Pat, et al,

I'm glad someone finally put down in words what I've been thinking about
all off-season -- that is if the teams had been normalized based on
their relative rankings instead of their ordinal values, that we may
have had a different contender against Miami in the Rose Bowl last
January. The BCS officials don't seem to understand this problem, but I
think you're right in that they really don't seem to care.

On my website last year, I wrote a small piece on the use of the BCS in
a college football playoff system and mentioned that the way that the
BCS is setup is not to guarantee that the best two teams will matchup in
the BCS championship, but two highly qualified teams. In many years,
there are truly only two great teams (1994, 1997), sometimes there's
only one (2001), sometimes there's several (1968, 1984, 1990). The neat
thing about the old system is that there may have been more than one
ultimate bowl game to watch so it generated more interest. The bad
thing is sometimes, that didn't solve anything. The new system takes
that interest out though, without giving the next best teams the chance
to prove themselves. In addition, pitting what some feel to be an
unworthy opponent in a winner-takes-all game can have huge
repercussion. Had Nebraska actually beaten Miami last January, the
whole system could have fallen apart. A playoff system would correct
these problems.

As for this year's changes, I don't see it as being neutral, but instead
it will likely be less consistent due to the fewer amount of computers,
more convoluted to the general public, and favors teams that play weaker
schedules now due to the elimination of MOV. The BCS is toying with
things that are already accounted for in many computer programs, double
counting others like SoS, and generally making a mockery of the whole
process. The problem, IMHO, is that either they just don't get it, or
are intentionally trying to cause controversy where none needs to
exist. I would not be surprised if there were 4-5 teams that "qualify"
for the BCS title game this year.

The bottom line is that I believe that a playoff is necessary, and not
unattainable with the current system. I urge people to go and read my
little article at http://www.comprank.com/opinions.html#bcs and comment
if you like. I'm not sure that my idea is a silver bullet solution, but
it has got to be better than what we have now.

In any case, looking forward to 2002 college football! Only 24 more
days!

Jeff Imes
http://www.comprank.com