Counterpoint: Split National Titles Are For People Not Willing to Rationalize a Playoff
Published January 6th, 2009 on FanHouse
by Will BrinsonFiled under: Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Ohio State, USC, Utah, BCS, Big 10, Big 12, NCAA FB Coaching, NCAA FB Fans, General CFB Insanity, Bowl Games, FCS
My colleague Mark Hasty penned a piece yesterday calling for a split national title in college football. It's a fun idea; it seeks to give credit to all the teams we believe deserve it (last week it was Alabama and Texas, this week it's just Utah).Now, MH does have a point -- there is considerable distress in the world of NCAA football when it comes to picking who should be the best/last/triumphant team standing come January 6. This is typically a huge issue every year.
And, in fact, it's an issue for the very reason that Mark pointed out -- we (media, fans, coaches, everyone) always tend to be stone cold wrong about a few particular conferences and/or teams. Hawaii was a perfect example last year; many people actually thought they were good enough to beat Georgia. Whoops. Same thing with, apparently, Alabama -- although I'm still not willing to concede that they aren't an upper tier team, Utah just got the reverse treatment.
But here's the thing: as long as the current setup for college football stands, this will always be an issue. There are several problems. First of all, preseason polls are a total and utter disaster. The need to rank teams as soon as a season ends begs and pleads for us to cave in and actually foster misconceptions about particular programs. See: the Big Ten, every freaking year.
Misconstruing the talent level of a particular program leads to the second issue; it's nearly impossible for a team like Utah -- with their conference, schedule and the inherent bias -- to actually rise high enough in the BCS standings to get a shot at winning a national title.
Counterpoint: Split National Titles Are For People Not Willing to Rationalize a Playoff originally appeared on Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.