It's About Time for A Change

I saw something I didn't like during last night's National Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama, and it definitely wasn't Katherine Webb.

I saw a "game" between college football's "best" teams turned into a drubbing early and often. I saw a game where both teams seemingly deserved to be playing but as it quickly became apparent, were not at all evenly matched. Notre Dame, despite the strong season they had and the tough schedule they played, was hopelessly outclassed against the offensive strength of Alabama. Even the vaunted Irish defense, led by Heisman contender Manti T'eo looked lost and outmatched.

Some people might not be bothered by that at all. Some will simply chalk it up as Alabama being underrated and Notre Dame, overrated. And perhaps that is the real reason behind the disparity. However, the issue I see here is that the National Championship carries the expectation of pitting the country's two best teams against each other, and that in turn carries the expectation of a close game, or at the very least, a matchup that will be a game for at least a decent portion of the night. The premier event of a sport should not, ideally, be such a lopsided defeat, and it points to flaws in the system that two teams so unevenly matched could play in the championship game.

As we welcome in the new era of college football and the supposed 4 team playoff, more questions arise. What 4 teams make the playoffs? Who will decide these 4 teams and how then can we be truly sure that two evenly matched teams meet in the championship? In the current landscape of college football, there are 4 major football conferences, the Big 12, the Big 10, the SEC, and the Pac-10. Teams in these conferences all play different types of football, and so while a 12-0 Pac-10 team might seem favored to roll over a 7-5 Big 10 team, the game might end up completely different because of varying conference difficulty levels, play styles, etc.

I've never been an advocate of the BCS system. I hated, always have. I think it unfairly benefits bigger schools and holds down up and coming conferences. With that being said, and while trying to avoid being too critical of what I view as change in the right direction, a four team playoff is also not valid. I think a 12 team playoff, in which every Football Bowl Subdivision conference (counting the Independents) sent their conference winner into a playoff bracket and, through eliminating other teams, got a legitimate shot at reaching the National Championship. Not only would this extend the college football season that fans know and love, it would fairly allow each conference its due shot at reaching the elusive title game.

An obvious benefit to me is that whichever two teams made it to the championship would have played against high quality teams form other conferences and will have been tested by fire and proven themselves for the biggest stage in college football.

The first hurdle in the plan is the bracket layout. With 12 teams, the bracket is unequal after the first round of games, and I have a solution than seems largely fair to me that would have the four major conferences mentioned above play each other in the first round, and should they win and advance, the two remaining major conference teams will enjoy a second round bye, and then play the winner of their respective "minor" conference brackets for their championship berth. Is this fair to all schools? Not completely, but it is no secret that the 4 major conferences play the toughest competition of any schools in the FBS, and so it is not unfair to factor in this detail when considering how to balance the bracket.

All in all, the current system requires good hard change, as only one National Championship game since 2006 has ended with a margin in the single digits. While that doesn't necessarily mean these games weren't close at some point. it stands to reason that the current system does not seem to consistently place evenly matched teams in the championship game, and if the best two teams aren't playing in that game, then what is the point of it even being played?