There is talk of revamping the BCS system and most of the talk centers around a Plus 1 system, where the top four teams would square off in two bowls, and then the winners would face each other for the national title. The issue is that this still wouldn’t produce a national champion. even the BCS’s own history works against it on this. Here’s a history of the national title games, under that would’ve been the Plus 1 matchups, followed by teams that would’ve been left out that played in the BCS games. The reason I chose only teams that got into BCS bowls was I figured that if a school didn’t get a BCS bid, it wouldn’t get into a BCS playoff either.
1998-99
National Title game: Tennessee (12-0) over Florida State (11-1)
Plus 1 matchups: #1 Tennessee vs. #4 Ohio State (10-1), #2 Florida State vs. #3 Kansas State (11-1)
Left out: We’ll start by mentioning K-State wasn’t even in a BCS bowl in this year. Other candidates would be #9 Wisconsin (10-1) and #5 UCLA (10-1)
1999-2000
National Title Game: #1 Florida State (11-0) over #2 Virginia Tech (11-0)
Plus 1 matchup: #1 Florida State vs. #4 Alabama (10-2), #3 Nebraska (11-1) vs. #2 Virginia Tech
Left out: #7 Wisconsin (9-2), #8 Michigan (9-2), #5 Tennessee (9-2)
2000-01
National Title game: #1 Oklahoma (11-0) over #2 Florida State (10-1)
Plus 1 matchups: #1 Oklahoma vs. #4 Washington (10-1), #2 Florida State vs. Miami (10-1)
Left out: #6 Oregon State (10-1)
2001-2002
National Title Game: #1 Miami (11-0) over #2 Nebraska (11-1)
Plus 1: #1 Miami vs. #4 Oregon (10-1), #2 Nebraska vs. #3 Colorado (10-2)
Left out: #5 Florida (9-2), #8 Illinois (10-1), #10 Maryland (10-1)
2002-2003
National Title Game; #2 Ohio State (13-0) over #1 Miami (12-0)
Plus 1: #1 Miami vs. #4 Southern California (10-2), #2 Ohio State vs. #3 Georgia (12-1)
Left out: #5 Iowa (11-1), #6 Washington State (10-2), #7 Oklahoma (11-2)
2003-2004
National Title Game: #2 LSU (12-1) over #1 Oklahoma (12-1)
Plus 1: #1 Oklahoma vs. #4 Southern California, #2 LSU vs. #4 Michigan (10-2)
Left out: #5 Ohio State (10-2), #7 Florida State (10-2), #9 Miami. This was a split title at any rate as USC took the AP poll.
2004-2005
National title game: #1 Southern California (11-0) over #2 Oklahoma (12-0)
Plus 1: #1 Southern California vs. #4 Texas (10-1), #2 Oklahoma vs. #3 Auburn (12-0)
Left out: #6 Utah (11-0)
2005-2006
National title game: #2 Texas (12-0) over #1 Southern California (12-0)
Plus 1: #1 USC vs. #4 Ohio State (9-2), #2 Texas vs. #3 Penn State (10-1)
Left out: #6 Notre Dame (9-2), #7 Georgia (10-2), #11 West Virginia (10-1)
2006-2007
National Title game: #2 Florida (11-1) over #1 Ohio State (11-0)
Plus 1: #1 Ohio State vs. #4 LSU (10-2), #2 Florida vs. #3 Michigan (10-1)
Left out: #5 Southern California (10-2), #6 Louisville (11-1), #8 Boise State (12-0), #10 Oklahoma (11-2), #11 Notre Dame (11-2), #14 Wake Forest (11-2). SEC runs starts this year
2007-2008
National Title Game: #2 LSU (11-2) over #1 Ohio State (11-1)
Plus 1: #1 Ohio State vs. #4 Oklahoma (11-2), #2 LSU vs. #3 Virginia Tech (11-2)
Left out: #5 Georgia (10-2), #7 Southern California (10-2), #8 Kansas (11-1), #9 West Virginia (10-2), #10 Hawaii (12-0)
2008-2009
National Title Game: #2 Florida (12-1) over #1 Oklahoma (12-1)
Plus 1: #1 Oklahoma vs. #4 Alabama (12-1), #2 Florida (12-1) vs. #3 Texas (11-1)
Left out: #5 Southern California (11-1), #6 Utah (12-0), #8 Penn State (11-1)
2009-2010
National Title Game: #1 Alabama (13-0) over #2 Texas (13-0)
Plus 1: #1 Alabama vs. #4 TCU (12-0), #2 Texas vs. #3 Cincinnati (12-0)
Left out: #6 Boise State (13-0)
2010-2011
National Title Game: #1 Auburn (13-0) over #2 Oregon (12-0)
Plus 1: #1 Auburn vs. #4 Stanford (11-1), #2 Oregon vs. #3 TCU (12-0)
Left out: #5 Wisconsin (11-1), #6 Ohio State (11-1)
2011-2012
National Title Game: #2 Alabama (11-1) over #1 LSU (13-0)
Plus 1: #1 LSU vs. #4 Stanford (11-1), #2 Alabama vs. #3 Oklahoma State (11-1)
Left out: This would be the only year a Plus 1 would’ve crowned a legit champion
Still think a Plus 1 will give us undisputed national title? And this is by putting down only the teams that received a BCS invite. It doesn’t include 11-1 Michigan State from 2010, and as you can see, several ranked teams didn’t make a BCS bowl, therefore getting left out in the system as well. Yet the Plus 1 will succeed where BCS hasn’t?
And people wonder why I think the system’s broken and needs to be completely overhauled? The Plus 1 is like putting a band-aid on a severed limb.
Sources:
http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/2005_archive_bcs.html