This year marks one of the craziest college football seasons ever. There were upsets, disappointments, and confusions. When there were just four weeks left in the season, four teams were poised to finish undefeated and this caused a massive scramble to figure out who should play for the national championship game.
However, that same weekend Alabama, the defending National Champions, was upset by Texas A&M. This seemed to simplify things, with the only undefeated teams left being Kansas State, Oregon, and Notre Dame. Kansas State climbed to number one, Oregon to number two, and Alabama fell to number four.
With three games left, Kansas State looked to fulfill their quest to become a National Champion, only to fall short, when Baylor blew them out of the water the following week. This same weekend the number 2 ranked Oregon Ducks lost in overtime to Stanford. Notre Dame was then the only undefeated team in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and climbed to number one with Alabama becoming the new number two. Heading into the final week the Fighting Irish defeated the University of Southern California (USC) and remained undefeated earing a spot in the National Championship.
However, Notre Dame is not the only team in the BCS to finish undefeated. Ohio State, of the Big Ten conference, finished the season perfectly after defeating their archrival Michigan the last week. The BCS poll however, place Ohio State not even in the top 25. This is because of the sanctions brought on by player violations, which ban them from postseason play. This is also the reason that Nebraska will face Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game instead of facing the Buckeyes, a talented team that would be in contention to play Notre Dame in the National Championship.
The Big Ten is not new to these sanctions brought on by the NCAA. Penn State is currently under a 4-year postseason ban as well as other sanctions because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. With both Penn State and Ohio State banned from bowls, The Big Ten is looking at a disappointing year in post-season performance. The winner of the Big Ten championship game between Nebraska and Wisconsin will win an automatic bid into the Rose Bowl, but, other than that, no team will win a bid to play in a BCS game. Other teams that qualified for a bowl game in the Big Ten includes Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan State, Michigan and Northwestern; only 7 of the 12 teams qualified.
It is not only the confusing sanctions and rankings that are leaving a lot of fans scratching their heads this year, the recent announcement of a 4-team playoff is also confusing. Although some fans thought the change was necessary. With last year’s national championship game being played with two South Eastern Conference teams leaving a very talented Oklahoma State team in a different BCS bowl where they blew out their opponent. The plan will not take affect until 2014, but is being anticipated as the change that college football needs. A committee will select the 4 teams based upon conference championships and the strength of schedule. There will still be bowl games; but now two semi-final games between the top 4 teams will precede the bowl games, and then the winner of those will play in the national championship game with the loser of the semifinals meeting in a lesser bowl game.
With the regular season wrapped up, conference championship games will determine how the bowl line-ups are done. College football is always entertaining, and this year certainly had its share of drama, nail-biting finishes, and rivalry matchups that go back one hundred years. College football will always be one of the most exciting and fun sports to watch, and, with the changes coming, it should become even better.
