Does Utah have an obligation to promote change?

This year has been exciting to watch! To the nation, our Sugar Bowl victory might be the most opinion shattering game since the 1926 Rose Bowl. As a Utah fan, the success of our team has been indescribable.

In our excitement we can forget that Utah represent the teams from outside the BCS structure. Our personal victory represents a potential victory for all 66 teams eliminated from the national championship game as soon as they are voted below the top 15 in the preseason polls (though it might be the top 25 for the MWC next year).

Since the creation of the BCS a team has ended the season undefeated without a shot at the national title 4 times (Utah 2004 & 2008, Boise State 2006, Tulane 1998). Do we have an obligation to use our media focus to lobby for change?

But what kind of change can we lobby for? Even a plus one would have failed in 2004 as five teams ended the regular season undefeated. Make the final selection after the bowls? There were three still standing then.

Why would the university presidents approve the addition of a game as a fix to the problem when that fix does not guarantee a solution?

The NCAA has also stood firm in its bounds for the postseason (from December 19th thru the second Monday in January), since it was extended slightly to make room for the current championship game.

College football is dependent on the revenues of the Bowl structure and the weekly excitement the BCS formula brings to the top games each week. For all that it lacks in determining the champion, the BCS more than compensates for as a marketing tool. To take a high risk proposition of making a radical change to the structure does not make sense in the current economic cycle.

What is needed is a system that stays within the current postseason window, supports the bowls as award games in its core philosophy, maintains the weekly excitement of the BCS ranking systems and allows all teams an opportunity by winning all their games. If one could do all his and restore the New Year’s Day tradition of being a national celebration of college football that would be even better.

As luck would have it, I have found such a system. If another school was in our shoes, wouldn’t you want them to lobby for a change? Should we not do likewise?