Virginia is on its way to becom-ing a major football force in an up-and-coming major football conference. Virginia will soon reap all the benefits that schools such as Michigan, Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas have enjoyed for years. The ACC is well on its way to becoming the next Big 10, Big 12 or SEC. One of these benefits is an automatic BCS bid to the winner of a major conference.
The BCS system isn't necessarily bad, but right now it is inherently unfair, favoring good teams from the major conferences while treating the elite mid-major teams with contempt. Saturday was a prime example of why it is no longer safe to assume the major conferences deserve special treatment -- the gap in talent is closing.
No. 6 Kansas State lost to MAC favorite Marshall. Granted, K-State had to play without its starting quarterback and Heisman hopeful, Ell Roberson, but Marshall was playing with a back-up quarterback as well.
Even more compelling than the Marshal game is the season of Northern Illinois thus far. After dethroning No. 14 Maryland in its season opener, Northern Illinois took their show on the road to defeat No. 21 Alabama in Tuscaloosa. At least Northern Illinois has received some credit, earning a No. 20 spot in the new rankings, even though they've done more on the field thus far than No. 5 Virginia Tech. The Hokies have only beaten three unranked teams in Central Florida, James Madison and Texas A&M.
In addition to the fact that good mid-major teams are underrated, mediocre and even good teams from major conferences are overrated. Take No. 3 Ohio State, for example. After blowing out Washington in their season opener, the Buckeyes struggled to wins over San Diego State, North Carolina State and even Bowling Green, winning each by only one score.
Even when teams from non-major conferences prove their ability on the field, they are rarely, if ever, rewarded by votes in the media polls. Yes, it's our fault just as much as the BCS computer. But even if the top mid-major teams were in the top-10, they would probably never see a BCS bid, in part due to the strength of schedule argument.
This argument runs something along the lines of "since major conference teams must play other teams in their conference, they have harder schedules than the mid-major teams." Excuse me? The next game on schedule for three of the top-10 teams are Northwestern, Connecticut and Duke. Teams from the major conferences usually refuse to play the top mid-major schools. Also, the fact that major-conference teams are better is a fallacy to begin with -- beating Duke is easier than beating a top mid-major team like Marshall.
When it all boils down to it, it's all about the money. The top teams and major conferences have the money, and they want to keep it that way. The BCS is just another tool for them to keep the money in the major conferences. The sad thing is that the BCS is marketed as the solution -- the way to finally get the two top teams in the nation to face off to find out which is the best team in the nation. If only this were so, instead we find it is only a greedy scheme to grab and keep as much money as possible. Why should a team which has a worse record, or maybe even ranked lower than another, receive an automatic bid to a BCS game? Take last season, when Florida State received an automatic BCS bid despite being ranked in the bottom half of the top-25 rankings.
It is not fair, it is greedy, and it is a disgrace to the spirit of amateur college athletics.
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