Bowl System Is Still Dreadfully Broken
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
First off I have to congratulate my alma mater Purdue University since they are going to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, FL on December 29. The fact that they are even going to a bowl and a decent one at that is a bonus for this season. I questioned all season whether they could play well enough to even be bowl-eligible. The schedule helped with no OSU or Michigan and they needed all the help they could get. The question will be which Purdue team shows up, the dominant offense and attacking defense or the turnover prone offense and horribly coached defense.
As a Big Ten fan, I usually dislike Michigan and Ohio State during the season. Once the season ends I will root for Big Ten teams in the post season. Today I believe Michigan got completely shafted being left out of the BCS Championship game. Of course I say that as a Big Ten fan, however I think it can be proven that they deserve to be playing OSU again. The best point-for-point proof is in this article on ESPN.com. Better than I could say it.
Once again this bolsters the argument that there should be a playoff system. I completely agree with that, however the reason the college presidents are against it (they decide these things) is simply money. There are multi-millions of dollars that the individual schools/conferences rake in for going to a BCS bowl game. Until they ensure the money remains in a playoff system, it will never be agreed to. They need to learn a few lessons from NCAA basketball March Madness.
In addition, because of the rule that no conference can have three teams in BCS bowls, Wisconsin gets left out of the BCS after a great season deserving of a BCS bowl. So who gets to go instead? Notre Dame. I can’t think of a worse 10-2 team in recent history with no wins over any top 25 teams and the two top 25 ranked they lost to (Michigan and USC) were complete blowouts. Of course no one across this country outside of Notre Dame fans think they deserve a BCS bowl. Again its all about money and TV ratings. Since the Notre Dame fans travel well and have a national following (deserved or not) they were selected by the Sugar Bowl. Simply disgusting.
