Cinderella met the BCS, got stiffed

Imagine what would happen if the clock had struck midnight for Cinderella before her chance to dance with the handsome, young prince. That is exactly what is happening and has happened to many college football teams with the Bowl Championship Series in place. The BCS has been around for 12 years and after each season it has become clear it is not a system that always works. Before explaining the negatives of the BCS system there are many things to know about the system and how it exactly works. The BCS Standings include three components: USA Today Coaches Poll, Harris Interactive College Football Poll and an average of six computer rankings. Each component counts as one-third of a team's overall BCS score. In both human polls, voters fill out their own Top 25 rankings ballot. Each team receives 1-25 points in reverse order of the way they are ranked. Therefore No. 1 will receive 25 points and No. 25 will receive one point. A team is evaluated on the number of voting points it receives in each poll. The computer ranks the teams differently than the human polls do. The computer rankings percentage is calculated by dropping the highest and lowest ranking for each team and then dividing the remaining total by 100, the maximum possible points. With the current system the champions of the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10 and Southeastern Conference play annually in one of the BCS Bowls through the postseason. In addition, one conference champion from Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conference will automatically qualify to play in a BCS Bowl if it has one of two qualifications. The team must be ranked among the top 12 teams in the final BCS standings or among the top 16 teams in the final BCS standings and ranked higher than the champion of one of the conferences whose champion has an annual automatic berth to a BCS Bowl. The only team that does not fall under any of these terms is Notre Dame who has an agreement with the BCS. The agreement is Notre Dame will be guaranteed one of the at-large slots in a BCS Bowl if it is ranked No. 8 or higher in the final BCS standings. It is also guaranteed an annual payment, $4.5 million if it makes a BCS Bowl or $1.3 million if it does not, for its participation in the BCS. With these last few details this is where teams start getting snubbed from either having the National Championship for themselves or even having a chance to play in the National Championship. With the BCS system sometimes there is not even a single National Champion. An example of this is the 2004-2005 season. The regular season ended with five teams undefeated Auburn, Boise State, Oklahoma, Southern California and Utah. Three of these teams were in a BCS Conference and two were not. Oklahoma and USC went on to play in the National Championship, USC came out as the winner, but Auburn and Utah also won their bowl games. This caused a massive controversy, but only for Auburn. Many people do not remember Utah went undefeated. This lead to the championship being shared. The other common occurrence in this system is non-BCS conference teams not having a shot to play for the National Championship. This has happened many years including the 2004-2005 season but the 2006-2007 season is the best example of this happening. Boise State, who was ranked No. 8 in the nation, was the only undefeated team and was snubbed from the National Championship for not being in a BCS conference. It ended up making a BCS Bowl and beat No. 10 Oklahoma in an overtime thriller and sealed itself as the only undefeated team in the nation, but not the National Champion. The worst part about this whole thing is the fact it is continually happening each year. All of this because a team is not in a BCS Conference and is considered a weaker team due to the schedule it plays. Going undefeated has become not enough and it is not fair to any team. This year it looks to repeat itself as right now three teams, Boise State, Cincinnati and Texas Christian, are currently five through seven in the current BCS Standings. They are three of seven undefeated teams in college football right now but these three are different. Cincinnati is the only one of the group to be in a BCS Conference and the media is already saying it does not deserve a shot at the National Championship because the Big East is a weaker conference. To add to the controversy it seems one of the non-BCS conference schools, either TCU or Boise State won't even make a BCS Bowl game. The fact of the matter is with the BCS there is no shot for a Cinderella Story in college footballs postseason. The system is not good for college football and there needs to be a change. There should be no such thing as co-champions or a champion who has one or two loses when there is still an undefeated team. Every team deserves an equal hope, dream and chance to be the National Champion. The clock should not strike midnight for these Cinderella's once the regular season comes to an end.