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New changes could help, but call me skeptical.

If you didn't see it already, it looks like big changes are coming to the BCS. Here is the article discussing it. Of course, there are no specifics given, but we are assured that things will be improved.

It's about time.

If you know me, you know I am a big fan of the small guys in college football. The injustices that have been dealt to the '06 Boise State Broncos, '08 Utah Utes, and '10 TCU Horned Frogs can never be fixed. In fact, instead of addressing the injustices, the BCS powers have absorbed the three top "Non-AQ" programs. The BCS even has a set of built in excuses. When Hawaii gets demolished in the Sugar Bowl, they say "see, the small guys dont really belong!". When Boise, TCU, and Utah win, they claim that the other team was "unmotivated" to play against a little guy and that the other team really would have won if they had tried. Sounds kind of like an insecure third grader to me, but I digress.

I don't want to get into a debate about whether or not those teams should have been national champions. What I want to do is argue that they should have had their chance. All three of those teams did everything that was asked of them. They beat everyone who faced them. All of them ended the season by defeating a "BCS" team in a BCS game.

What changes are in store to improve the system? Will teams who go undefeated be left out of the picture? Will we get to see teams earn it? How it all plays out will be very interesting to watch in the next few months.

This season, we have a national champion that did not win all of its home games. It was not considered worthy to even play for its own conference title, and yet it was able to backdoor its way into the title game because other teams lost. That should never be the case. Teams should be in the title game because they earned it, not because others lost.

Call me skeptical about any real improvements being made. With Boise, TCU, and Utah in power conferences going forward, it is easier to justify the money being kept in the hands of the BCS fat cats. I sincerely doubt that they will make any sincere effort to make sure that all are given a fair shot to win the title. History would be on my side.

I won't be at any of these meetings, but let me tell you what I would do to fix college football.

1. Do away with preseason polls.

Yes, the fans love them, but they are worthless and honestly unfair. They put too much emphasis on where you were last year and if you don't start the season ranked, you have no chance to move up into the top spot. Take the '08 Utes for example. After a 12-0 season, which included victories over top 10 TCU and ranked BYU and Oregon State teams, the Utes were number 7, with several teams ahead of them with one loss. All this was because they laid some eggs in 2007 and weren't ranked to end the season. How you did the year before should have no bearing on what happens to you this year. If you went 0-12 one year, and were able to go 12-0 the next, you deserve a shot at the title. Period.

If we change it so that the first poll is not released until five weeks into the season, it will give us a better idea of who is who and who the contenders are. This will never happen because fans love the preseason poll.

2. Change the coaches poll.

Coaches are busy during the season. They don't have time to go through and watch a bunch of other teams games to determine who the top 25 teams are. Sure, they have someone else help them usually, but then its not really the coaches' vote is it?

3. One poll, and one poll only.

Let's get one poll. I don't care if you combine voters, but let's just get one poll. We need a mixture of retired coaches, media members, computers (maybe, I guess), and former players. It also needs to come from a wide variety of backgrounds so that as much bias is eliminated as possible.

The system can be made right. You can't please everyone, but we need something better than what we have now. Will the powers that be get it done? I doubt it, but there is always a chance.

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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