F
or those of us who have harped on the need for college football to introduce a playoff system for the better part of our lifetimes, it's an annual rite of November to create a mock 16-team bracket for the current season and dream about the possibilities.
Staring at what college football's postseason could be always illustrates what a travesty the BCS is. Drawing up a mock BCS-like system for college basketball only hammers that point home further.
The abomination to the right is what the projections for the new college basketball season might look like if the sport's powers-that-be ditched the NCAA tournament in favor of college football's feeble method of determining its national champion. The sites of the BCS games are four of the most common Final Four venues and the matchups were determined by conference affiliation and the AP's preseason top-25 poll.
What's most important to notice, of course, is that no team from outside a major conference would be projected to play in a BCS game. That would be the case virtually every year, meaning we'd have no Butler, no George Mason, no Gonzaga and none of the upset-driven charm that makes the NCAA tournament perhaps America's best sporting event.
A popular argument in favor of the BCS has always been that it makes the regular season more relevant, but even that theory is flawed. Anyone who watched Wednesday night's College of Charleston-Maryland classic witnessed a mid-major fighting for a marquee road win to enhance its NCAA tournament profile and a big-name program fighting to avoid a humbling home loss that could damage its resume.
Ultimately, the NCAA basketball tournament has become such a cash cow for college sports that there's little chance we'll ever see a BCS logo at mid-court in April or a list of college basketball bowl games.
As we get set for the new basketball season and college football's strech run, let's be thankful sanity still reigns in at least one sport.
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