State of the Game - How To Change The BCS

Preview 2010 - The State of the Game. Assuming college football won’t have a playoff any time soon, how should the BCS selection process by tweaked?

Preview 2010 - State of the Game

How to Change The BCS

State of the Game Topics
- Is Realignment A Plus?
- The SEC & The BCS
- What If Boise Goes 12-0?
- Are You Okay With the BCS Championship Result?
- Does The AP Title Matter?
- A $300 Bowl Gift vs. a $300 Handshake
- Did Reggie Bush Do Anything Wrong?
- How Should Offending Programs Be Punished?
- If You Could Make One Radical Change ...
- If You Could Make One Slight Change ...
- What Is Excessive Celebration?
- What's Your Favorite Non-Heisman Award

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Once again, we're extremely proud to get the thoughts from some of the top voices in the college football world in our annual State of the Game piece. Along with three CFN writers, check out the opinions on the key topics going into the 2010 season from legendary play-by-play man, Verne Lundquist, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit, Ivan Maisel, Joe Schad, and Bruce Feldman, Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, and the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein.

4. Assuming college football won’t have a playoff any time soon, how should the BCS selection process by tweaked?

Pete Fiutak, CFN : 1) STRENGTH … OF … SCHEDULE. The human element is fatally flawed and is wrong more often than not. Who had Florida blowing away Ohio State in the 2007 BCS Championship? Who had Utah stomping Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl and Boise State getting past Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta? When we’re talking about the beauty pageant for the national title, it should be all about résumés highlighted by an increased emphasis on strength of schedule what happened on the field. The ignorant biases in the polling screw things up.

2) The top ten teams in the final BCS ranking get in no matter what. Throw out the automatic bids; this shouldn’t be the baseball all-star game with everyone getting a representative. If you make it in the top ten, you’re in a big money game.

Richard Cirminiello, CFN : Give me the six BCS conference champions and the next four highest ranked teams in order to determine the ten participants in the major bowl games. I don’t care if that means three Big 12 teams or the dreaded school-that-doesn’t-travel-well get an invite. I realize that bowl committees seeking some wiggle room won’t ever permit it, but shouldn’t the most deserving programs get the biggest postseason prizes?

Matt Zemek, CFN: Demand strength of schedule requirements with teeth. You must play at least four teams in the BCS top 50, beat at least three teams in the top 50, and beat at least two teams in the top 25 to be eligible for a BCS game. Also, and just as importantly, let's blow up the ACC tie-in which is destroying Orange Bowl attendance figures and is crippling that bowl. End the lock-ins now that the Pac-10 has become the Pac-12 and Nebraska is joining the Big Ten. Tradition really has no place in this realigned college sports world. Every bowl game, including the BCS games, should simply pair the best teams through a process of open horsetrading among the various bowl organizations and committees.

Dennis Dodd, CBSSports.com: GET THE FREAKIN' COACHES POLL OUT OF THE EQUATION. I can't stress enough how it is an incredible conflict of interest. The coaches poll is the only reason the BCS exists and the system can and is manipulated for the participants' benefit. Coaches can and have stuffed BCS money into their own pockets by voting for their friends AND THEMSELVES. It's the biggest sham since Congress being able to vote itself raises.

Bruce Feldman, ESPN.com: Without any plus-one in your consideration, I'd like to see the leagues that don't have conference title games made to have their league champs plays other league champs that weekend. This year: Big Ten vs. MWC; Pac-10 vs. Big East. More information is a good thing for sorting out the process.

Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune: The coaches poll is a joke, but I'm not sure how you improve it other than to make the final vote public again. The Harris Poll is slightly better. And, yes, we do need the unbiased computers. In general, I think there already has been enough tweaking.

Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN : First, do away with all computers and the Coaches/Harris polls. Form a group of former AD's and former Head Coaches (similar to the Legends poll), fly them to a destination where they all WATCH cfb games all day and night with 5 or 6 big screens. Give them till noon on Sunday to objectively review their collective notes and finally announce their top 25 teams for that particular week. Continue with that process throughout the entire season until the final week when they announce the final rankings. Then use the plus 1 model to get at least to a final 4 while maintaining the bowl structure and tradition.

Verne Lundquist, CBS : Why tweak the BCS selection process when two tons of dynamite would accomplish the task?

Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com: Pick the BCS teams – all 10 – with a blue-ribbon committee of athletic directors and commissioners. It works in every other NCAA sport. Don’t tell me the responsibility is too great. You built the monster. You should accept the burden.

Joe Schad, ESPN : Allow a BCS conference to get in three teams, eliminating the rule that limits each conference to two bids.