Put the blameworthiness for the defective BCS Championship on a 1991 meeting in Denver and a University of Colorado journalism graduate.
Five teams could be undefeated after the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision’s “title” game. Three will have no chance whatsoever to play for a, no quote marks, genuine national championship.
The nation’s president and Congress are rather busy, but Barack Obama did promise “to throw my weight around” to force a playoff — and hasn’t — and Sen. Orrin Hatch is all talk, no action, by calling the BCS “un-American,” a term previously reserved for communists and Mafiosi.
The solution is so simple.
Eight-team playoff: Florida or Alabama vs. Ohio State in Sugar Bowl; Texas vs. Pac-10 champ in Fiesta; TCU vs. Georgia Tech in Gator Bowl; Cincinnati vs. Boise State in Citrus Bowl. Winners play at Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl. Finalists meet for the national championship in the Cotton Bowl at Cowboys Stadium.
And the rest go to the Leaf-Blower and Weedeater bowls.
That is real American.
But it won’t happen this year or before 2015 or, probably, until after I die.
You can thank Steve Hatchell, who is the father of the BCS, which is the Mother of All Mistakes.
Hatchell, sincerely, is a good man and longtime friend who always has meant well. After his graduation from CU, Steve served as sports information director for the Buffs, commissioner of the Southwest and Big 12 conferences and commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He currently is the CEO of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame.
When Hatchell was executive director of the Orange Bowl from 1987-93, he championed (forgive the expression) something called the Bowl Coalition.
Representatives from conferences and major bowls (country club fools in loud-colored blazers) met for 6 1/2 hours in Denver on Aug. 6, 1991, to formulate plans for producing a “national championship game.” For decades, the championship had been mythical, disputed and/or shared (Colorado and Georgia Tech, for instance).
Truth is, the bowls didn’t want — and still don’t — a playoff system used (effectively) in most collegiate sports, including the lower football divisions. New Year’s Day bowls, which lord over the NCAA, were afraid their parades, halftime shows and tourists dollars would disappear, and their games wouldn’t matter.
(How many games matter now? Only one.)
Hatchell, who had devised the Bowl Coalition and was named to head it, said at the time: “We realize that this will not resolve all the problems.”
Oh, really.
The first one was that the Big Ten and Pac-10 refused to join. They liked the Rose Bowl arrangement.
But the Bowl Coalition went ahead after the 1992 season, and No. 1 Alabama beat No. 2 Miami in the Sugar Bowl — to rightfully claim the championship. The B.C. begat the B.A. — the Bowl Alliance, which included the remaining two 10s — Big and Pac — and eventually, in 1997, the BCS — Bowl Championship Series.
None of the initials have resolved all the problems. There are issues most seasons.
Only 11 teams have participated in the BCS Championship in its 11-year history. That statistic seems very odd. Oklahoma has been invited to the game four times, Ohio State and Florida State three each. The others are Florida (a winner twice), Miami (twice), USC (twice), LSU (twice) and Texas, Tennessee (the first champion), Virginia Tech and Nebraska. The rest have been shut out.
Questions: What were the Buckeyes doing in the game in back-to-back defeats? How about Southern Cal claiming the title when it didn’t play in the game? Where was Texas last year? Why was Nebraska there when the Cornhuskers didn’t even win their own conference? Why do Mountain West and Western Athletic conferences (both headquartered in Colorado) always get short-sheeted?
The executive director of a minor bowl told me last year at the BCS Championship: “You and the other critics just don’t get it.”
The Bowl Subdivision has no playoff. But in Divisions 1, 2 and 3, teams will play as many as five playoff games to determine a champion, and nobody can complain.
He’s right.
I don’t get it.
I might get it if Alabama loses to Auburn, then beats Florida in the SEC championship game, and Texas somehow loses at Texas A&M. At least, we don’t have to worry about USC. Stanford edged the Trojans 55-21.
Will those six computer geeks — one has a day job in stress management, and another is a football fan in Hugo, Okla. — who help decide the BCS Championship have to push “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” and poke out their own eyes?
Actually, Steve Hatchell isn’t totally responsible for this annual mess that demands a cleanup on aisle NCAA. Point the finger at journalism professors (I knew I’d get even someday) and the Blazer Boys.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
