College football posteason: Better/Worse since the BCS?

Cough, cough, PLAYOFF!, cough, cough.

 

I'd say it feels worse, but a big part of that is because there are so many bowls nowadays, the impact of the postseason is diluted considerably.

Have the BCS game stand out among, say, 17 other bowl games (roughly half of the current bowls), which would have the top teams in say, 15 of them and a couple of bowls for the little conferences (MACs, Sun Belts), and it would have a greater impact.

But when 70 of the 120 schools make a bowl, it tends to reduce the impact of how huge a game the BCS is.

That, and the whole election thing.

 

Years where a BCS-style (No. 1 having to play No. 2) would have been kinda cool:

1) 1976: Pitt and Tony Dorsett against Bo and Michigan, anyone?
2) 1980: Herschel Walker and No. 1 Georgia vs. upstart No. 2 Florida State.
3) 1984: Think about it: Oklahoma’s wishbone against No. 1 BYU’s aerial circus.
4) 1988: No. 2 Miami was passed over for a Fiesta Bowl berth in favor of No. 3 West Virginia. Notre Dame obliged and hammered the Mountaineers.
6) 1990: Why in the world didn't the Orange Bowl invite No. 2 Georgia Tech to play No.1 Colorado? Seriously, why?
7) 1991: To this day the debate rages, would Coaches' poll champ Washington have beaten Miami?


Years where there was thankfully no BCS:

1) 1970: No.1: Texas lost Cotton Bowl to No. 6 Notre Dame. No. 2 Ohio State lost Rose Bowl to Stanford. Nebraska vaulted from No. 3 to the top spot.
2) 1973: While second-ranked Oklahoma stayed home on probation, No. 1 Alabama put it all on the line against No. 3 Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. The Irish’s 24-23 triumph made for some high drama on New Year’s Eve.
3) 1975: First, USC and Tampa Bay-bound John McKay downs No. 2 Texas A&M in the Liberty Bowl. Then UCLA knocks off unbeaten and top-ranked Ohio State in the Rose. That opens the door for eventual national champ Oklahoma.
4) 1977: Notre Dame sits No. 5 in the final poll at 9-1. New Year’s Day gets off to a shocking start when Joe Montana and Co. throttle No. 1 Texas. Third-ranked Alabama stakes its claim, winning the Sugar Bowl over Ohio State (35-6). Warren Moon ends No. 4 Michigan’s hopes, while No. 2 Oklahoma falls to Arkansas in one of the Orange Bowl’s biggest upsets. When the dust settles, The Irish vault four spots up each wire poll.
5) 1983: Miami begins its dynasty after starting New Year's No. 5 in the AP poll.
6) 1985: No. 2 Miami falls flat to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl, while No. 3 Oklahoma’s resounding 25-10 win over top-ranked Penn State gave the Sooners the crown.

 

If your goal is to have a 1 vs. 2 game to determine an alleged "national champion" then the current system beats the old way.

But, absent a true playoff format (which would be ideal), I prefer chaos in my college football postseason. I liked having all the big bowl games on the same day/night, especially the Orange Bowl at the old stadium. And I loved all the bitching that went on for months, even years, in the frequent event that more than one team claimed to be "No. 1."

 

Re 1990: The ACC champion at that time was tied to the Citrus Bowl.

Speaking of which, if we can't have a playoff, I'd like a system with no automatic tie ins and no bowl bids going out before the conference championships. Let the bowls bid for who they want and make the whole process public. I bet you'd see better matchups

 

Maybe some of the lesser bowls didn't have tie-ins, but the major ones did.
ACC champ: Citrus Bowl
SEC champ: Sugar Bowl
Big 8 champ: Orange Bowl
SWC champ: Cotton Bowl
Big 10/Pac-10: Rose Bowl

You had a few more meaningful games, I suppose, but there were still plenty of years where we ended up with the same arguments we have with the BCS now.

As to the original post, about the earlier bowls being better or worse? Like in the old days, it just depends on the matchups. Tonight's TCU-Louisiana Tech game was pretty good, but was it memorable? Who knows. But if you can tell me off the top of your head who played in the 1982 Freedom Bowl I'll give you a dollar.
There's good games and bad games every year. Sometimes you get more of the latter, other years more of the former.

 

The person who said that more bowls meant more games you don't care about was spot-on. And I had no problem with conference CHAMPIONS getting automatic bowl bids. My issue is with the bowls who say "fourth place in the SEC West" is what they're looking for in a gate attraction. Which of course they aren't. This is the system throwing its weight around.

 

Worse. I give you Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl after getting creamed by Clemson in the ACC championship.

 

I prefer this system. Nostalgia's a funny drug. It was maddening having split championships every season.

The BCS has only featured a split champion once, in 2004. And BCS title games have been pretty interesting. The current system has shown us just how much better the SEC is than the rest of the country, and I'm grateful for that.

I'm probably a rare breed for liking bowl games in general. I watch a lot of them, and I enjoy a lot of them. I'd prefer a playoff, but I would not want a playoff that eliminated the smaller bowls unless that playoff included at least 32 teams (which is entirely unfeasible).

 

How many split champions have we had in the last 30 years?

Colorado-Georgia Tech
Michigan-Nebraska
Washington-Miami

Those are the only three I can think of pre-BCS since 1980. I might be forgetting one...

The BCS also tries to prevent this by not allowing the coaches to vote in the coaches poll, which is bullshit.

 

New Year's Night has never been the same sans Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy broadcasting from Miami.

 

It's simple arithmetic. In the old bowl system, you could have more than one game with title implications. You could have as many as four and they were all played on the same day. In the BCS, you have one such game, and it's played far past New Year's Day in one of a series of one-night games serving nobody's interests but ESPN's. It sure seems obvious to me that the old system offered more fun for college fans than does the BCS.