Troy on Troy - Playoffnow.com

I am so very tired of the BCS and their ratings system. Every year, this invisible group of people get behind closed doors and determine the fate of hard working student athletes, coaches and fans. The fans by the hundreds of thousands complain every year how the system is broken. The sports writers fill their columns with line after line of stats and suggestions but they never listen to the outcry for a new way, a fair way to determine the Division 1 National Champion for Football.

Did you know that in all of college sports, everyone ends with a champion determined thru some sort of a play-off system? Even the other lower divisions of football have their champions confirmed by their actions on the field, not by old guys in suits.

I am tired of screaming and not being heard… so I am going to do something about it. My goal is to start a petition and get 1 million electronic signatures by the start of Bowl Season. I want to be able to submit it live on the air on ESPN and debate all comers as to why we can’t have a play-off to determine a National Champion like every other college sport. I want to take it to court and get this thing officially challenged.

I need your help. In the next few days, I am going to have a website set up to accept signatures via website and email where we can have a running count for everyone to see how many signatures we have. I need this taken to the local press and then the national press. Once this thing gets going, it is going to snowball and what seems like a big number, 1,000,000, may in fact be not that big at all. (Well, compared to our new national debt.)

Imagine this, every week there are some 50 games being played in Division 1. There 120 teams representing 11 conferences including the three independents, Notre Dame, Navy and Army. Each game has from 10,000 to 110,000 screaming fans that actually attend the games with millions more who watch from the comfort of their couch at home. The number of potential signatures is actually ridiculously high.

My challenge isn’t going to get people to agree to change the BCS; it is getting the petition in front of those thirsting for a real play-off.

Now for the play-off system. It is very simple and anyone who says that it won’t work isn’t being honest.

The play-off would consist of 8 teams. The conference champions from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 10 and the SEC would get an automatic bid. It doesn’t matter how you crown your conference champion. That is strictly up to each league. The final two spots would be determined through rankings and even other championship games to be played. How great would it be to have Utah from the WAC play Boise St. of the Mountain West; to play each other for the right to go to the play-offs? It would be amazing and I bet they would rather do that then sit home and say “What if?!?!?!”

The traditional Bowls could be kept as part of the play-off. Example, this year for the opening round of the play-off, USC would play Iowa in the Rose Bowl.

The days of a split National Championship would be gone forever. And so would the discrimination of the so called sub-conference football programs. It’s time, once and for all, to have an open debate in front of the college football world and crown a true National Champion.

I have always said, I would rather USC finish 2nd or 4th or even 8th if it meant that a true championship was earned, not appointed. I wouldn’t want the title to be mythical as we have had since the flawed BCS system was created. The BCS Champion is just that, the Champion of the BCS ratings system. Whenever you have 1 or even 2 loss teams in the final game, getting there is subjective. Then there are other scenarios that are equally unfair. When USC, Oklahoma and Auburn were all undefeated, Auburn got left behind and had no chance at a title.

There is no need for me to “preach to the choir.” Let’s get this thing cranked up and see where it goes. I’ll let you know where I am with the petition. Once we are up and running, all I need is contacts to the press to get the story out. Let’s do this thing!

Fight On!

Troy