Who was the best college football team in 1997? Michigan? Nope. Nebraska? Nope. They both were and neither of them were. Neither team can say they were the best team in college football that year because they share the coveted title of "National Champions" as bestowed by the National Championship Foundation. Both teams were perennial power houses, and both teams had impressive bowl victories. #1 Michigan played #8 Washington State in the tradition-rich Rose Bowl that required, nay, commanded the two champions of their own conferences to do battle. It didn't matter that Michigan and Nebraska had been the top two teams in the country most of the year. It didn't matter that the two teams would never meet face to face to determine the real champion. It was tradition, and because of that tradition the 1997 football season ended the same way some pointless soccer games end; it ended tied. Tied!!!! What was the point of the entire season? Why work so hard during the regular season with championship aspirations only to be crowned co-champions? This is as absurd as pee-wee sports not keeping score because they don't want the kids who suck at sports to feel bad because they lost. Can you imagine a world with no winners and no losers? The Super Bowl would cease to be super. The Fall Classic would cease to be Classic. March Madness would cease to be Madness. The ending of the 1997 college football season was one of the biggest travesties in all of sports. The most terrible part about it is IT WAS THE 18TH TIME IT HAPPENED. Eighteen times college football fans were left wondering who was the best. College football was broken and the BCS was going to fix it. The BCS came into play the following year and saved college football from itself. Finally, a national championship game that pitted the two best teams in the country against each other to determine the winner; a clear cut, no arguments, I-win-you-lose, winner. Champion.
No controversy, right?..... Right?....
The BCS was a good thing for college football. It was supposed to take the best teams in the country and put them in the best games that paid the most money. Best of all it was supposed to give us a controversy free national champion. It is set up to do what we all want it to do. Give us a champion. The problem with the BCS does not lie within the BCS. The problem is people's opinions. Polls. Votes. Popularity contests. Two-thirds of the BCS formula consists of this high school prom queen voting. Florida. Texas. USC. Oklahoma. Michigan. Ohio State. Notre Dame for pete's sake. Before Notre Dame lost it's third game, "experts" were picking them to go to a BCS bowl!!!! They finished the prior two seasons with 15 losses combined and yet in this year's preseason poll they were 23rd. Not because they had proven themselves. Not because they were good. But because they were popular. Florida won the national title last year and so understandably they would be #1 in the preseason poll. However, how have they proved that this year? By struggling to beat a rebuilding Tennessee team? By barely getting by a mediocre Arkansas? By wholloping a 3-8 Florida International team? Why, with their one win against a top 25 team, are they ranked ahead of Alabama who has 4 wins against top twenty five teams? TCU has more wins against top 25 teams than Florida and just as many as Texas, but TCU will be the outside team looking in on the national championship game. But why should it matter? They busted the BCS. They get a good bowl. They will get a huge payout for their success on the field. Is that what this has turned into? Money? Notre Dame draws a huge crowd so we sanctify them year in and year out? Florida brings in a lot of dough so they are the best team in the land? In 1870, Princeton won the national championship with a record of 1-0. They played one game, probably in front of 18 people, and they won. They probably didn't even charge admission to that one game. So just as the National Championship controversy of 1997 sparked an adjustment to the current system, something else needs to spark the next adjustment to fix college football.
This spark needs to be controversial. It needs to show how corrupt and egregious this current system is. The BCS officials won't do it. They are only in it for the money. The BCS schools won't do it. They like the money as well. We cannot rely on government to solve this issue because they already have their noses in too much of our lives. It comes down to the teams that play for the National Championship. While both coaches would be fired, both schools would be disgraced, and many people would lose millions and millions of dollars, the two teams need to lay down. Boycott the corrupted system. Hold the whole world of sports for ransom and demand an unbiased playoff system that would crown a true champion. Don't accept the Coach's trophy until you have beaten the best of the best. A true champion will challenge any team, any where, any time. Until this happens, college football is no better than it was in 1997 when Michigan and Nebraska shared the title. Every season will end with people wondering what would happen if you Utah played Florida in 2008 or Boise State played Florida in 2006. Who would really win?
