| BCS: College football’s biggest day, no longer on its biggest day | ||||
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| PS Internacional - English | |||
 The BCS has changed college football. We occasionally get the final match-up right, like we did this year. But why does New Year’s Day have to suffer? New Year’s Day still provides a cornucopia of college football, but it’s hard to get excited about a bunch of games that pit Big 10 and SEC teams against each other. It makes me long for what it used to be like.Almost. You remember what New Year’s Day was like, don’t you? Stumble out of bed just in time to watch the last of the Tournament of Roses parade. Then switch it over to the Cotton Bowl. The game was a crap shoot in match-ups, weather, or both. The Cotton Bowl would end just in time for the Rose Bowl. The game in Pasadena continues to be the most visually stunning sporting event. All those sun drenched colors. Weather porn for those who are buried under a mountain of snow. New year’s Day would end with the Sugar and Orange Bowls. The games were great, but unless we got really lucky and got a game that pitted the top two teams in the country, we would have to wait until the writers and coaches determined who were college football’s best. Even after all the games were played, there still may not have been a clear cut #1. It happened as recently as 1990, 1994, ad 1997. The Rose Bowl, which had been so insistent that its matchup pits the Pac-10 and Big 10 champs finally relented in 1998, and the BCS was born. The BCS made sure that #1 and #2 played each other, regardless of conference or bowl affiliation. It meant that New Year’s Day as we know it would come to an end. The BCS Bowls lobbied and got exclusive time windows for their telecasts. If that window was after January 1 so be it. Heck, now there are more games after January 1 than on it. It also meant, though, that teams outside the Pac-10 and Big 10 could finally get a crack at playing in the Grandaddy of Them All. It happened for Texas in 2004. They replaced USC, who had made the 1-2 matchup vs. Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. But it wasn’t just the game. The Showband of the Southwest got to march in the Tournament of Roses. The team went to Disneyland and the Lawry’s Beef Bowl. And the game, well, Vince Young got his name engraved on one of the benches that encircle the stadium – an honor bestowed to the Rose bowl MVP. His name has been etched on a bench twice. Tweaking the BCS has been as much a part of its tradition as anything. Changes were made to the ranking calculations a few times. To appease the non-BCS conferences, another game was added. Not another Bowl, mind you, a plus one. Two games at one venue. That’s fine for three of the venues.  Two games in a week? Too much for the Rose Bowl. / Photo: John Jagou The Rose Bowl is a special place, a special game. To play two games within a week’s time just doesn’t seem right. Especially considering that the second one is the big one. It’s as if the rehearsal dinner is more important than the wedding. But that’s the BCS. Once this current cycle’s contract expires, there will be no shortage of Bowls who wouldn’t mind being added to the BCS as the Plus1. The logical choice would be the Cotton Bowl. It has the history and tradition, and best of all, a lot seats and a lot of luxury boxes in that shiny new stadium in Arlington. Of course once the game starts next Thursday, none of that will matter. It’s just a shame that college football’s biggest day can’t be played on its biggest day, especially when it is played on its grandest stage.
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