The BCS was a constant source of college football angst for most of its 16-season existence. Its methodology frustrated many fans, for whom it seemed too vague, too subjective, too reliant on computers. The fact that it was something of a moneymaking scheme for its bowl directors certainly didn’t help, either. The BCS fueled conference realignment and relegated wealth to the power conferences. No matter your politics, it was hard to disagree with President Barack Obama when he appeared on Monday Night Football during his 2008 presidential campaign and told ESPN’s Chris Berman that he supported a college football playoff rather than the BCS.
What Obama called for that night was an eight-team playoff, and we’re not there—yet. Still, the College Football Playoff, which began in 2014, is more transparent than its predecessor, and the four-team format is far less arbitrary than the previous two-team model. Sure, it hasn’t solved all of the inherent problems in determining a champion; just ask Penn State, which won the Big Ten and beat Ohio State in the regular season only to watch the Buckeyes secure a playoff berth. Another critique of the BCS was the number of undefeated teams who were never ranked high enough to compete for a championship. Theoretically, the playoff should and sometimes will guard against that, but last winter 13–0 Western Michigan was sent to the Cotton Bowl. Still, the system in place now is better for college football and has room, potentially, to expand into something more.
