By Paul M. Banks
Under the current and counter-intuitive BCS system, college football will never have a title game like the instant classic we watched Monday night. There will never be a mid-major taking on a BCS conference school, and battling them down to the final second, for all the marbles.
2010 has been perhaps the most exciting NCAA Tournament in memory. And the final game, a Duke 61-Butler 59 Goliath-barely-escaping-from-David classic was the perfect frosting to a delightfully delicious cake. This March madness is yet another example of why the college hoops postseason is BY FAR the best postseason around.
It doesn’t need fixing; college football’s pathetic excuse for a postseason does. And because of this vast disparity in playoff structure, when it comes to naming my favorite league college basketball will always be my 1a) and college football my 1b) even though football is by far my favorite sport.
Hey BCS, Get an effing clue!
On Sunday a reporter here in Indianapolis asked Coach K. to speak about how this sort of championship environment, could never happen in football.
“No, it can’t. It can’t because the top hundred football programs have their own thing, and then there’s AA. It’s a completely different animal. And they don’t have a system that would allow a smaller school to get into their spotlight with the BCS. They know what the heck they’re doing as far as monopoly,” Coach K. said.
“That’s why I think our tournament has captured America, is because everybody can get in it. Everybody can identify. Everyone’s got a chance. And they got a chance right now, whether there’s expansion or not, through their conference tournaments. And then once they’re in it, look what’s happened…Boy, this year it’s really happened.” Kryzyzewski continued.
You’ll notice he used the word monopoly. Yes, exactly. In his piece entitled “Butler’s run proves continued idiocy of BCS,” Akiem of the blog Footbasket, put it perfectly:
“Under the BCS system where the Big 6 Conferences get preferential treatment, Butler despite winning The Horizon League wouldn’t be anywhere near a National Championship game. It would probably be Kansas vs. Kentucky. There would be no magical run or any comparisons to Hoosiers. All we’d have is a system where the regular season is essentially de-valued so the big wigs like Jim Delany (Big Ten commissioner) could make extra unnecessary money off of the competition-loving sports fan.”
It’s true- the NCAA’s current maxim is greed and profits uber alles. And it seems like that belief becomes more extreme each day. They even charged journalists covering the tournament $16 a day to have internet access while they’re at the arena doing their jobs.
Yes, forcing media professionals to pay to do their job, instead of getting paid to do their job. So it should come as no surprise that “it’s all about the benjamins” at the macro level of the NCAA organization, because it’s the exact same on the micro level.
We watched history last night. 2010’s Final Game will be right up there with 1979 and 1983, in the discussions about what title game was most intriguing all-time.
Now imagine if we could have that with Boise St. or TCU capping off a “December Madness” someday?