Sports Radio Interviews

The BCS vs. Playoff System

The BCS is the biggest sham in all of sports. It is such an anti-climactic way to end a season because there is no absolute way to decide an outright national champion without a playoff system. There are playoff systems in place in every single sport. There are playoff systems in Little League baseball, church basketball leagues, Pop Warner football, club soccer, but not in college football. Coaches, reporters, and computers in college football decide which two teams at the end of the season deserve a shot at the National Championship. Computers are computers. A computer can’t tell its USB drive from a hole in the ground. How would it know if Georgia or Ohio State should be in the National Championship? A computer can’t think all by itself. After all computers were made by humans and humans are the ones that input data into the computer. The computer and BCS system give incentive to inflate scores and sandbag college football schedules. In all fairness, the BCS is better than the previous bowl system. Before the BCS, “split” titles were frequent and there was no real Champion established. In the end, it is not all about preserving the tradition of college football it is all about the benjamins and whose pockets get fatter.

The BCS Executive Director, Bill Hancock, joined The Dan Patrick Show to talk about the BCS, his exact job description, whether college basketball or college football has a better ending to the season, and why wouldn’t the NFL adopt a BCS if it is that good?

On his exact job description as Executive Director of BCS:

“Educate people about the benefits of the system that we have. On a day-to-day basis, I think that is the most important thing is to make sure that it keeps moving forward… And to celebrate this game and cherish this game.”

If he didn’t believe in the BCS, could he have gotten that job:

“Nope I don’t think so. I believe in it and I am proud of it. It is a honor to be associated with it really.”

Whether during his interview if the BCS folks asked him his thoughts on the BCS:

“Yes that came up. Of course I have been working with the BCS for four years before. They knew where I stood.”

Which season finished better: college football or college basketball:

“It is a tie. (Host: No, there are no ties. We will go into overtime.) College football wins in six overtimes. You know they have to go for two after five.”

So college football’s finish is better than college basketball:

“Yep because so many teams celebrate at the end. So many teams have such great experiences in the bowl games. The system is an awesome thing. It is unique and it is a great part of the tradition of college football and we don’t need to lose that. We need to keep that. You know when I talk to players our age, people who played college football years ago, I say what do you remember about your career and they say: We got to play in a bowl game. We got to play in the Peach Bowl back in 1967. We loved it. We will never forget it.”

Why don’t we have 4, 3, 2 bowls that mean something and we can keep the bowls for the experience:

“You know I hear you Dan, but the fact is the bowl experience would not be the same. (Host: How so?) I will give you a great example. We were in Miami getting ready for a game and a Virginia Tech player injured his ankle riding a jet ski. At the same time we were there a NFL team came into play a playoff game and they arrived on Saturday night. They got there at about 8 o’clock, had their dinner, got up the next morning had their pre-game meal and went up to the stadium and then flew home. Here we have got college students at the beach for a week riding jet skis in our bowl system. On the other hand we have got these NFL athletes who were there for 11 hours playing their game and go home. Our experience for the young people that play college football is much better and is a lifetime experience.”

Why wouldn’t the NFL adopt a BCS if it is that good:

“They didn’t have the tradition of bowl games coming in. You know the BCS wasn’t founded on virgin territory. We had the bowl system. People were accustomed to it. Athletes knew that there was a pot of gold at the end of the season. The NFL is different and I love the NFL. I am a big fan. I am a huge fan. I love your stuff on the NFL but we are different.”

If Cincinnati goes undefeated, what do you say to Brian Kelly when they don’t get to play for the National Championship:

“Well Brian is a great friend by the way and I have great friends on both sides of this issue. As you know I was the director of the Final Four for thirteen years and I would say to Cincinnati the same thing that I would always say to coaches who were left out of the tournament or got a bad seed in the tournament. You guys have had a great season and you guys are to be congratulated for it. (Host: Yes but these teams aren’t undefeated. How do you say it to Cincinnati?) That is what you say. You guys had a great season. Yeah they are undefeated but right now there are six of them that are undefeated. Not everybody can play.”

At what point do you say that everybody deserves a shot at the National title:

“Well you had a great season and you should be proud of it. That is all we ever said to people in the NCAA tournament.”

On the BCS poll:

“It is so true that the BCS is the best way to match number one and number two and preserve the bowl system. If you think the BCS is controversial wait until you get a playoff. It will be even more contentious.”

Bill Hancock on DP explains why the current system is better than a playoff

Tags: BCS, BCS sucks, BCS vs. Playoff system, Bowl Championship Series, NCAA Division 1 playoff, NCAA Football, NCAA National Championship game, playoff system