With the Boise State Broncos playing Virginia Tech this evening, there's been a bunch of talk about the BCS system in what seems to be an annual discussion that never gets a solution.  NCAA Football is horribly broken in its current form.  Consider the following exchange.

Me: Boise State is a good team.  Too bad they don't get the respect they deserve.

BCS Fan: They play a garbage schedule.  What two ranked teams all year?

Me: That's because the Florida's of the world are scared to play them.

BCS Fan: If Florida has to play an SEC schedule, what's in it for them to play Boise State?

Me: My point exactly.  How can Boise State play a worthy "SEC"-like schedule if no SEC team will play Boise State?

We both shrug.  NCAA Football is broken.  Teams play 12 games and the margin of error is so thin that it acts to disincentivize teams from playing other good teams.  What you end up with is week after week of games that are 72 - 0 like this week's Oregon vs New Mexico matchup.  *yawn*  Each week, we get a couple of games that are worth watching and everyone already knows that Boise State has to go undefeated to even have the slim chance of appearing in the BCS title game.  Here's a list of the games played this weekend and the results. (Home team in bold)

#1 Alabama vs San Jose St 48 - 3 *Trinity High School would be a better opponent*
#2 Ohio State vs Marshall 45 - 7 *sleeper*
#4 Florida vs Miami (OH) 34 - 12 *boring*
#5 Texas vs Rice 34 - 17 *This was over at halftime*
#24 Oregon St. vs #6 TCU 21 - 30 *Non BCS school playing a strong opener.*
#7 Oklahoma vs Utah St. 31 - 24 *The other statistical scare of the weekend*
#8 Nebraska vs W. Kentucky 49 - 10 *Hope W. Kentucky got paid well to roll over.*
#9 Iowa vs E. Illinois 37 - 7 *more yawn*
#11 Oregon vs New Mexico 72 - 0 *Why was this even scheduled?*
#12 Wisconsin vs UNLV 41 - 21 *Wisconsin wanted one more week of warmth I guess.*
#13 Miami (FL) vs Florida A&M 45 - 0 *they might as well play a junior college*
#14 USC vs Hawaii 49 - 36 *One of the better games of the weekend*
#15 Pittsburgh vs Utah 24 - 27 *The one statistical upset of the week*
#16 Georgia Tech vs S Carolina St 41 - 10
#17 Arkansas vs Tennessee Tech 44 - 3 *laugh*
#18 North Carolina vs #21 LSU 24 - 30 *good win for LSU.  rare quality BCS matchup*
#19 Penn St vs Youngstown St 44 - 14 *more yawn*
#20 Florida State vs Samford 59 - 6 *Where again is Samford?*
#22 Auburn vs Arkansas St 52 - 26 *Is this supposed to be a good matchup?*
#23 Georgia vs LA-Lafayette 55 - 7 *need I continue?  Ok one more."
#25 West Virginia vs Coast Carolina 31 - 0 *Ok, now I am on the floor laughing.*
 

Combined score: 898 - 272.  That ladies and gentlemen is the all-star studded opening weekend of NCAA Football.  It's a garbage product from a broken system unless you're an alum/fan of one of the winners.  Why do I care that West Virginia can beat a glorified high school team.  As far as I am concerned, North Carolina is better in its loss than every school on that list that beat a cupcake by fifty points.  Same goes for Oregon St.  The Boise State vs Virginia Tech game that is progress as I write this is a better game than all but two games this weekend out of 22 games.  That's 3 good games and 19 crappy games.  Ok, I'll throw in the 2 close games that statistically have to happen when you schedule so many lopsided opponents.  Still, 5 out of 22 games are considered entertaining based on score and that's a good product?  It's time for BCS supporters to admit that their contrived system of have and have-not conferences produces a sub-par product built solely to stroke the egos of the member schools in the privileged conferences.  Fear not though, I have a fix and I have one because I don't watch NCAA Football and therefore have not succumbed to the mindless, BCS supporter's rhetoric.

Keep the conferences.  I know there's far too much money involved for them to be dissolved in favor of a better system.  However, the bowl system is where the changes need to be made.  Break NCAA Football into 3 divisions.  I'll call them Division 1, 2 and 3 for simplicity.  Division 1 and 2 have 32 teams each.  All of the rest of the colleges and universities that have a football program can play in Division 3.  Place the top 32 teams into Division 1 and the next 32 into Division 2 with the rest in Division 3.  For 8 games out of the 12 game schedule, Division 1 teams MUST play Division 1 teams.  Same for Division 2 and 3.  The remaining 4 games are for schools to schedule as they see fit so we can keep state rivalries and such in tact.

At the end of the season, the top 12 teams in Division 1 as determined by record play in a playoff similar to the NFL playoff schedule.  The final 5 games are equivalent to today's five BCS bowl games, complete with rotating championship venue.  The other 30 bowl games can rotate hosting the first 6 games of the Division 1 playoffs.  The playoffs would start at the end of the regular season and play through today's BCS championship game date.  Each round happens one week after the last round.  Winner is crowned champion.  Simple and effective.  Should produce the same quality of product that we see in the NFL.

Here's where things get more interesting because the above is nothing more than a proven playoff system.  After the playoff teams are chosen, 20 teams remain In Division 1.  The bottom 20 teams from Division 1 will play games against the top 20 Division 2 teams to fill out 20 of the remaining 24 bowl games.  Winners of those bowl games make up the bottom of Division 1 for the next season while the losers get demoted to Division 2.  The remaining bowl games can be used in the same fashion for movement between Division 2 and 3.  In this format the top team in Division 2 would play the 13th ranked team in Division 1 for the 13th ranking in Division 1 for the subsequent season.

Sit back and let that sink in for a second.  It's a massive change to the system but for 8 games on every team's schedule, we, the fans are bound to see better, closer, more-fairly matched games.  That's a better product.  Should a TCU or a Boise State come along and manage to keep a good program together, they get rewarded with a Division 1 chance at a title regardless of their conference.  Of course, they'll have to earn it by consistently beating Division 1 talent which solves the whole problem with today's conference based system. 

Put it this way; Vanderbilt could rattle off a great season this year and get more consideration for a BCS championship than Boise State.  Vanderbilt could lose one game and get more consideration than TCU going undefeated again.  That wouldn't happen in the above system.  Vanderbilt would have been demoted to Division 2 (possibly Division 3) and forced to earn its way back to BCS contention instead of benefiting from simply being in a "worthy" conference.  Vanderbilt hasn't had a winning season in 8 years yet if they put together a single one loss season, they automatically get BCS consideration during that year.  TCU and Boise State go undefeated in the same year and settle for BCS scraps.  Boise State has to be consistently good while Vanderbilt would get a BCS championship game for being good for only one year.  That's why I don't watch or really care about NCAA Football.

Let it all sink in.  Admit the NCAA Football system is broken.  It's the first step to a better product and a better fan experience in my opinion.