Wednesday, January 18, 2012

BCS National Championship Game

By Keith Antigiovanni

Alabama's 21-0 rout of conference rival LSU was impressive as the Tide dominated in all three phases: offense, defense and the kicking game. Despite the fact that Alabama is probably the best team in the country but the fact that they made the BCS Title game creates more uncertainty.

I dont like the idea of two teams from the same conference in any sport, professional or amateur meeting in a championship game. The purpose of conference and a conference championship game is to decide a champion and I do not have a problem with an "At-Large" team qualifying for the post-season and getting its' way to a title game.

What I do not like is an "At-Large" team getting voted in or voted in to a championship game. This defeats the purpose of what competitive sports is all about. If you dont agree then look at the facts:

1) Alabama did not win its' division
2) Alabama did not win its' conference
3) Alabama did not win any playoff games to qualify for the National Title Game

What did Alabama have going in its' favor?
1) Alabama plays in the SEC
2) The voters believe Alabama was better than all other teams beside LSU

The #2 item Alabama has going for it demonstrates that the current system is not legitimate because there is no way objective way to "know" if Alabama was a better team than #3 Oklahoma State for example. The teams did not play, each played a conference schedule and each played an out of conference schedule.

In a way the Alabama-LSU game not only discredits the BCS but takes the luster off the SEC's incredible string of BCS Titles going back to 2006. At least in the five previous years the SEC Champ played a team from another conference. This years' game proved that Alabama was the best team in the SEC.

BCS Title games 2006-2010:
2006: Florida 41, Ohio State 14
2007: LSU  38, Ohio State 24
2008: Florida 24, Oklahoma 14
2009: Alabama 37, Texas 21
2010: Auburn 22, Oregon 19

One of the main arguments for an Alabama-LSU game is the BCS believes in putting the "best two teams" on the field but this has not been true in professional sports since there have been times when teams from the same conference or division have played and before the final and again there is no way to know who the top two teams are without a true playoff.

Final question is did Alabama-LSU make the title game because they are the two best teams or are they the two best teams because they made the title game? College football has become circular reasoning.

1 comment:

  1. The SEC has won 19 BCS games since 1998 and only once have they played each other in a BCS Bowl (Alabama-LSU).

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