Earlier this month I wrote about the news that Congress was looking into the need for whether or not this country needed an official BCS Championship game and title. I heartily disagree with Congress getting involved that’s for sure.
The question though is do we really need a championship game that clearly defines a collegiate football champion each year? As much as people would like to say their team is the undisputed champion each year, have we really thought about the implications of what it would take to make that work?
First we need to remember that these are students, not professional athletes. Although that fact could be debated on a few different levels, for right now that’s the way they’re considered. The NCAA limits the number of games that a college team can play each year and only allows an exception for those teams that make it to a bowl game. How many different bowl games do we have now anyway?
If we structured a championship like the current NCAA Basketball tournament, an 8-round playoff would allow for a potential 256 teams across all conferences. With the current season game limits that would leave about four games for each team to be guaranteed that they would play. What if your team lost in the first round of the playoffs? Your entire football season would be over after five weeks. Is that really what you want to happen?