The first ever four-team tournament for the FBS National Championship has just concluded, and it was won by the fourth seed, the only team that wasn't certain to be in the tournament for the entire month (or season) as Alabama, Oregon, and Florida State probably was. More specifically, it was won by the fourth seed who also was on their third string quarterback, who won a grand total of two games in his college career before winning the national title game. Before New Year's Day, about 95% of the public favored one of the three "expected" teams to win; had it been any previous year, Ohio State wouldn't even have had the opportunity to play for the national championship.
So, over the course of the last two weeks, Ohio State was the best of the four teams in the college football playoffs. Does that make them the best team in the country?
And, does it matter?
When you look at the NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament, can anyone say with a straight face that by choosing sixty-eight teams and making them play single elimination over the course of three weeks, they're proving who the best team in college basketball is? Not a chance. But that's an effective and popular tournament - and they're letting teams with ten losses, twelve losses, even losing records into the tournament. Does that make it wrong?
The big fear of the college football community was that expanding beyond a two-team "playoff" would cheapen the regular season. Again using the college basketball comparison, does anyone really care about the regular season in terms of the eventual national champion? No - because the only teams that have viable shots at the title are virtually a lock to be invited from December on. The suspense is non-existent. Even with the four team playoff in FBS football, however, Florida State may have been guaranteed entry if they kept winning, but was there ever a doubt that IF they lost, they were done? Or Oregon? Or OSU, TCU, or Baylor, for that matter? Maybe Alabama could have gotten in had it lost to Missouri...maybe. But for the most part, one loss and you're out at least for the moment. If anything, the excitement spread from watching the two games the top two were involved in to four, five, six games a weekend, even towards the end!
(By the way, if they go to eight? I argue that it makes it LESS interesting, above and beyond the "don't make the fans travel three times" or "don't extend the student-athlete seasons any more" (either because of the student part or the wear and tear on bodies, as Urban Meyer emphasized). Then you'll be guaranteeing five power conference champs, a Group of Five rep, and two wild cards. And if your conference champ is GUARANTEED to go to the playoff? Why would you ever schedule tough non-conference games again? They no longer count for ANYTHING. You could be ranked 25th and get in if you win the conference, which just means winning your division and one more "play-in" game. So much for "earning your title"...)
To the second point: Does it matter if Ohio State was the best team of the year, or just of January? (And not even that, if TCU's game counts as January....) Depends.
Do you believe that the BCS champions were the best college team of the year in the years they won?
Do you believe that the #1 team in the AP or UPI polls after New Year's back in the day was the best team that season?
I would argue that the poll was the MOST likely of the methods we've tried to get the team that was the best team of the season - and the public fought against that one forever until they were finally given the BCS' predecessor and it, pitting the top two teams "in theory" against each other once at the end of the season.
And I would argue that it was more likely that choosing the TWO best teams of the season and having THEM play is more likely to give you the season's best than choosing the FOUR best and having THEM play. Yet we fought against THAT one, too, until we got four.
So...guess what'll be coming sooner or later? The FCS has a 24 team tournament, and North Dakota State's won it four years in a row, most probably because they were the best team four years in a row, or close to it. It wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen.
But I'm hoping we don't go past four teams for a while. (To be honest, I didn't care as much about Oregon/OSU as I did for the January 1st games. Maybe 39 bowl games does that to a man...)
No comments:
Post a Comment