The fact is, we need a play-off. The last few weeks of the College Football season have seen an incredible number of twists and turns, and the pollsters have struggled to react accordingly.
When #1 OSU and #2 Michigan were set to square-off in one of the most hyped games in the sport for a long while, the coaches and press polls must have been relaxed. One side would beat the other and the #3 ranked team would step up and take their place. But of course, the game turned out to be a classic rivalry encounter, and Michigan played a blinder, coming closer to the previously untouchable Buckeyes than it seemed any other team could.
So this provoked talk of a rematch, and with some justification. USC were the only other legitimate contenders to a National Championship game vote, and even they were struggling, beaten by lowly Oregon State earlier in the year.
But it seemed to the pollsters that USC were the team to back now. A rematch would set a dangerous precedent in their eyes, cleverly ignoring the fact that Michigan were still arguably #2 team in the country. The upcoming Notre Dame-USC game would give the coaches and media the justification they needed to put the Trojans into a clear #2 spot and set up a reasonably well rounded match-up against OSU.
But then of course USC got careless, and lost to UCLA in surely the shock of the year. At the final whistle you could almost hear the coaches and media crying with frustration. What now?! The name of Michigan suddenly came back into the picture, but this time it was joined by Florida. The latter, despite the SEC’s reputation as the most competitive and difficult conference, had been dismissed earlier in the season, and was now only in the frame thanks to the Big 10’s scheduling, which meant that Michigan had been inactive since before thanksgiving. In that time, the Gators had played twice, and won both games, although crucially in an unconvincing manner, which mirrored the pattern of the whole of their season.
But despite Michigan holding a large vote lead just a couple of weeks ago, by the final BCS rankings, Florida have overtaken them. Could the voters have been swayed by amazing Gators performances? No. Could they have voted for the Gators to avoid a potentially controversial, although perfectly justifiable rematch game with Michigan? Yes.
The very fact that Florida coach Urban Mayer was actively campaigning against a rematch (which of course favoured his team’s chances) shows the politicisation of the sport as it currently stands.
We need a play-off. As Kirk Herbstreit pointed out, the BCS bowl games could double up as a ‘final four’ for the football championship. The #1 ranked team would play the #4 ranked team, the #2 would play #3. The winners would then advance to the National Championship game itself. This could even be expanded to the top 8 teams in the final poll. This way we could see what would happen on the field when Florida and Michigan square up. And the added significance of still being in contention would add even more value and prestige to the bowl games.
We simply can’t have this same controversy year after year.
copyright Ben Parker 2006
