Its just a factor in determining team strength

Certainly not the science the BCS and other media make it out to be. Its just a factor in determining team strength.Football is a dynamic game. If it were all based on recruiting, USC, Tennessee, and Oklahoma would be playing in January, Charlie Weis would still have a job and Ed Orgeron wouldnt be reporting to a Head Coach.Third, any system designed to determine a national champion in intercollegiate football can only come about through the agreement of those universities that consistently field highly ranked teams. You cannot have a playoff without cooperation from the essential conferences.Rebuttal: One, if they are consistently better then how come they cant consistently beat the elite non-BCS teams Two, if BCS teams are definitively better, shouldnt a playoff be to their advantageCouldnt we arrange a system where the winners of each playoff round (and their respective conferences) take home a big check Hypothetically, doesnt that play to the advantage of the superior programs and conferencesBoth TCU and Boise State, two top six teams, finished in the top 11 last year and return the vast majority of their starters for next season.Even Utah in a rebuilding year has finished its second season in a row ranked ahead of the likes of USC, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tennessee and Notre Dame.

Hard to argue that these teams are consistently inferior.Some individuals have argued that the BCS is in restraint of trade and violates antitrust laws. If the current agreement is unlawful, then any agreement runs a risk of being unlawful. The only safe option would be to return to the traditional bowl system. The other conferences have access to it; we just restrict that access.Since the elite conferences make all the money now, we wouldnt adopt a playoff, or any alternative, unless it promised us a more lucrative payout Therefore a playoff would also violate the same anti-trust. Because we are threatened by losing revenue, we resort to threatening to go back to the old system that people hated even more.Rebuttal: How is a playoff a violation of anti-trust All it does is increase access for everyone to the National Championship. The playoff isnt the problem with the anti-trust, Harvey knows this The anti-trust problems come from the revenue split. Currently BCS teams get 88 percent of the revenue.The whole reason why the BCS is so anti-playoff is it will inevitably cut into their profits.

Admit it already.James Carville put it best when he recently told CNN/Sports Illustrated: "The only reason the BCS exists is that they're scared that if they change it, they'll lose money. And they're unable to say what the truth is, so they're constantly coming up with other, phony reasons."We appreciate the ideal that a national champion should be crowned on the basis of performance on the field. But even a playoff would offer no guarantee that the two best teams would play for the national championship. There would remain arguments about which teams were selected for the playoffs and how they were seeded. Translation: Why bother fixing the engine when we could get a flat tireRebuttal: Last year, Texas, USC, Utah, Alabama, Texas Tech, TCU and Boise State were all upset with the BCS system. This year, Cincinnati, TCU, Penn State, Boise State, and Florida are all disappointed in their allotment.That is an awful lot of distressed teams and fans from a system that is working. Whats interesting is that much of the frustration is coming from teams that have already qualified for a BCS Bowl.How does that compare to the one or two that get left out of a playoff system Especially when you consider that those one or two teams have probably lost two or three games already They would really have no one to blame but themselves.

Plus, if the regular season is indeed a playoff, how would a two to three loss be upset about not making the cutThe BCS turns the regular season into the "playoff" and produces an opportunity for a game between the two highest-ranked teams.Translation: The fans are not as sophisticated as we are, lets manipulate their perception by using the excitement and popularity of college football against them as the basis to stunt the hatred towards the BCS system.Rebuttal: Does that mean Utah was last years Champion The best team Oklahoma had beaten prior to the National Championship game was TCU The best team Florida had beaten was Alabama Utah beat both of them as well. So how and when did Utah get disqualifiedAlso, if the regular season is a playoff why arent Boise State, Cincinnati, and TCU playing for the title All three boast a stronger, more impressive victory than Texas best win.To secure the agreement of these essential conferences, the system must provide revenue in excess of the opportunities they could obtain on their own, must be consistent with their academic values, must take into account the effect on the fans who provide their schools with support, must protect the bowl system for broad access by many institutions, must preserve the excitement and relevance of the regular season, and must honor the long-standing relationships they have had with the bowls and the communities those bowls support The BCS satisfies these requirements. We have yet to see an alternative arrangement that does the same. Translation: The current system makes the essential conferences and our bowl business partners a lot of money. We just havent seen a proposal that guarantees that for us. Rebuttal: Thats because you refuse to consider alternatives End the greed already. Its insulting to the fan, it debases college football and its unfair to the players and coaches who seem adamantly against your system.Nearly every playoff proposal matches or exceeds your laundry list of requirements. For example:1) The system must exceed what the conferences can make on their own: A simple eight game playoff can be arranged in conjunction with the bowls to create an end product that provides more compelling match-ups, more intrigue, higher TV ratings and increased tickets sales for each BCS Bowl gameas each one has National Championship implications.2) must be consistent with their academic values: A true playoff system, beginning the second or third week of December could actually reduce the length of the season for several teams and using Mr. The BCS found out quickly when they tried to initiate dialogue with the fans via twitter That didnt work so well.