Miami's bout with the BCS

After routing Big East rival West Virginia 45-3 last Thursday night, University of Miami football players spent Sat., Oct. 27 watching their fellow undefeated teams fumble away their championship hopes. As one of only three teams to retain its unbeaten tag nine weeks into the season, Miami had reason to rejoice in the struggles of its competitors. Unlike any other sport at any level of competition, college football relies almost exclusively on regular-season performance to select its national champion. In the quest for one of the coveted top two spots in the college football hierarchy, a team's only option is to win all its games, cross its fingers, and hope the other title contenders fall along the way.

Miami has done just that, yet the Hurricanes' 6-0 record may not be enough to earn them a shot at the national title. To determine its top two teams, college football relies on the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), a ranking system that evaluates a team based on average poll rankings, strength of schedule, team losses, and quality wins. Entering the weekend, Miami held the top spot in both of the traditional voting polls, but stood only fourth in the BCS.

Despite losses by Oklahoma and UCLA—two of the teams ranked ahead of Miami in the BCS—the 'Canes failed to claim one of the top two spots in the new poll released on Mon., Oct. 29. Even with its loss to Nebraska, Oklahoma held onto the No. 2 spot. A mere 0.12 points separate the two teams, but the fact remains that OU controls its postseason destiny, while Miami, despite its undefeated record, must receive help to earn the No. 2 ranking.

The BCS rankings aim to eliminate the subjectivity associated with the AP and Coach's polls in selecting title contenders, and for the most part, they achieve this aim. But these rankings don't provide a better solution; rather, they trade subjectivity for an equally faulty mathematical formula.

According to the latest BCS rankings, Miami's schedule ranks 76th in difficulty in Division-IA, while Oklahoma's ranks ninth. This discrepancy reflects not an effort to play a particularly difficult or easy schedule, but an uncontrollable outcome of conference affiliation. Miami plays in the lackluster Big East, while Oklahoma battles in the Big 12, a conference that boasts three teams in the BCS top five.

The Sooners gain an incredible advantage over the 'Canes simply by playing mandatory conference games. By defeating Texas, No. 5 in the BCS, Oklahoma padded its strength of schedule and earned bonus points for a quality win. At the same time, Miami never has an opportunity to play a team of Texas' caliber in its conference. A better indication of a team's desire to play top-level competition is its out-of-conference schedule. The Hurricanes' non-conference slate boasts two ranked teams and a combined record of 17-10, while the Sooners' opponents sport a 12-17 record. In its limited capacity to exercise control over its own schedule, Miami is the team that plays the more demanding regimen.

Not only does the BCS provide unjust rewards for conference affiliation; it also overemphasizes the importance of schedule strength in general. The Sooners gained three points on Miami for their more difficult schedule and lost only one point for their loss to Nebraska. Further, strength of schedule completely ignores actual performance. The Sooners never mounted a threat in the second half against Nebraska, yet they earned valuable points for playing dead against their rivals. While the BCS may provide a useful objective analysis, it fails to offer the subjectivity that is so often a necessary component of evaluation, the subjectivity that the traditional voting polls so effectively provide.

While returning to subjective rankings may not solve college football's postseason problems, the BCS certainly is not adequate in selecting the nation's best teams. As long as only two teams compete for the national championship, no computer or formula can eliminate the ambiguities inherent in selection. Clearly the answer is a college football playoff, a dream of many that seems unachievable in the near future. While we wait, the supporters of the BCS assure us that these ambiguities have a way of working themselves out, that the two best teams in the nation usually separate themselves from the pack by season's end. Tell that to the Hurricanes, who stand poised to repeat their No. 3 nightmare.

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