Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum! I smell a college football conundrum. It is comical and it is sad. For the BCS rankings are that bad.
Okay, so I'll cut the fairy tale crap. Only because Jack and his Beanstalk would not appreciate such an insulting mockery of their classic children's story.
This having been said, I still contend that my terrible poem is an apt description of the sorry state of affairs in college football. As of late, recognizable names in sports media, such as ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit, ABC's Brent Musburger and CBS's Verne Lundquist, have been championing the "Year of the Upset," expressing their bubbling bliss at seeing the powerhouses fall to their knees against the pygmies of the college football world. But to see where they begin to err in this type of judgment, just make a simple week-to-week assessment of Herbstreit's "Top 5." How does the fact that it changes on a weekly basis speak to his analytic abilities to dissect the sport he once played? But more broadly, how does it reflect on the state of his sport as a whole?
I will be considerate in so far as I will opt not to make this column a personal affront to Kirk's capabilities to effectively comprehend the intricacies of such a complex sport. Instead, allow me to expand upon how college football is, to my dismay, doomed.
While the talking heads celebrate the topsy-turvey BCS standings, more or less embracing the beginning of a what should be a long tradition of parity, I feel compelled to take a different stance. This time around, I don't want to make another ballyhooed attempt to criticize the fatally flawed BCS as a worthless system full of computers, coaches with ulterior motives and arbitrary sports writers. That argument has been made countless times before.
Additionally, I don't want to sound off on my rickety soap box about how grand it would be if Division-I football adopted a playoff system similar to that of Division I-AA. In the same breath, I don't want to degrade the NCAA for its money-hungry, corporate sell-out philosophy to the post season - or as the major networks market it, "Bowl Bonanza!" And I don't mean to sound like Shakepseare's Mark Antony, but all of the people I have already referred to I consider "honorable men."
There will be nothing but mass confusion by the end of this regular season as there will not be two perfect teams (unless you think Hawaii will run the table).
We may be witnessing one of the best seasons of college football ever. But none of it seems to matter much when college football is caught in a cesspool of mediocrity.
Did I paint a negative enough picture for you? Hell, if the rankings can't tell up from down, its front from its rear or its No.1 from its No. 119, how can we trust the BCS (sheesh, I'm referring to it as some Neitzchean superhuman now … ) to determine what teams are worthy of playing for a championship?
What I'm trying to say, in earnest , is if we let the BCS play God, does this sport really have a chance of surviving until we all melt to death due to global warming?
If someone has to play Jack and kill the giant that is the BCS, let it be me.
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