HSO

HSO is Hot Sports Opinion.

I'm sure I'm in the minority on this, but I am NOT for a playoff in college football. The recent BCS bowls gave me another reason to bolster my argument. In a nutshell, they were BORING. Let's review:

• Rose Bowl - USC 49, Illinois 17 - blowout that wasn't this close
• Orange Bowl - Kansas 24, Virginia Tech 21 - may have been the "best" game, which makes my point - it wasn't that great. Seems close, but wasn't really. VT is a poor offensive team and didn't deserve a BCS bowl bid.
• Sugar - Georgia 41, Hawaii 10 - total disaster. Because Boise State one time pulls a great upset (and it was great), we will have to endure over-rated schools from inferior conferences get smacked down in BCS bowls for the next decade (while more deserving teams from big conferences go to lesser bowls). just plain stupid.
• Fiesta - West Virginia 48, Oklahoma 28 - another blowout that, again, wasn't that close and was BORING to watch. while it was an upset, it was still (did I mention) boring to watch. a good upset is when it's neck-and-neck the entire way and the underdog kicks a last second field goal or runs the Statue of Liberty play for a two-point conversion.
• Championship Game - LSU 38, Ohio State 24 - promising start for OSU (1st 7 minutes), then the tide turned and it was a rout.

Now what's the big point here? I think some of these BCS mega bowls get to be blowouts because of the hype and pressure (see 8 out of 10 Super Bowls for further evidence). Imagine if you take the hype and pressure up another 10 notches and have a playoff system where it comes down to 1 final winner-takes-all game. Some may say that's what the "Championship Game" is already, but I disagree. This year, maybe. But many years, there will be a #3 team in another bowl that trounces their opponent and has an argument that they should be voted #1 at year end. Not to mention that the AP voters do not HAVE to vote the winner of the "Championship Game" #1. Another argument might be that the basketball system seems to work well with a true final championship game. Mostly true (although you get some blowouts there too), but basketball is different, and that's an apples-to-oranges comparison.

I like having the bowls (although they need to eliminate the bottom 10-12 bowls...suffice to say that no team with less than 8 wins should ever be rewarded with a bowl) and I like the fodder that provides for sports talk. I should be honest and admit that it's easy for me to say this because A&M will never actually be up in the top 3 or 4, so this championship/bowl system scenario will never actually affect me personally.