BCS SHOULD CLOSE ITS DOORS FOREVER

The prestigious National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) should cancel the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) next year because it appears that the system has broken down. This year's farce, fiasco, charade, or whatever you want to call it should be put to an end. This single event has made this writer sour on college football championships. If it were not for one of my favorite teams, The University of Southern California's Trojans, being involved, I would have cared less what happens this year. But many college sports fans, including me, think and feel the USC Trojans have received the short end of the Championship Bowl stick this year.

This season a team that did not even win their own conference title will be in the championship bowl game come January. The Oklahoma Sooners will play in January for the Sears (BCS) Glass Bowl. The Sooners did not win the Southwest Conference; they lost to Kansas State University in the SWC Conference Championship game, and the loss was a complete blow out. Yet the nation's number three Oklahoma Sooners will be playing for the crown January 4, 2004. Why? Because the computer says that The Oklahoma Sooners have a better power rating than The University of Southern California Trojans. The Associated Press and The National Coaches poll rated the Trojans number one. There is something wrong with this picture and it needs to be fixed NOW.

This should not have happened. It only proves that the BCS is more concerned about the green, the proceeds, (money), making a profit, then about the competition in college football. It is quite obvious that it is not about the best team on the football field. The business part of college football has overtaken the sport of college football. The front office for the NCAA is more concerned about money then the sport or the athletes.

Furthermore, the various bowl committees do not want to relinquish their cash moneymakers to a playoff system. Each bowl committee wants to control its bowl bid each year. These committees do not want to share with anyone else.

The Division One A college football program is still the only college program that still does not have a playoff system. This Saturday in college football Division One Double A will have their playoffs: the University of Delaware will be playing Colgate. Southern Illinois University lost to the University of Delaware in a tough fought football game. So this would lead everybody to ask why, or better yet, why not Division One A?

The number one team in the nation, University of Southern California Trojans, will be playing the number four team in the country, University of Michigan Wolverines. The number three team, Oklahoma University Sooners, will play the number two team, Louisiana State University Tigers.

Anyone with common sense can see this is a great opportunity to have a playoff. These four teams will play each other in January; the rotation is already set one against four, and three against two, in another week, and that could set up the one possible game would declare the winner but it is not going to happen. The BCS wants the computer to decide the champion. Do you recall that in the past six years the computer results were wrong?

For the first time in fourteen years we could have two national football champions. This could be fact if the University of Southern California and the University of Oklahoma win their bowl games. Is it possible or probable that they will play each other one week later? Is it that difficult to schedule?

Problems are probable with the current Division One college-voting format. The computer has taken over this simple process, which has not worked in the past. Voting should be left in human hands not machines. The BCS computer polls only include the big school conferences. This is wrong. The small school conferences are not included in the picture, unless their schools go undefeated. Even then they are not guaranteed a spot in the championship game. Miami (Ohio) 12-1, Bowling Green 10-3, and Northern Ill. University 10-2 from the (MAC) Mid American Conference all had great seasons but were ignored by the committee because they lost one or two games.

Predominately African American Schools are not even considered for any bowl games. The (MEAC) Mid Eastern Athletic Conference Champion North Carolina A & T State 10-1 and Bethune Cookman College 9-2 had a great year, along with two time (CIAA) Central Intercollegiate Athletic Associate Champion Fayetteville State University. All of these predominately African American schools were again ignored by the BCS.

Last year three Black Schools had 10-1 records: Grambling State University, Hampton University, and Fayetteville State. While seven BCS Bowl Eligible schools with 6-6 records went to bowl games. This again is not fair or right?

Big named schools like Notre Dame, Michigan, University Southern California, and University of Florida, Texas, and Brigham Young University could have a 500 record and still get a bowl berth. This, in fact, happened last year. Four schools with a 500 records were invited to play in a bowl game. While excellent African American football squads stayed home. This year the trend continues. The University of California at Berkeley will be bowling this late December. Is this fair?

The NCAA has stated time and time again that some schools don't travel well. What does that mean? It means that certain schools cannot fill the football stadium. They cannot get their student body or Alumni to the game. In other words, the different BCS bowl committees are not going to select schools that cannot bring the NCAA, the bowl site, and the conference profits at BCS bowl games no matter what their records are.

NCAA President Miles Brand may have to step up, step in, and make these changes known. Mr. Brand has to take the lead on these troubling issues. Mr. Brand needs to stop this on-going bowl committee mess immediately. Mr. Brand should make bowl committees include everybody; this means small schools and small conferences; this means including predominately Black schools with winning records also. OR IT MEANS NO MORE BCS!

The BCS bowl Committees should investigate other ways of getting teams, fans, and Alumni to bowl games. It is time to get it right. Can we have a true championship game? WHAT DO YOU SAY?

THAT IS THE GRAY LINE []

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