The De Facto College Football Playoffs

We all are fully aware that the overwhelming majority of college football fans are the water to the BCS’s oil. They just don’t mix. And it’s hard to argue that the very existence of the BCS isn’t the biggest injustice currently in the American sports realm. But that doesn’t mean that a de facto playoff system in college football doesn’t exist – especially this season.

The best conferences in the sport are packed with potential champions, and even though there is no organized post-season bracket, it doesn’t mean the regular season can’t serve as a form of a week to week ‘win or go home’ from national title contention. The best of the best are so head and shoulders above the rest that the regular season clashes between the uber-dominant can be viewed as a playoff system. Try it, you’ll like it.

Teams like LSU and Alabama are so elite within their own conference that the only possible game they could lose during the regular season is the one in which they face off against each other. This in itself makes this Saturday’s clash the first round of the de facto (there’s that word again) playoff system. To say the winner of this contest is in the driver’s seat for the national championship game would be an understatement. It’s almost down-right guaranteed the winner will be there in the end.

So with all that we know to this point in the college football season, what scenarios are available to decide the possible national championship opponent that will end up facing the LSU/Alabama winner?

Oklahoma State is ranked 3rd in the BCS standings currently behind LSU and Alabama. They tangle this Saturday with the 14th ranked and previously unbeaten Kansas State Wildcats in Stillwater. Most see the Cowboys getting by the ‘Powercats’ at home without much resistance, but the real test for Okie State will be the annual Bedlam game on the final week of the regular season versus Oklahoma. If OSU gets by KSU, the Bedlam Game will undoubtedly serve as another de facto (and again!) playoff game.

If the ‘Pokes win the penultimate face-off with their in-state rival, they will get their shot at the crystal ball against the LSU/Alabama winner. However, what if the Sooners play spoiler and ruin Okie State’s run to the title game? This would be more than just possible, maybe even probable, due to Oklahoma’s big-game experience advantage over the up-and-coming Cowboys. If Boomer Sooner gets over, who then would be next down the totem pole to step into the National Championship game?

If Oklahoma State loses and 4th ranked Stanford wins out, they would be the next program to step into the big game versus the Alabama/LSU winner. There is one roadblock however to that possibility. The Cardinal face the 6th ranked Oregon Ducks next weekend, albeit in the friendly confines of the Farm in Palo Alto.

Oregon’s only loss was a kickoff weekend defeat at the hands of the top team in the land, LSU. This game was played at what was considered to be at a neutral site – the Jerry Jones compound in Dallas – but let’s be quite frank, Baton Rouge is a hop, skip and a jump from Dallas when compared to the distance from Eugene, Oregon. This was basically an LSU home game, and if it weren’t for turnovers due to opening night jitters, the Ducks might have very well knocked off LSU.

Oregon is no slouch and is extremely high powered. Their track-meet style of offense and scoring ability could cause major problems for Andrew Luck and Stanford. So what if Stanford falls at the hands of Oregon and has their national title hopes dashed as well?

If all the series of events described above were to unfold, who would then be next on the list to step into the national championship top-contender role? The simple answer are two words most BCS detractors have wanted to utter in the national championship discussion for quite some time – Boise State.

It would be a very long time coming, as over nearly the past decade the Broncos have had numerous undefeated seasons and has come out victorious when pitted against every big opponent that has been put in front of them. The argument for keeping them out has always been their weak schedule due to them competing in the WAC and Mountain West conferences. A valid point, however Boise has done everything possible in its power to schedule the very toughest of out of conference road trips. In recent years past they have gone on the road in September to both Virginia Tech and Georgia, and both times came away with a victory.

I am of the opinion that if Okie State and Stanford were to both lose and Boise ends up going undefeated, they would undoubtedly deserve a shot at winning it all. The Broncos going undefeated however is no guarantee. Boise has to get by a formidable TCU team a week from this Saturday on the blue turf.

Let’s get crazy. What if Oklahoma State, Stanford and Boise State all lose? You then get into the bizzare world of ‘one-loss’ and might as well let the real mind-boggling begin!

Oregon’s only loss would be to LSU and if LSU beats Alabama, who would want to see an Oregon/LSU rematch? Not many. There is even talk of an LSU/Alabama rematch if there is a garble of one-loss teams in the end. The argument behind that premise is that the loser of this Saturday’s game will have the ‘best loss’ of all one-loss teams.

The only problem with rematches? Where would things stand if the team who lost the first matchup won the second? Yes, they won the “bigger” game, but the fact would still remain that overall, the two teams would end up 1-1 against each other. The vast majority of fans don’t want to see a rematch, they want to see newer and more intriguing matchups in the end.

The day the transparent gestapo of greed that is the BCS finally gets taken down will be a great day, quite possibly the best day in the history of college athletics. But until that time the current unfortunate circumstance can in fact be shoved aside. Forget about the injustice of the BCS and slam that pig back into the trough for the time being.

Go ahead and feel free to appreciate and celebrate the de facto. What did you do as a kid when you wanted the real thing but couldn’t have it? You made the best of it. Instead of getting that motorcycle you wanted but couldn’t have, you simply stuck a playing card in the spokes, remember?

Vroom! Vroom!