BCS vs. Playoff Debate

As one of the most controversial matters in college football today we have a fan base that, according to http://collegefootball.procon.org/, votes 85% in favor of switching the current BCS System to a playoff system similar to that in the NFL.

With arguments from both sides it seems hard to decide which of the systems would be the best fit for college football. The people favoring the switch might say the 3^rd ranked team is left out and might deserve a title shot. So if we switch to a four or eight game playoff system won’t the 5^th or 9^th ranked team be left out? No matter how many teams make the playoffs there will always be a debate on if the last team left out should have been in. Other will tell you that every other sport has a playoff system so why not make college football a playoff sport? Its simple why we don’t, the NFL allows the winner of each division and two wildcard teams from each conference a spot in the playoffs, yet the set-up of the NFL will not allow that due to its overpowered conferences. If we want a playoff system so bad we need to evenly balance each of the conferences and only allow the conference winners to make the playoffs, that way we don’t have one conference with 4 teams in the playoffs and other conference being represented by no teams. Also instead of deciding by strength of schedule we will need to transform like the NFL and go by only record, no matter who you face your record will decide your fate. Then we can compare the teams factors, the leagues that have playoff systems vary between 30 to 32 teams, which allows them to face almost every team throughout an entire season, college football has 120 teams in the FBS which makes it impossible to play even a quarter of the teams in the league in a season. Not only will making a playoff system ruin the college football championship but it will ruin a tradition that is over 100 years old, college football is recognized due to its Bowl Games and it should stay that way. If we made a playoff system without balancing conferences it would be taking away money from conferences that don’t have a playoff team and that would be giving even more of an advantage to the larger conference teams. Or maybe you would say the income would be better for playoffs? False, the five BCS games alone brought a total of $1.2 billion to the host cities, so instead of making one city rich why don’t we split it between five?

It makes no logical sense for a change in the system of college football. You can break down each argument made for the reasons to switch and see the playoff system would not fix, and in some cases worsen, the problems. Sometimes the majority of society reads into things without needing the facts and underlying truth of an argument and yet they can still favor the side being pushed into their heads.