Defending the BCS: Part II

Where y'at, Barry? This was a little too long for a comment, so it'll have to be its own post.

Expanding on Barry's first point in his BCS post that every game counts whether it came early or late, I'd like to mention that the BCS system creates the single most exciting SEASON in all of sport. Nowhere else do fans get so excited about every game and completely overreact of every outcome.

If you'd look at it a little more favorably, you'd see that the entire season is a playoff. The only thing is that some teams play single-elimination (1E) while others get the wildcard of playing double-elimination (2E) (with the exception of LSU 2007) depending on strength of schedule, and boy does this make things fun. Nobody knows going into the season, but one can speculate, who may be able to get this 2E luxury and you won't find out until it's all said and done. Not only that, but the system changes as the year goes on depending on when you and any other squad loses.

For example, if Auburn lays an egg in the Iron Bowl, they're likely out of the National Title picture, in fact, LSU could have a better shot at making it in even though Auburn has the advantage of playing another Top 25 team in the SEC Championship regardless of what happens the rest of the regular season - on the field of course, let's leave Cam Newton's off-field escapades to the Tabloids for now. LSU just happened to lose to Auburn early in the year, and now that it's playing better, could possibly have played itself into 2E even though for a while there it looked like they were clearly a 1E squad. (Note that this is a long shot with Boise St. and TCU in the mix, but it is technically possible.)

The best part about the whole year is that everyone thought Alabama and Florida might have been the only teams playing 2E this season, but both played themselves out of it by the first week of November. If I'd have know Bama could still make the playoffs after losing to LSU, I probably wouldn't have gotten so depressingly drunk the night of 11/6/10, I probably would've celebrated Barry's b-day with joy. Either way, I was getting drunk. And that, my friends, is how the BCS has helped shape my life in 2010.

My point is, the playoffs start in September, but you're never out of it until you're out of it. Remember playing Jailbreak in the gym as a kid? Think about how depressing it was to get sent to jail. Now think about how great it was when a teammate made one of those foam balls in the basketball goal across the gym only to break you and everyone else out. That's like finding out that all of the sudden, you qualified for the double-elimination playoffs. I say no to playoffs because we don't need to dampen the thrill of breaking out of jail.