My Annual "Airing Of Grievances" Includes "Death To The BCS"

For the past two years, I have taken the opportunity during this holiday season to combine my all-time favorite Seinfeld episode with my fervent belief that Division 1 college football needs a playoff system. Instead of elaborating on how a 16-team playoff system could possibly work, I am going to include a link to an article by Mr. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports that you may read at any time.

Having never met Mr. Wetzel, I would encourage any college football fan to ask Santa Claus for a copy of his excellent book, "Death To The BCS". While I believe my previous posts (and passionate, semi-inebriated arguments at tailgate parties) have articulated the need for a playoff system, Mr. Wetzel, and his co-authors Josh Peter and Jeff Passan, expose the fraud and fallacies of the current BCS system.

Using tax records, receipts, and interviews with various authorities such as bowl directors, athletic directors, and even people within the BCS, the authors of "Death To The BCS" educate the reader on topics such as ~

• How bowl game payouts are not what they are reputed to be. As an Ohio State fan, I found it interesting that Ohio State lost $1 million after not selling out its ticket allotment for the 2009 Fiesta Bowl (Page 39). Also fascinating was that despite a payout of $17.5 million for the BCS Championship game in 2009, the University of Florida only made $47,000 after expenses (Page 42)

• How the BCS contributes to lackluster non-conference scheduling. In 1988, there were fifteen games between teams ranked in the preseason top twenty. In 2009 - only four (Page 94). A case in point, Ohio State's 1988 non-conference opponents were Syracuse, at # 18 Pittsburgh, and # 7 LSU. In 2010 - Marshall, #12 Miami (FL), Ohio University, and Eastern Michigan.
  

• To further expand on this point, 23% of SEC teams' non-conference opponents are Division 1-AA, or FCS, teams. The Big Ten is just about as bad, with 21% of their non-conference opponents being FCS teams (Page 94). Yes, I am talking about Ohio State's horrible decision to schedule Youngstown State in 2007 and 2008.

• The excellent comparison of how college football cannot be compared to college basketball (Page 104)

• Even better, how the book shatters the classic argument that "every week in college football is a playoff...except when it isn't" (Page 106)

• Find out how the computer polls are tweaked by the BCS
  

• And how Ohio State's E. Gordon Gee, and any other university president who threatens to return to the bowl system if a playoff system is developed, is making a completely hollow threat (Page 177).

I feel I have been dropping lots of good hints throughout this post on why you should read this book, and hopefully you will. I believe Coach Steve Spurrier of South Carolina, on page 182 of the book, summarizes my feelings as well as I possibly could ~

"We have playoffs in every sport in the world except college football...How can we be right and everybody else wrong?!?"