Glut of undefeated teams shows flaw in Bowl Championship Series

Seven teams, no losses. One of those teams went down on Saturday. Six to go.

Ever since the Bowl Championship Series came into existence in 1997, the BCS officials have always told the critics to just let the season play out and the two best teams will play for the national championship.

It hasn’t happened often in the past, and here’s hoping that isn’t the case in 2009. (Unless it’s Alabama left on top).

We’re now 10 weeks into the college football season, and as of Saturday afternoon, six teams are still unbeaten. I’m hoping at least five of them stay that way. Someone has to win the SEC championship game.

It was seven, but Iowa finally ran out of miracles and lost. Still, six teams are left, and that includes Alabama, which survived a scare from LSU.

In reality, the BCS national championship game will come down to the SEC champion — Florida (8-0) or Alabama (9-0) — and Big Twelve champion Texas (9-0). As long as there isn’t a major upset between now and December, mark it down.

Everyone knows it, even them. So do Cincinnati (8-0), Boise State (8-0) and Texas Christian (9-0).

Last season Utah finished 13-0, and hammered Alabama (that still hurts to write) in the Sugar Bowl, but didn’t get a chance to play Florida or Oklahoma for the national title. The same fate awaits the unfortunate three.

Once again, who is to say that the Bearcats, Broncos or Horned Frogs couldn’t play with the so-called big boys on a one-game basis. They probably couldn’t beat them consistently, but they only have to win one game.

After all, no one gave West Virginia a chance in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia or the Fiesta Bowl with Oklahoma. They won both. Boise State was supposed to just get smashed by the Sooners in their own Fiesta Bowl a few years ago, but they left victorious in one of the college football’s greatest games.

The BCS was created in 1997 by former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer as an alternative to our former method of picking a national champion.

That wasn’t a perfect system, not even close. It gave us Brigham Young as a national champion in 1984, beating a 6-6 Michigan club in the Holiday Bowl. We’ve also had four seasons with co-champions since 1990, one of which happened in 2003 when a collection of sportswriters decided that Southern California was the better team even though LSU beat Oklahoma in the so-called BCS national title game.

If only they’d had the nerve to do it last year when Utah finished second to one-loss Florida.

Now I’m a huge fan of the SEC. There is no better conference in college football. There are middle-tier teams in that league that could move to just about any of the other five BCS conferences and challenge for first place.

Put Georgia, Auburn and Tennessee in the Big East, and it would be just about be over for all the other schools. I’m just glad they haven’t left because there is just something special about the tradition in the SEC.

Yet, there comes a time when someone other than the SEC deserves a chance to play for a national title.

SEC teams have played in five of the 11 BCS title games and won them all. The Big Twelve has played in six and won two. The other four BCS leagues have combined to play in 11, winning four.

Let’s give the other guys a chance. A playoff is long overdue, but figure out a way to use the bowls to make it happen. Maybe Barack Obama can make good on one promise and ‘throw is weight around’ on the issue.

I know the chances of a playoff system are about as good as Cincinnati, Texas Christian or Boise State winning a national championship in 2009, but why can’t they have a chance.

That’s what makes the NCAA Tournament so special. The little guys get in — just not enough of them — and no one wants to play them. True, football is a different animal than basketball, but since the BCS started in ‘97, exactly 11 schools have played in the national title game, including seven that have played in it at least two times.

Talk about an exclusive club?

Will a playoff system ever happen? It’s doubtful, not when there are currently 34 cash cows — better known as bowl games — in existence, and one more will be added in each of the next two years.

That means in 2011 — if economic woes don’t cause sponsors to elect to spend their money elsewhere — there will be 36 bowl games, meaning 72 teams will have to qualify with at least six wins and a winning or .500 record.

As of right now there are 120 Division I programs, and only 52 will be left out this year, and 48 in two more years. There were barely enough teams last season to fill up all the bowls, with just those football heavyweights Arkansas State, Bowling Green, San Jose State and the Rajun’ Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette being eligible, but having no where to play.

Keep the bowl games for the teams that don’t qualify for the playoffs — kind of an NIT of college football — and let’s get some type of system that will create a playoff and give everyone a chance.

While it’s true that the teams in the SEC play much tougher competition than the Big East, WAC or Mountain West, who is to say teams from those leagues can’t beat a top team from a more tradition-rich league in one game.

Utah, much to my dismay, did it last year in convincing fashion.

While Alabama, Florida and Texas only need to continue to win — with two of them almost guaranteed to play for it all — the Bearcats, Horned Frogs and Broncos are doing just what they’re supposed to do.

They’re winning. If they’re still unbeaten at the end, give them a chance. I just hope they’re playing the Crimson Tide.

Brian Woodson is the sports editor for the Daily Telegraph. He can be contacted at bwoodson@bdtonline .com.

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