This is always a sad week for Pwang. The college football season is all but over. Sure, we've got one last bowl game to latch onto before real depression sets in, but outside of Gainesville and Columbus most fans' teams really aren't playing for much. The Rose Bowl is nice, and watching Notre Dame get steamrolled by LSU in the Sugar Bowl will be fun, but other than that does anyone actually care?
I'll watch Penn State play Tennessee in the Outback bowl on New Year's Day, but most of you probably won't pay attention to that game and even those that might have thought about watching will probably still be in bed nursing your hangovers when the 11:00 a.m. kickoff rolls around.
As little as most of us may care, bowl winners do end the season on a positive note; the momentum from a bowl game works wonders when it comes to off-season training and recruiting. Fans buy more season tickets for next year and coaches and players spend the summer with just a little more energy and enthusiasm than they would have had coming off a season-ending loss.
This argument, that the bowl system allows 32 teams to end their seasons on a high note whereas a tournament style playoff system would only allow one team to win its final game of the season, is not brought up often enough in the discussion about the legitimacy and future of the BCS.
I wouldn't clearly place myself in the pro-bowl or anti-bowl crowd when it comes to this discussion. I do like the current BCS system more than I like the idea that a team from a major conference can go undefeated and be one of only two undefeated teams in the country and still not get a shot at the national title — see my 1994 Penn State Nittany Lions who finished No. 2 behind Nebraska — but I'm not sure if it does enough to give deserving teams a fair shot.
In every year that the No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup was not painfully obvious to all college football fans, the BCS has managed to create more controversy than it has resolved.
No. 1 in both polls and left out: USC 2003.
Undefeated SEC champs and left out: Auburn 2004.
One loss on the year, by three points to the No. 1 team in the country and left out: Michigan 2006.
True, Michigan's exclusion is not nearly on par with that of Auburn or USC, but it does point out that college football's national championship is still more about polls than it is about winning football games.
In order to keep the bowl system in place, but also find a real national champion, I'd like to see a four-team playoff in which two of the four major BCS bowls serve as national championship semifinal games with the final game to be played a week later. Take the best four teams in the BCS standings and let them actually decide the championship on the field. The idea of a clearcut, undisputed national champion shouldn't be something that we come across every once in a while if we're lucky. It should be what we expect to see every year, and it really wouldn't be all that hard to make it happen.
Pwang's Top 5 Heisman Candidates
1.Troy Smith, QB OSU 2.Darren McFadden, RB Arkansas 3.Colt Brennan, QB Hawaii 4.Brady Quinn, QB Notre Dame 5.Calvin Johnson, WR Georgia Tech
Pwang's Top 5 NFL talents
1.Calving Johnson, WR Georgia Tech 2.Joe Thomas, OT Wisconsin 3.Adrian Peterson, RB Oklahoma 4.Gaines Adams, DE Clemson 5.Patrick Willis, LB Ole Miss
Pwang's Top 5 Teams for Next Season
1.Michigan 2.USC 3.Arkansas 4.Oklahoma 5.Ohio State
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