Strategy Day: Who’s The Real National Champion?

According to Rick Reilly over at ESPN, the national championship game has already been played and the trophy already handed out. It goes to the Utah Utes, for their undefeated season and scores against teams like Alabama, who they ‘seal clubbed’ in their bowl game.

Is there a discrepancy in bowl game and BCS selection between the east and the west? Do teams like Utah and Boise State really have a chance to play in BCS championship games? Why did the nation take a sigh of relief when Oregon State lost to Oregon, preventing them from earning a trip to the Rose Bowl? Is USC the only team on the west coast or in the Pac10 that’s any good?

All I know is that the Pac10 went 5-0 in bowl games and the Big 10 went 1-6. The hierarchical structure of Division I football in America ought to be re-examined. The BCS ought to seriously consider a playoff format, where the top 8-10 teams in the nation battle in different bowl games for the earned right to be called the nation’s best football team.

Teams like Boise State, Utah, even Oregon State don’t seem to get a second though consideration for those top-ranked spots. Is it because they don’t bring in enough revenue for the BCS? Reilly submits that the BCS committee will tell you, “the college football season is like a playoff, how it’s an elimination tournament every week. Really? Well, how come Florida and Oklahoma weren’t eliminated with their losses? Utah ran the table, beat everybody set in front of them, including (Alabama) in no less than the Sugar Bowl, and gets the bagel.”

What do you think? Should there be a playoff? Do Florida and Oklahoma deserve to be called a national champion? Does the BCS favor the east coast?

Let us know your opinion in the comment section below.