Bowl Championship Series
Essay Preview: Bowl Championship Series
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The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is designed to be a showcase of five games. Measuring the success of the BCS by their standards they have been successful at achieving their goal. The problem is that the public does not feel the same and is demanding a change. The general consensus on the BCS is that 1) it is too hard to understand, 2), there are too many bias decisions made on the rankings and (3) The final result is not always the best team winning
Each team member was asked to review the current BCS rules and modify it to how they felt it would better the system. The goal was to simplify the existing BCS rules and to make it fair for all teams competing giving an end result of the best teams playing for number 1. By using the Nominal group technique we were each able to come up with what we thought would be the best way to address the concerns individually. Once we designed our individual plans, we presented them to each other as a group. After we reviewed each idea we critiqued each others plan, and narrowed our choices down to two. We then voted on which one we thought would be the best at addressing the three concerns.
The solution
Fist we wanted to address the overall goal. It should not be a showcase of five games; it should be a showcase of the best teams. We looked at the automatic qualification which allows teams an automatic BCS bowl bid for multiple years and gives teams in a high status conference higher preference. By eliminating the automatic qualification it puts all the teams on the same playing field. (1) Then we looked at the rules for how the teams were ranked. Two of the three methods used to vote on team are subjective and have the ability to be bias. The Harris poll is completed by the Associated Press; the USA Today Poll is completed by the coaches. By eliminating the Harris and the Coaches poll we can remove any bias or subjective decisions. Teams will be ranked by the order they finished the previous season and then use the point system generated by the BCS computer. (3) With and unbiased raking system and an equal shot at competing for the number one spot each team and conference an play for can play for one of the 4 spots outlined in the NCAA Presidents “plus one ” format. Semifinalists could be seeded into two BCS games, the winners meeting for the title. Or the BCS could play out its bowl lineup, recalculate its mathematical team standings and match Nos. 1 and 2 in a final game. (Wieberg)
Works Cited
Wieberg, Steve. “NCAA president calls football plus-one sound concept.” USA Today 13 January 2012: 1.