Can you imagine a year with two Rose Bowls?
One of the ideas discussed at a meeting with Bowl Championship
Series officials on Wednesday would add a twist to the previous
plan of adding a fifth BCS bowl game.
Under the plan, there possibly would be two Rose Bowls in one
year.
Awful idea.
A fifth game would allow the BCS bowl game (Rose, Sugar, Orange
or Fiesta) to host its normal bowl game and a championship game
every four years.
I’ll give the BCS this ““ this idea is an improvement
over the old one, which would have undeservedly elevated a low-key
bowl game into the national spotlight.
But this idea still does nothing for the fans of the sport
““ who want to see a true play-off system. It does nothing for
the overall good of the sport, either, as the rich get richer and
nonmarquee BCS conferences still are left completely out of the
championship picture.
It also makes the tradition-filled bowls less traditional.
Take the Rose Bowl, for example.
Will it have two Rose Parades, one before the day of each bowl
game?
Will it have two games and have neither be Pac-10 and Big Ten
matchups?
Will the two Rose Bowls still be called the Rose Bowl? If so,
how confusing will it be to differentiate the two?
The thought of having Rose Bowl No. 1 and Rose Bowl No. 2 is not
appealing to me.
These extra BCS bowl games aren’t going to give the fans
anything new, either. There likely still will not be an opportunity
to see an upstart nonmajor conference team in a bowl game. There
still will not be a chance to see a heavy underdog go against a
national powerhouse.
Sure, the BCS officials will say an extra bowl game will allow
more non-BCS conference teams to participate.
But under the new formula proposed by the BCS officials these
schools will be at the mercy of human voters who don’t watch
them play.
The new formula would count each of the main polls (The
Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches) as one-third of the
formula ““ two-thirds total. The rest of the formula is made
up by computer programs.
Though this simplicity is an improvement, as the other parts of
the formula ““ strength of schedule, quality wins, and losses,
for example ““ were arbitrary and illogical, this isn’t
the right step, either.
Each human vote will mean so much more. The writers in the AP
Poll are generally AP writers assigned to cover one team or
conference. They spend all of their time focusing only on a few
games each day. They certainly don’t watch all of the college
football games that day and have a comprehensive knowledge of the
teams across the country.
It’s even worse for the coaches. They spend all of their
waking hours figuring out how to help their team win. Do they watch
teams they don’t play with any regularity?
Probably not.
Yet these people will decide who plays in our national
championship game.
You want a simple way to solve all of this mess? Do what every
other NCAA sport does ““Â have a playoff system.
It’s not that hard.
Yes, this makes three columns by Quiñonez in one week.
E-mail him at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.