Football madness

Okay, I can't help it. The So-called "Bowl Championship Series" has again failed to deliver on its promise of a definitive championship, and the game hasn't even been played yet.

This season has been a crazy mess, but still leaves one question, to my mind, unanswered. Why is the only undefeated team in the nation not playing in the "championship" game?
Yes,yes, I know the official answer. Due to Hawaii's a weak schedule and poor rankings in the polls, Hawaii is not number one or two in the nation.

How can a team's schedule be held as the definition of whether they're a good team or not? The majority of the schedule is guaranteed to be against conference teams. If the non-BCS conferences aren't considered major, your conference opponents don't matter. So, if you aren't in a BCS conference, you're schedule is guaranteed to be considered weaker it would if you were in one.
That leaves two, maybe three non-conference games.

In order to be taken seriously as a non-BCS conference school, you have to schedule against two teams that are considered "major" teams.

1. Choose opponents from BCS conferences.


2. Choose good (hopefully Top-Ten ranked) opponents from those conferences. A number 5 ranked Michigan from the Big 10 would be good. Oh, wait, they aren't even ranked now, at the end of the year. If you can't get them to agree to a game, how about number 14, UCLA. Oops again.

I believe the point has been illustrated, but to make it truly real, add this particular part of reality:

3. Take the previous two steps and expand them to the next 3 years.

If you can do that, you should apply for a job in the athletic department of a Division I-A school.

Hawaii played, and beat, two non-conference teams from Divison I-A teams, in the PAC-10 and MWC, and one Division I-AA team and was still only ranked #10.

Just for a final dose of the craziness, take a look at the Wikipedia entry for the BCS, here. Go ahead, I'll still be here when you're done.
Does it seem to you that the rules section is pretty long? You're right.
Does it seem like the 'controversies' section is as long as the rules section? You're right.
Does it seem like the formula changed every single season? You're right.

The best thing that could happen to college football would be for the NCAA to kill off the BCS. I'd love to see the game start with an official disclaimer from the NCAA stating that "this game is not an NCAA-sanctioned championship game". After all, they're the official organization of college sports, and they don't recognize any Divison I-A football champion. Unfortunately, the BCS will hang around as long as the conferences that run the BCS still get to make money from it for their cash-cow football programs.

They don't seem to care that the cash smells like crap.