If you could go back to the beginning of college football time, what 5 things would you retroactively change about the game? Would you have instituted a playoff from day one? – CR A: I know you asked about changing the game, but you hinted at changing up the BCS, so let’s just go back to the mid-1990s when the whole weird, wild system kicked in and there was a chance to set things right from the start. First, I would’ve made the BCS formula with three components using the human polls, the computers, and the strength of schedule all equally. Next, I’d take the top four conference winners according to the final BCS formula, and play them off No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3 with everyone else going to the regular bowls. I wouldn’t have any distinction between BCS leagues and non-BCS leagues, if you’re in the top four among the conference winners, you’re in. Third, I’d make sure the playoff would be played on New Year’s Day, and the national title a week later so it wouldn't get too drawn out. Fourth, I’d make the voters accountable from vote one. All votes would be published, and each pollster would be given a weekly test to make sure they know what they’re talking about. Finally, I’d make Notre Dame join a conference if they wanted to be a part of the whole show and eliminate the special BCS treatment.
Good question for Fiutak. Maybe he is wondering about ND playing in BCS bowls the last two seasons and not making a showing and perhaps even in years before that the same thing.....except of course on behalf of Gipper....the pre-BCS years Sugar Bowl vs. Florida....etc...etc...
ND, Ohio State and Michigan all got hammered in BCS Bowls, Oklahoma lost to a Mid Major....that's all after the fact. Where is the special treatment?
Further Nebraska once lost something like 8 or 9 bowls in a row. Is the implication that if you get selected, but don't do well that means you have recieved special consideration? I would submit that ND has a harder road to travel to get into a BCS Bowl. The only possilble area where you could infer that ND gets special treatment is that once the pool has been determined and the automatic slots are filled that the Bowls get to take their pick of the remaining candidates from the poll and they are not required to take them by ranking or anything, just have to pick from the qualified pool members. Irish do well for ratings, so we have an edge in that respect, but not at all times. Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State (when they are in the at-large pool) also do well with regards to TV ratings and would likely be selected over other members of the at large pool who don't have such a high TV profile. So where is the ND special treatment.
The bowls take ND if they have the chance because the Irish are the biggest draw. No other team has that kind of coast to coast appeal. And that's all there is to it.
Fiutak is definitely taking the business side out of the equation in his comments and we all know that the business side will always be the more important part of a non-title bowl selection. Given a choice of a 10-2 ND or a 10-2 Florida for that matter over a slightly higher ranked but non title contending Louisville or Boise the BCS bowls will always opt for the two bigger draws. In that case Fla gets "special" consideration too. He is saying though that winning a conference championship is a tough thing to do and should be rewarded. To get in that Top 4 of his playoff contenders he feels that should be a criteria that ND currently cannot achieve. I am not sure I feel quite that way about ND but I would say winning the Big Ten in a season ending showdown at Ohio State could be quite a task to accomplish.....just ask UM. I think ND would have to be unbeaten to edge out a conference champion that has one loss and ND would lose all same number of loss tiebreakers. For example ND gets in that Top 4 if the Irish have one loss but a conference champ that is lower ranked has two losses.
I personally don't think ND should go to a BCS bowl until they are competitive. They need to win a couple of bowl games. All people remember is the last thing they see and for two years now that has been the Irish getting stomped. Of course, there is the money.
Actually, it's the conference champions that get "special treatment." They have no requirement of record or ranking to get into the BCS just a "championship." Let's face it FSU has gotten to BCS bowls a couple of times by winning a subpar ACC. ND on the other hand has to have a specific number of wins and a specific ranking. In case you didn't know BCS stands for "Big Conference Scam." It allows them to get big bowl money even if their whole conference sucks.
Good point about FSU although once in a bowl Bowden is one of the best bowl coaches around. No way the ACC champ gets in the Top 4 with an FSU type record as you allude to.
oh boo hoo <t>I see the Godless communist types are at it again. Everyone wants a piece of someone else's action and they want to do as little as possible to get the most of someone else's game.<br/> <br/> <br/> You can toss out terms like 'special consideration' without any factual basis while not justifying a 4 or 5 loss conference champion in a BCS game, or teams that finished 3rd in their conference playing for the BCS championship.. But wink wink, nod nod...the Irish get special treatment. yawn.<br/> <br/> The Irish have to earn their way there using the system endorsed by these communists. The Irish actually have to win AND win with style points just to even get into the BCS. Only the Irish and the 'non BCS conferences' have to nail the Hamel Camel while still winning football games.<br/> <br/> Not everyone has to hold mommy's hand to get across the street.</t>
I think the "conference champion" requirement is mostly in reference to the top 4 "playoff" contenders that he is proposing rather than just as a BCS Bowl qualifying team. Only two BCS Bowls would have the top 4 and the other 3 could have at it with respect to ND and 2 or 3 loss conference champions. A 3 loss conference champion isn't getting into the top 4 mix and I don't think a 2 loss ND would either.....and there is the ND "can't be a conference champion" issue. As I said... a one loss ND could certainly get in (the top 4) but maybe not at the expense of a one loss conference champion.....as Fiutak is saying anyway and I agree in principle with that aspect as winning a conference championship should be rewarded with all else being equal.
........ <t>but you can't, you simply can't quantify what one means in a given year and apply a fair, 'equal', ruling to the entire spectrum of college football. its just too diverse.<br/> <br/> this article, is at best, nothing more than off-season guano that is actually serving its intended purpose, to keep us talking about college football. as for being anything remotely close to being an 'answer' to the woes of college football, the answer is no.<br/> <br/> ND has had years in which they beat nearly every conference champion in the land and not win the NC, and while other years they are playing in a top tier BCS game while proving very little.<br/> <br/> My point is this, we have things just about as fair and equitable as possible right now. We really should find a way to keep the mid-majors involved in the process better than they are now but then again, that is my elitism showing. If I were a Boise State fan, I'd be clamoring for action now.<br/> <br/> As it is...ND has to qualify by ice skating standards... We have to do it with style points and earn/win a minimum number of games to get in. Meanwhile, a conference champ need only to win their conference. People talk about that 3 or 4 loss team getting in like the exception and they really are not. Hell, a 2 loss season should eliminate you from the talks. In this guy's system, it would not.<br/> <br/> Either you love the bowl system, or you go to a playoff. Everything else in between is merely masturbatory at best, or as its better known, the BCS.</t>
Here's some of the "special treatmen" ND gets. In 1989 ND beat the champions of 5 conferences (ACC, WAC, Big 10, PAC, and Big 8) they ended the season beating no. 1 Col. in the Orange Bowl and were voted no. 3 in the country at the end of the season. Sure join a mighty conference and deserve to be in a bowl. What a joke.
Who played ahead of ND for the title and what were their records and who did ND lose to that year? I don't think a two loss conference champ is part of the Top 4 discussion over a one loss ND. Not so if ND is also a 2 loss team though.
89 Loss was to Miami. Miami won the NC, Fla State finished 2nd, Irish finished 3rd. It was the classic situation. Miami lost to FSU early in the season, the Irish lost to Miami late in the season. He who loses last loses is the unwritten rule. Plus this is where the head to head deal came into play and was declared by the media as the gold standard when teams had the same record. Then in '93 the Irish and FSU both finished with the same record Irish having beaten FSU in a game of the century battle. But then it was declared that the head to head was secondary to who lost last. If the same rules were used in '93 as the media used in '89 Irish would have been Nat'l Champions or at the very least Co-National Champions.
The '89 loss to Miami was by 17 points in the last regular season game in late November. Only the early 2000s BCS fiascos that let Oklahoma and Nebraska get their a** kicked in the title game after losing big at the end of the season have been examples of getting a chance at an NC after such a late loss in such a convincing fashion. I don't see where ND had an argument for #1 over Miami and they played each other in the last game so playing in a bowl was pointless. In '96 UF lost by 3 points at unbeaten FSU in a game that was very hotly contested. UF was a great team in a tough circumstance and had the winning TD called back because of "offensive" holding....which is always judgemental and can go either way. Then of course the pre BCS alignments allowed UF to exact huge revenge for the NC in the Sugar Bowl the very next game. Much different cirumstances than losing by 17 points. The Irish apparently were completely shut down on offense....not even scoring an offensive TD: "Miami's Smash Showing Upsets the No. 1 Picture Notre Dame's Loss Helps Colorado, Alabama [FINAL Edition] The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Washington, D.C. Author: Sally Jenkins Date: Nov 27, 1989 Section: SPORTS Text Word Count: 967 Notre Dame now finds itself greatly interested in Alabama's game against Auburn next week, because a victory for the Crimson Tide would effectively close the Irish out of the championship, even if they go on to beat Colorado in the Orange. Should Alabama end the regular season 11-0, there are two possible outcomes: The Tide could clinch the title with a Sugar Bowl victory at 12-0, or the Hurricanes could accomplish another upset of an unbeaten team and surge even higher in the polls. Either way, the Sugar Bowl winner would be ranked ahead of a Notre Dame team defeated so convincingly by Miami in the final game of the regular season. Should the Irish not regain the No. 1 spot, it would constitute a major payback by Miami. Last year it was the Hurricanes who were deprived of the title by a 31-30 upset by the Irish. Saturday they played with a palpable sense of vengeance. Nothing was more convincing than the way the Hurricanes handled the Irish along the line of scrimmage. "They were fanatical," Notre Dame tailback Ricky Watters said. The Irish did not score a touchdown on offense, held to Billy Hackett's 22-yard field goal and [Ned Bolcar]'s 49-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Not complaining about 1989 at all, we lost to Miami head to head and we lost late in the season, Miami lost early which is always an advantage in the voting. Had Ohio State and Michigan played early in the season, like Tenn and UF, then ran off unbeaten streaks I have no doubt that we would have seen a rematch in the BCS championship bowl instead of the UF/Ohio State game. What I'm saying is that we don't get favored treatment, it's a canard that people who dislike ND like to throw out there. What we do get and we aren't the only team who gets it, is that when the Bowls have a choice between Team A and Notre Dame we have an edge because of our large coast to coast fan base. But if the Gators are not SEC champions they will have an edge for the Orange Bowl berth over other at large teams who possibly are more deserving because the OB folks know that if the Gators are playing in the OB then the game will be a sellout, and the Miami area merchants will get lots of visitors. Where as if they were to select a team that doesn't travel as well but was deserving of the bowl equally they would get hurt in the pocket book. Where they have the discretion, Bowls consider how many fans you will bring with you and how your team does with TV ratings. And as Gip pointed out conference champions have no requirement of how high they have to be ranked or how many games that they have to win inorder to get an automatic BCS bowl bid. While ND has to finish in the top 8 inorder to get an automatic bid, and in the top 14 just to get into the at large pool. I just don't see the special treatment. If you wanted it to be completely fair then the top 10 teams in the final BCS poll get automatic bids, if for some reason a BCS conference team isn't in the top 10 then tough.