Arizona State President Wants to Blow Up the BCS

The BCS infrastructure is crumbling brick by brick. First it was reported the Big Ten is exploring a four team playoff. Now a a President of a BCS school is calling for blowing up the BCS altogether and replacing it with an eight team playoff. Arizona State University President Michael Crow told AZCentral.com he would like to see the eight highest-ranked conference champions of the 11 conferences face off in a single-elimination playoff. He would also like to see the NCAA control it much like they do for all the other college sports (There is novel idea!). In addition the teams that don’t make the playoff would then be slated to the appropriate bowls. Crow says his proposal is gaining some momentum in the Pac-12.

After he botched the ASU football coaching search it’s hard to take Crow very seriously. But with that said I like his plan better than just a four team playoff. Four is too limited. I have originally been a believer of increasing it to as many as 16-17 teams. Being a champion for the little guy (a proud graduate of Central Michigan) this would allow every conference champion to get in with those non-BCS schools battling in play-in games to reach the tourney that would also allow bigger schools access via more at-large bids. I still believe this would create the Cinderella aspect necessary combined with allowing enough of the so-called “big boys” in to appease the greater fan bases and television.

But with that said at least Crow’s plan still gives the schools from the smaller conferences a chance if they are judged (although I still hate the subjective element of the sport) to be worthy. In addition it will give heightened meaning to the conference seasons again. It’s not ideal for independents like Notre Dame and BYU but it could force both schools to join a conference which isn’t such a bad thing. While I don’t see this happening right away because college football seems to just want to keep putting band aides on a wide open wound instead of stitching it up properly at least it’s another sign the BCS is being scrutinized more than ever by the people that are actually in charge–the college presidents.

Agree or disagree sound off in the comments section below. Kevin Graham is the Co-Founder of Sports Mashup and regularly covered college football as a sports talk radio host in Salt Lake City. He can be followed on twitter @KevinGraham1280, email him at [email protected] and join him on Google+. Feel free to follow @SportsMashup on Twitter and get interactive and like Sports Mashup on Facebook.