After much fanfare and hype, the group of high profile luminaries who will pick up the pieces of the broken BCS model and try to make something a bit more sensible out of the process has finally met.
Many college football fans around the country are a little concerned by the fact that the same guy, Bill Hancock, who gave us the failed BCS concept, is back in charge of the new effort to fix what he and his staff messed up in the first place.
Perhaps it will all work out. The other members of the committee all seem to be top-shelf citizens with a special interest in college athletics. No one has come up with a ‘nickname’ for the group as yet. The Fab 13 won’t work.
The group kind of got off to a shaky start when committee chairman Jeff Long was asked why he thought a one loss team like Stanford was ahead of undefeated Baylor in the current BCS poll. In an answer that sounded all too familiar, Long replied, “That is not in our purview”.
Wait a minute, haven’t we heard that somewhere before? Are we really going to get the same class of evasive run around that the BCS guys have afforded us?
Mr. Long also told reporters, “I’m sure I have a full grasp of what it will entail.” Now why would he feel the need to say that in the first place?
But these are to be the ladies and gentlemen who will decide who will play in the NCAA Championship games next year and it looks like their decision will be final, no appeals.
The idea seems to be to reintroduce the human element into the process. No one has been particularly comfortable with leaving decisions on which kids will play and which will not up to a machine. As it stands today, according to the BCS computers, undefeated Baylor would not even be invited to compete in the championship series.
Think about what all this will mean to people who like to wager on college football games. No longer will the standings be decided by nation-wide polls or even by ballot by sports professionals or even by a computer. From now on, who plays and who stays will be decided by a committee.
One of my old college professors was fond of saying, “A camel is a horse designed by a committee.” I’ll leave you to think that one over.
