Who Needs A Champion?

ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook is one of my favorite sports columnists, and his column this week is a perfect example of why that is.

I, like many others, have bemoaned college football's lack of a playoff system. "It's unfair," I said. "There's no way to prove who the best team is." I held pretty fast to the belief that the BCS was a load of crap, and we deserved better.

Then I read Easterbrook's column.

Consider me a changed man. He makes excellent points. For one, he points out that the BCS is not really about declaring a champion-- it's about maximizing revenues. Even if you hate capitalism, you may find yourself convinced by his second point...

Currently there are 32 Division I-A bowls, which means that annually 64 big-boy teams get to participate in a season-ending game that confers a title -- the Meineke Car Care Bowl 2007 champion! -- and is shrouded in hoopla. That means basically half of Division I-A advances to a season-ending hoopla event, with one-quarter of Division I-A seasons ending with a huge-hoopla victory. In the NFL, two-thirds of the teams do not advance to any postseason event and just one team ends its season with a huge victory. Thus the bowl system spreads the razzle-dazzle around to a large number of teams, and allows large numbers to say their seasons yielded a final triumph. That's the college spirit!

Anyways, a good read.

Happy Chanukah Everybody!!!