by Paul Schingle

Created on: December 20, 2008

While what I'm proposing is not exactly a "new proposal" I will go on record saying that anything is better than how they do it now. This season is just another example of how mythical the notion is of "NCAA Division 1 Champion." There is no champion in Division 1A football because the schools want to keep the bowl system in place. I understand and sympathize. College presidents want money-pure and simple. The bowls have been in place (in some cases) for more than a century. Tradition sells-at least at the college football level. My proposal is simple. Similar proposals have been vocalized before. It would still include the bowl games, but there would be a clear winner in the end.

First, a little background on what is flawed with the current system. I'll choose a lesser-known team to make my argument for me. Utah is the only undefeated team ranked in the top eight, by the BCS poll. Some would argue that Utah plays in a "minor" conference (specifically, the Mountain West). I would argue that the Mountain West placed five teams in bowl games out of nine. Fairly impressive, but admittedly a couple of the bowl berths they got were minor. However, the Mountain West did finish with three teams in the top 16 in the final BCS standings. Now, let's just say that Utah upsets Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and that Florida beats Oklahoma in the BCS championship game. Okay, both Utah and Florida will have beaten Alabama. Both will have played fairly formidable schedules. Now, only Utah will have completed the season with an unblemished record, but, Florida will be deemed "champion." I could argue until I'm blue-in-the-face that Utah is the better team. The point is, the current system is flawed and arbitrary and, the truth is we'll never know. This argument can be (and has been) made every single year.

Under the current system, the BCS uses four of the "major" bowls and the mythical BCS championship game to decide things. The top ten teams from the BCS poll are supposed to comprise the matchups, with some exceptions to bowl-ties to particular conferences. The BCS title game moves around from year-to-year among the four cities. The four major bowls are the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls. The BCS championship shifts around Pasadena, New Orleans, Miami and Glendale (Phoenix area). In effect, one of these cities hosts two bowl games each year. My proposal would only add two games to the process, would continue to use the bowls as stepping stones, would add less than a week

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