BCS is a short form for Bowl Championship Series and is a football showcase that involves five games. Two top teams meet in the national championship competition and four other teams among other eight highly rated teams meet to create an exciting competition. College football playoff involves semifinals and a championship game. Bowl games conduct semifinals and the championship games conduct the finals. This paper addresses the history of each of the playoff systems and their advantages and disadvantages in terms of regulating the championship competitions.
The Bowl Alliance founded Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 1998. Its role was to moderate the number one team in the country against the number two in the national competition. BCS was a controversial system since it did not deliver on its promises. It did not promote a fair competition because some deserving teams were left out of the championship competition while allowing delivering less inspiring matches in non- championship bowl games (Hyland, 2014). College Football playoff system was approved by a committee of presidents from universities in 2014. It was a four-team plan in which teams were selected using specific guideline like strength of the schedule and the results such as won-loss record of the teams (NCAA.com, 2014). College Football playoff system begun because of controversial rankings based on the BCS system. It was to end the two-team competition by introducing a four-team system to promote a fairer competition (Fair Sports Rules, 2014). The College Football playoff system believes on the principle that every game counts. Selected teams must qualify in a number of areas such as the results against their opponents; championship competition won, and results from head-to-head analysis. It has talented members who are responsible for the selection of teams. The group consists of student-athletes, experienced coaches, collegiate administrators, journalists, and athletics directors. Each has a duty to perform in the selection and analysis of specific data that are important for fair selection of teams (Collegefootballplayoff.com, 2014).
Even though the College Football playoff system is the most preferred, both the systems have advantages and disadvantages. BCS playoff system emphasizes the importance of each game in the regular season and losing one game may cause a team its place in the national title contention. The situation is not always the case in the College Football playoff system since a team can loose, but still play in the national title competition. College Football playoff system may demoralize some undefeated teams in their criteria of selection since it may allow some teams with errors to participate in the national title competition (Chiari, 2013).
In conclusion, despite the attempts by the College Football playoff to involve four teams in the competition some people will still criticize the idea. At the same time, some individuals or teams may complain that the teams that deserved to be in the finals are left out. Expanding the number of teams that play in the national title promotes a certain degree of fairness but some teams will still complain.
References
Chiari, M. (2013). Debating Pros, Cons of BCS vs. CFB Playoff. Bleacher Report. Retrieved 16 December 2014, from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1875582-bcs-vs-college-football-playoff-debating-pros-and-cons-of-each-format
Collegefootballplayoff.com,. (2014). College Football Playoff. Retrieved 16 December 2014, from http://www.collegefootballplayoff.com/overview
Fair Sports Rules,. (2014). BCS Playoff System. Retrieved 16 December 2014, from http://www.fairsportsrules.com/bcs-playoff-system.html
Hyland, T. (2014). The Bowl Championship Series: Hits and Misses. About. Retrieved 16 December 2014, from http://collegefootball.about.com/od/thebcs/a/BCS-success.htm
NCAA.com,. (2014). Answers about football's new playoff. Retrieved 16 December 2014, from http://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2012-06-30/answers-about-footballs-new-playoff
