Bye, Bye to the BCS

So Monday night marked the end of the 16 year BCS era.  Funny how times change people's views on how college football's national champion should be decided.  Prior to the BCS it was a free for all and there was no real rhyme or reason besides the final ranking on who won the title.  Many times the two best teams didn't play in a bowl and that in many ways was why the BCS was created to try to insure that this would no longer be the case.  Fast forward to 2014 and it appears the vast majority of college football fans are overjoyed that the BCS come next year will be a thing of the past.

I am not here to say the BCS was good or bad.  I do believe however that almost every year the best team hoisted the crystal ball, and to me that was the most important thing.  Also, the BCS allowed the little man for one day such as Boise State against Oklahoma or TCU against Wisconsin (Hawaii against Georgia not so much) to play on one of college football's biggest stages and not only compete by actual beat one of college football's premier programs. 

 The one major drawback however was there always appeared to be one or two teams at the end of each year who felt snubbed and that they should have been one of the two teams to play in the BCS Championship Game.  This year it was Michigan State and in past years one could have argued for USC in 2003 (the one team I believe was the true national champion, without having played in the title game in the BCS era) and Auburn in 2004.  The four team playoff hopefully will help remedy this situation, although people are already clamoring for the playoff to be expanded.  I do believe it will eventually be expanded to eight teams, but I do not think it should go beyond that.

While I am happy college football is moving forward with the playoff system, I do not think the BCS was as bad as people made it out to be.  From a personal standpoint the USC-Texas game in 2006 and Monday night's game between Auburn and Florida State were two of the best football games I have seen given the magnitude of the game.  Pre-BCS there is a good chance these match-ups would never have taken place. The best part however of transitioning from the BCS to the playoff era of college football will be that strength of schedule will hold a lot of weight.  The non-conference schedules during the regular season will be significantly tougher which will be great from a fan's perspective.  The days of powerhouses playing FCS and directional schools will likely cease to exist and college football will forever be better for it.