Muller: The College Football Season Needs To End Already
By Shawn Muller-
(CBS) Someone please make the college football season stop!
I love college football as much as the next person, but this "bowl season" has gone on long enough, and we still have three more games to go BEFORE the national championship game is played Monday night.
It is no secret that I hate everything about the Bowl Championship Series.
Any type of format—or should I say system-- that automatically places two programs in the "national championship game" based on polls, computer rankings, the Dow Jones Average, preference of curly or regular fries, or any other ridiculous "formula" used to determine which two programs earned the right to duke it out for the crystal ball is a joke.
Can anyone say --with a straight face-- that IF Alabama beats LSU on Monday night, the Crimson Tide is the undisputed national champion of the college football world?
Better yet, will everyone who follows college football be OK with calling Alabama "champions"?
If you live outside of the great state of Alabama (and the great town of Auburn, Alabama), I would venture to guess that your answer would be a resounding "NO!"
All a Crimson Tide win will do is create more controversy for the joke of a system we call the BCS.
I can see it now. The Tide beats LSU in New Orleans, who beat Bama' earlier in the year in Tuscoloosa. What exactly would be proven in this scenario? All it would tell me is those two teams are tied 1-1 on the season. Not only that, but we would also have an Oklahoma State team sitting with one-loss as well, coming off a Fiesta Bowl win over the Stanford Cardinals.
Doesn't seem like a proper way to decide a champion to me.
Three teams with just one loss. Three teams "deserving" to be called "Champions." One takes home the hardware for having the higher ranking.
Doesn't seem right, does it?
Of course, none of this will matter one bit if the LSU Tigers take care of business in the Super Dome, but it is an interesting problem for the BCS moving forward. On the one hand, I would like to see LSU win just so we don't have any more chaos this season. On the other hand, if Alabama wins, maybe it will mean we will start moving closer to an actual playoff.
The other thing that is bothering me about college bowl season that never really used to—outside of the sheer number of bowl games—is the fact that there are still three more bowl games remaining BEFORE the BCS Championship game on Jan. 9.
Friday, we have the Arkansas Razorbacks facing the Kansas State Wildcats in the Cotton Bowl. Saturday, we get to see Southern Methodist University take on the University of Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl. And Sunday pits the Arkansas State Red Wolves against the Northern Illinois Huskies in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
Why?
Why are these three games taking place after the four BCS games?
Nobody cares about the BBVA Compass Bowl or the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
Those weak games should take place the first week of bowl season, along with the other appetizers if you will. I won't be as harsh about the placement of the Cotton Bowl, considering I believe that since it appears we are stuck with the BCS, the Cotton Bowl should become the fifth BCS-level bowl game anyway, but there is no way it should follow the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, or the Orange Bowl if it is not a BCS game.
If it is that important to the NCAA to have a little "filler" between the end of the BCS games and the championship game, I have a novel idea. Instead of having the title game take place one week after the beginning of the BCS games, why not hold all BCS games in consecutive nights. Play the Rose Bowl first as usual, then the Fiesta Bowl the next night, then the Sugar, then the Orange, and finally the BCS Championship.
It's a pretty crazy idea, I know, but even a person who likes college football as much as I do can get tired of watching bowl games, especially a bunch of meaningless games that don't have any national interest.
Besides, aren't we in the thick of the college basketball season now?
