I Have A Dream

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke before 250,000 people in Washington about equality. But King dreamt of more than just equality. His vision went beyond that. He believed that the public perception of disadvantaged persons played a huge role in the culture of America and that, unless there was a change in that perception, the rights they did have would not suffice.

Flash forward to 2008: America has just elected its first bi-racial President. While racial discrimination may not be extinct, and probably never will be, it's clear that Dr. King's vision made a difference. I don't mean to compare the civil rights movement to the sports world, but if one individual can help an entire nation overcome a hurdle as large as that, one can certainly change something as trivial as college football's postseason format.

One of the biggest stories in sports over the last couple of weeks has centered around Barack Obama and his statements concerning college football. President-elect Obama believes that the FBS, college football's top division, is cheating its fans. He feels that the current BCS system and bowl selection process is flawed. Join the club, pal. On "60 Minutes" with Steve Kroft, Obama expressed, "I think any sensible person would say that if you got a bunch of teams who played throughout the season and many of them have one or two losses - there's no clear, decisive winner - that we should be creating a playoff system." He went on to say that he'd like to "throw his weight around" and try to make that happen.

Now that, is change we can believe in! President-elect Obama would like to see an 8-team playoff. While I think that a 16-team version would make more sense, I'd take what I can get. Anything is better than this BCS nonsense. College football may be evolving into a minor league of sorts, but some purity remains. Why taint this sport we love by only considering the financial gains? You can say what you want about our future president and his priorities being out of order, but maybe this is a sign of his earnest desire to do what's right.

I apologize for turning this into a semi-political conversation, but I'd like to return to Mr. Obama's previous statement. He said something about, "a bunch of teams...have one or two losses...there's no clear, decisive winner." While considering that, let's take a look at the current BCS Standings...

Today, there are only two (although that number could change this weekend) undefeated teams (Alabama and Texas Tech) remaining of the six major BCS conferences. Obviously, they have earned the right to be #1 and #2. From there, things get fishy. The country's third ranked team (Texas) has as many losses (one) as the teams ranked fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth (Florida, Oklahoma, Southern Cal and Penn State). However, the nation's seventh ranked team (Utah) remains unblemished, as they're considered by most to be inferior to the one-loss teams ahead of them. But why are they considered to be inferior? And besides the three undefeated teams I already mentioned, there are in fact two more unbeatens. Boise State is currently ranked ninth (behind the four one-loss schools I named above) and Ball State, a perennial laughing-stock in the lowly Mid-American Conference, is only ranked seventeenth. In fact, Ball State is behind a handful of two-loss teams.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that the three unbeaten "little guys" would probably lose to many, if not all, of those one and two-loss teams. Still, the game is played on the field for a reason. If the game was played on paper, and opinions were all that mattered, preseason #1 Southern Cal would be the National Champs, right? Problem is, they lost to Oregon State. And Penn State beat Oregon State, so why should SoCal be ranked ahead of them? I could go on forever, but I'll spare you. My point is this: you can't just guess who the two best are.

Since I'm already knee-deep in this politically-charged rant, I may as well use it to further prove my point.... In American politics there are two prominent "conferences" (parties) that are considered to be the best. This time last year, the leading candidate from Conference A (the Democratic party) was a lady by the name of Clinton. For all intents and purposes, we'll call her Southern Cal. In the other prominent conference, Conference B (the Republican party), the favorite to win was a guy named Romney. Let's call this guy Ohio State. The long-shot, or dark horse, candidate in this whole mess was a guy by the name of Obama. I'll call him Mr. Undefeated Mid-Major.

Do you catch my drift? Ohio State, much like Mitt Romney, was humiliated and out of the picture sooner than you could say "beat down in SoCal." He didn't even get a shot at the "title game." Southern Cal, like Hillary Clinton, was hugely upset and will likely fall short of a "title game" appearance. If opinion polls were the be-all and end-all, Clinton and Romney would have faced off for all the marbles. Instead, they had a playoff (the primaries), and discovered that neither one of these candidates belonged in the big game (the 2008 Presidential Election). In the end, it was Obama over McCain. If we had a college football playoff system this season, the Championship Game might end with Boise State over Florida. You never know.

So as we sit through the final weeks of this college football season and watch things shake out, another BCS disaster could be lurking. Call me a cynic, but I'm actually hoping that that will be the case. And if that is the case, maybe our new president can do something to change things some day. Until then, we can always dream.