by Devin Keller

Created on: July 23, 2009   Last Updated: July 24, 2009

The conflict between the BCS and the NCAA National football championship can be summed up simply by stating that one is a pseudo-legislative body and the other doesn't exist. Prior to the BCS, and even after its birth, there has never been an "NCAA football championship," only a consensus amongst deemed experts as to who the best team is for a particular season.

In the pre-BCS era college football teams were crowned champions by polls, composed of the press corps and college football coaches. Arguably, performance on the field was given top credence in determining the final results of a season, however, given the fact that so many teams competed, and so few of them actually played each other, rankings were largely determined by opinion and unsophisticated techniques, such as margin of victory and strength of schedule. This system was entirely flawed and the season often ended with the consensus number one playing a team ranked considerably lower. The final polls were often at conflict with each other and many seasons ended with bitter arguments between rivals and "what if" discussions around the office water cooler.

The BCS was established, in part, to ensure that at the end of the college football season, the consensus numbers one and two teams played each other in what would be termed the BCS National Championship. Determinations as to who would play in the top game, were and still are, determined by polls, consisting of coaches and "experts," as well as several sophisticated algorithms, created by statisticians, far beyond my comprehension level. Thus, the pinnacle of the season became a culminating event featuring the BCS number one and two teams.

I think it quite obvious that the real flaw in both the BCS and pre-BCS methodologies is that neither answers the question of, "who's the best," on the field, in real head-to-head match-ups. It's true that we have graduated from seeing top teams play their final games based solely on their conference affiliation. Most would have to admit that it was more exciting to see Texas and USC play for the 2005 BCS championship that it would have been to watch USC play the winner of the Big 10. Unfortunately, not every season ends with standout number one and two teams. In many seasons since the inception of the BCS there have been as many as four to six teams with legitimate arguments for playing in the tile game, last season being perhaps the biggest example.

Unfortunately, whereas the intentions of the

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