Sports Update Monday: Let’s Go Bowling and the BCS Controversy
Sportswriter Pat Forde calls the BCS Bowl System “a joke that nobody gets”. Yesterday after the bowl schedule came out, a lot of people were left unhappy and scratching their heads in the college football world. The BCS got the BCS championship (Notre Dame vs. Alabama) and the Fiesta Bowl (Oregon vs. Kansas State) right. These games are match-ups we’ve been waiting years to see. However, after these two games there’s not much else the BCS has to offer.
This year marks the first time in BCS history that three teams not in the top 15 will play in a BCS Bowl. These teams are Northern Illinois, Louisville and Wisconsin. Those three teams are ranked 15th, 21st and unranked, respectively, in BCS polls. That right there is just shocking. With teams like these allowed to play in the bigger bowl games, means that more deserving teams will not get their shot. Teams like Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas A&M will be forced to play in second-tier mid to late December bowls due to the BCS’ “systematic” and “formulaic” approach.
Fortunately, in two years the BCS will change to a four team playoff format that it so desperately deserves. Personally, I think four teams is too small to completely avoid the BCS and their shenanigans. I feel it needs to be eight teams to get a proper “playoff like” atmosphere around the sport. This would undoubtedly spice up a college post-season normally filled with blunders and undeserving teams playing for a coveted BCS bowl game.
2013 BCS Bowl Games
Discover BCS National Championship
#2 Alabama (12-1) vs. #1 Notre Dame (12-0)
January 7th, 2013
Miami Gardens, FL
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
#4 Oregon (11-1) vs. #5 Kansas State (11-1)
January 3rd, 2013
Glendale, AZ
All-State Sugar Bowl
#21 Louisville (10-2) vs. #3 Florida (11-1)
January 2nd, 2013
New Orleans, LA
Discover Orange Bowl
#14 Northern Illinois (12-1) vs. #12 Florida State (11-2)
January 1st, 2013
Miami Gardens, FL
Vizio Rose Bowl
Wisconsin (8-5) vs. #6 Stanford (11-2)
January 1st, 2013
Pasadena, CA