The BCS has been reduced to a mere popularity contest thanks to last year's AP vote. It should be renamed the new national popularity championship.
I think simplifying the BCS is a good idea myself. No system will ever be perfect and the computer polls were all the good either IMO. I will always believe in my heart and my head that USC should have played us in the Sugar Bowl last season. And at least by doing what they are doing they are going back to their announced original intent of only trying to help determine who plays if the other 2 polls disagree. They tried to make the system too perfect and it got way to complicated IMO and it did not work. I'm not saying that the voting polls are accurate, they are some years when it is easy, they aren't some years when they have a hard choice to make. The sustem will never be perfect but at least this one would have gotten the correct teams in 2 of the years that the BCS didn't work. They said they could not determine if Miami would have beaten out FSU in the other year. maybe they should give an additional point for head to head some kind of way.
Exactly.....that's why this year will be nothing more of a payback type of season for college football. I'm sure if USC has 2 losses at the end of the season, they'll still be in the #1 spot in the AP minds.
I think a lot of people that say they like it simple do not like a system that they cannot figure out for themselves. It's human nature to say throw it out, due to the fact that you feel threatened if you do not understand it. The BCS formula from last year, although much more complicated, was much more fair than the simplified method that they have come up with. This new formula was just the result of the BCS committee washing their hands of the entire situation. Btw, my comments were not directed at you, just a generalization.
islstl, first let me state that I think the coaches and writers polls are both flawed but without a playoff we need them. I understand the system completely, I also understand what they were trying to do. I think they have failed at it at least 3 times and maybe even 4 out of the 6 years, so I think they needed to simplify it and go back to what the original intent of the system was, and that is to have the BCS system come into play only when the 2 polls are in disagreement over which 2 teams should be in the title game. Most posters keep putting the blame on the AP poll as they are mad because we didn't win that one. But the coaches poll also had USC/LSU as the 2 teams that should have played in the title game and I am pretty certain they would have kept USC ranked number one if they had that option. I also feel that 95% of all college football were expecting it to be USC/LSU in the title game too. It's just a shame that we played the wrong team so we couldn't settle it on the field. OU's SOS strength turned out to be a myth as proven by the Big 12's record in the bowl games. if they really want to have SOS be such a big part of the calculations then they need to rate the teams totally different IMO and use an RPI kind of system instead of just won/loss records. Should beating a team like N. Texas St give a team like Oklahoma a lot more points than USC got for beating Notre Dame. Even though N. Texas St went to a bowl game I think Notre Dame was still the much better team. The criteria for doing SOS still should be adjusted IMO since it will still come into play if the polls do not agree on the 2 best teams. Guess all I am saying is that without any kind of playoff system there will never be a great system and I think the more complicated the BCS system has gotten the worst job it was doing. I think they looked at it and tried to figure out how to rate the SOS since it was so obviously flawed last season, how should they account for road losses and for that matter road wins, conferences with championship games and conferences without, quality wins or no qulaity wins, etc, etc, etc. I mean think about it, we needed wins by some of the strangest combinations of teams anyone would have ever thought of in order to put one deserving team in while knocking out another desrving teamwhile the least deserving team was already gauranteed a slot. The AP was under no obligation to vote for LSU as they do not belong to the BCS in anyway and I cannot fault the writers for the votes they cast, just as I cannot fault the coaches for the votes they cast ranking LSU/USC as the 2 teams that should have met in the CG. The BCS system is the one that was wrong. just my 2 cents worth.
this issue is very simple. human polls have no place in declaring a champion, ever. the idea of it is so incredibly stupid that i can barely stand it. it is like if the media said "i just think the yankees are the best team, so um, they win, they are champs", or if they say "yeah andy roddick has the best game, we will call him the champ" even if he lost.. insane. the whole thing should be based purely on win/loss and SOS. that is all. nothing else. i cant believe it isnt this way already. i am stunned by the stupidity of it. computers are infinitely better for this job. the human polls are pure stupidity.
