Conference championship games pose another issue for the current BCS bowl system. It is inequitable that teams in the ACC, Big 12, and the SEC are forced to play an additional game against a quality opponent. Members of the Big Ten, Pac 10, and the SEC can just sit back and relax and yet potentially move up in the polls based on the outcomes of the championship games. Missouri for instance is in a no win situation. The Tigers battled all year long to earn their No. 1 ranking, including the win over division rival Kansas on Saturday. So how are they rewarded for their stellar play? The answer is a rematch against the team that dealt them their only defeat of the season, Oklahoma. Missouri has nothing to gain should they win the match-up against the Sooners yet should they lose their national title championship aspirations will be dashed. Understandably commissioners want title games for their conferences because they bring in huge amounts of money, but to have them in certain conferences and not in others makes no sense.  Either require each conference to have one or do not have any at all.

If asked which teams they would least want to play at the moment, there is a good chance many college coaches would say Florida, USC, or both. No one is playing better football than Tim Tebow and the rest of the young Gators while the finally healthy Trojans are now living up to their preseason billing. With the current system it would be unthinkable for either team to get a shot at the national title because they did not do enough to earn it. However, if the purpose of the BCS is to pit the two best teams against each other, then the Trojans and Gators have a legitimate argument. The great part about college basketball is that teams can struggle early in the season, mature and improve as the season goes on, and by tournament time be a real contender for the title. In college football this just cannot happen, a team must be playing at a high level from the outset of the season to have any chance.

This college football season has been unlike any other in recent history with the endless amount of remarkable upsets. It seems as if every year there is a call to change the system and institute a playoff system. Hell, six of the nine years of its existence, it has failed. Remember the debacle with Nebraska? Does Oklahoma’s loss to USC do anything for you? Despite previous failures, never have the cries of college football fans around the country been heard louder than this year. It is time to change. This archaic bowl system still exists because of the money universities and conference commissioners receive from each bowl appearance. What is pathetic is that these university presidents and conference commissioners are not intelligent or creative enough to install a playoff system that could not only match the revenue from the current system but improve upon it. Sadly, if the mess that is this college football season has brought us no closer to a playoff system, what will?