them, or (my preference) go east (Orange and Sugar) vs. west (Cotton/Fiesta and Rose) and use appropriate venues accordingly. This would also dictate which of the two non-BCS conference champions would play where–this year, Utah would be in the Sugar, while Boise State would be in the Cotton/Fiesta, but in other seasons, you might have a MAC or Conference USA team for the extra eastern slot.

    Finally, the two semifinal winners would meet for the title two weeks later (January 24). Conveniently, this would usually correspond with the weekend between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl.

    This system adds no games for four of the eight “tournament” teams, only one game for two of them, and two games for the two who go the distance. The biggest objection would probably be the exclusion of “at-large” BCS teams, especially in cases like this year when Texas beat Oklahoma but was left out of the Big 12 championship game based on tiebreakers. Perhaps two “at-large” squads could play the two non-BCS conference winners (on the latter’s home fields) in mid-December for the last two “tournament” slots.

  9. Steve on January 6th, 2009 8:47 pm

    Del:

    Sometimes the little guy does slay Goliath. Little Appalachian State University defeated the University of Michigan Wolverines in “The Big House” in front of 109,000 + UofM fans in August 2007. College football history!

  10. Michael on January 7th, 2009 6:09 am

    Del,

    I want to thank you first for bringing the Truth Project into my life. I have witnessed it now on 3 occasions, and even facilitated the last two times at my church. I am looking forward to future work with this magnificent series.

    You have blogged about one of my favorite topics-college football. I just presented to my friends on Sunday a similar scenario, less the pig-tail game. The only team I included differently was Texas Tech, who at 11-1, and in a tougher conference this year deserved to be a part of the mix. I did like the idea of the pig tail game though for the “weaker” conferences, and the opportunity for a cinderella story. By the way, my Alabama Crimson Tide got “ROLLED” by your Utes.

    Thank you for being who you are, and feeding us with messages from the heart and God’s word.

    Yours for the Truth,
    Michael

  11. scott on January 7th, 2009 12:26 pm

    The biggest problem with all of the playoff scenarios that claim to retain the bowl system is that they can’t possibly do it. The reason the bowls are popular is that they are week long vacations for the fans, teams and administrations of the schools. The chambers of commerce/businesses in each bowl city also reap large economic rewards that week. That would all disappear with a playoff. If my team is in the Sugar bowl this week but might be playing again do I spend my money and time at the Sugar bowl or wait for the next possible game? The bowls will diminish in both significance and attendance and the communities would suffer economically. There is just too much financial pressure to maintain the current system.

  12. Paul on January 7th, 2009 5:03 pm

    I love your idea of an NCAA football playoff. I also came up with a playoff possibilities like you did, but yours was much better. Sure would like to see it take place in 2009. There is going to be several teams with a 12-1 record and one with a 13-0 record. It isn’t fair to have one of these 12-1 teams be chosen as the National Champs when there are several other teams with the same record. PAUL

  13. arlen on January 8th, 2009 3:53 pm

    Del, I’m a Boise State Fan, so I love the idea. To make the season shorter you could take out some non conference games at the beginning of the season.
    “let the players on the field decide who is the champions”

    My wife and I are leading a Truth Project group this Sat. night. We are very excited.

    Arlen

  14. Julian on January 12th, 2009 9:51 am

    Del,

    The bowls will never ever go for such a thing. I don’t have the time nor the energy to explain all the details for why that is but I suggest you look at http://www.footballbowlassociation.com to read more.

    But the heart of the matter is that college football’s regular season is incredibly important right now - more so than any other sport. By simply taking the conference champs, you’re saying the non-conference games mean absolutely nothing.

    In the BCS, the chase for the crystal ball starts on Labor Day weekend. Your system says next year’s non-conference games between Ohio State and USC, Florida and Florida State, Oklahoma and BYU, et al, are meaningless. If Oklahoma loses to BYU, Tulsa, Miami and whatever I-AA rumdum they schedule but wins the Big 12, they are in the playoff?

    Your system is bloated and chips away at the thing that makes college football so unique - the importance of the regular season.

  15. Kevin on January 15th, 2009 6:14 pm

    Del,

    Its interesting that you’ve taken on a somewhat different issue than FITF usually focuses on but I wholeheartedly agree with you. I am a huge sports fan and love almost all sports both pro and collegiate but the so called BCS just drives me crazy to the point that I have not watched the game the last several years. However I am less irked by the defects in the system than I am with the fundamental issues of fairness that it exposes. I grew up in a day when the Sugar Bowl was on New Year’s eve (or day) and was called the Sugar Bowl, now its the Nokia, or the FedEx, or Tostitos something or other and its on the second week into the year and its on too late for most kids to watch. This is all due to the greed and exploitation of young kids (many from under-priviliged backgrounds) by middle aged largely wealthly school administrators or coaches. These kids bring in millions for their schools and most likely will never get anything close to their contributions through scholarship. Its a sham and it disgusts me, I know their are better ways )such as deferred trust funds) to pay these kids and not jepardize their amateur status.

  16. Martha T. on January 27th, 2009 2:26 pm

    I am for any system that will let my team(The Iowa Hawkeyes)go to Florida or Texas or California in the winter to play football! In all truthfulness, a playoff of some kind would be good because it would be more fair and a lot less confusing!

  17. Gene on January 30th, 2009 10:41 am

    Dr Tackett,

    Is justice served in the Tackett system? I would wholehertedly agree that Utah (who surprised everyone in the nation by spanking Bama) should have been a very serious consideration for No.# 1. They certainly impressed even their greatest critics.

    Then there is the Big 12 problem … you know, the 3-way tie for first. I still cannot understand how they sent Oklahoma when Texas beat them during the season. I felt the conference was over-rated anyway.

    Gators: Some say they should have never made it to the Championship game, but they showed their stuff once again ridding on Timmy’s shoulders.

    The problem is that on any given week many of these teams could loose a game to the very team that they beat …say a month ago. So on a fluke (off week) the best team could loose to a lucky team. ie: look at the Cardinals …they are in the Superbowl! Do they deserve to be there? They are a mediocre team at best who have been lucky in post season.

    So to answer the question I started with, “Is justice served with the Tackett system?” I say, NO! But it is better than the present system!

    This year however, I am at peace with the system.

    Gene (Gator) F.

  18. Donald on February 17th, 2009 9:52 pm

    Thanks, enjoyed all the comments. as a west coast fan, I’ve often felt that the eastern sports writers hadn’t a clue (just as I had none about some of their favorites, that’s life). Anyway, am enjoying the Truth project and blog comments.

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