Sam Hart
In
what could only be described as a picture perfect finish, the hero rallied his
men with mere seconds left to win the title.
With such a cinematic culmination, Jameis Winston and the Florida State
Seminoles capped off the end of an era in which BCS Championship Bowls would
determine the best college team in the country.
Switching to a four team playoff next year, college football is taking a
new step towards a more accurate determination of the best college football
team in the world.
It
wasn’t always a fair system. Many times
throughout the history of the BCS Championship, teams that should have played
were slighted and teams with no business being on a championship field were
rewarded. Because a team of voters
decided which teams were able to play in the bowl, the BCS Championship was
often perceived as biased and inaccurate.
Such was the case in 2003, when the number 1 and number 2 ranked teams
(USC and Florida State) in the country were poised to duke it out but instead,
the BCS board picked the number 3 team (Oklahoma) to play in the game
instead. This angered many people, as
they felt that their respective college deserved the right to play in the game;
as any number 1 ranked team would do.
The BCS Bowl again illustrated its faults when the board decided that
the miracle season of the 2011 Boise State team would not be allowed to play in
the game. Instead, the board allowed the
number 2 ranked team (Oregon) to play against the unbeaten Auburn. There is no bigger slap in the face being an
unbeaten team but being told that “you’re not better than a team with one
loss.” Another area of concern was the
money that was being generated. With
over 30 bowls from the December to January stretch, NCAA racks in a large sum
of cash from all different schools, tv ratings, and venues. With the new 4 game playoff system, not only
will the NCAA continue to make money on the lesser bowls, but also double the
revenue with an extra nationally televised game to determine the championship
contenders. College Football is all
about making money, so the NCAA jumped on the chance to make even more money
while also eliminating the faults in it’s previous system, thus scoring two
touchdowns with one throw.
While
the 2014 BCS Championship was one for the ages, the magic will not be lost with
the new system. Imagine a scenario in
which there are not one but two amazing games, with the same intensity as one
as each team is proving there right to be deemed champions. The Florida State Seminoles ended the last
BCS Bowl Championship game for the foreseeable future with a bang, but the new
playoffs should bring even more excitement and cinematic like finishes than
ever before. It was time for a change,
people were getting angry, potential money was being lost, and the BCS finally
caught on and took the right step into modern football.
