Counterpoint: Split National Titles Are For People Not Willing to Rationalize a Playoff

My colleague Mark Hasty penned a piece yesterday calling for a split national title in college football. It's a fun idea; it seeks to give credit to all the teams we believe deserve it (last week it was Alabama and Texas, this week it's just Utah).

Now, MH does have a point -- there is considerable distress in the world of NCAA football when it comes to picking who should be the best/last/triumphant team standing come January 6. This is typically a huge issue every year.

And, in fact, it's an issue for the very reason that Mark pointed out -- we (media, fans, coaches, everyone) always tend to be stone cold wrong about a few particular conferences and/or teams. Hawaii was a perfect example last year; many people actually thought they were good enough to beat Georgia. Whoops. Same thing with, apparently, Alabama -- although I'm still not willing to concede that they aren't an upper tier team, Utah just got the reverse treatment.

But here's the thing: as long as the current setup for college football stands, this will always be an issue. There are several problems. First of all, preseason polls are a total and utter disaster. The need to rank teams as soon as a season ends begs and pleads for us to cave in and actually foster misconceptions about particular programs. See: the Big Ten, every freaking year.

Misconstruing the talent level of a particular program leads to the second issue; it's nearly impossible for a team like Utah -- with their conference, schedule and the inherent bias -- to actually rise high enough in the BCS standings to get a shot at winning a national title.



But splitting the baby in half won't solve any of that. In the words of Gob Bluth, "COME ON." We're America; we want a sense of finality to our sporting events ... not some ridiculous, Bushanian styled Florida election result. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony.) Because, folks, we've been there. We've seen that. The split national title has come and gone and it was ugly, boring and without merit. It's the reason why we created the BCS, only this particular system is too flawed to really move past any of the issues.

Besides, awarding multiple shares of the national title would do nothing more than feed the already growing monster that is the BCS. "Congratulations, Utah! You've won the AP National Championship*! And for you, Oklahoma, the Harris Poll Title*!" Instead, let the BCS keep playing out as poorly has it has over the past few years. Because every year it's supposed to get better and somehow it keeps getting worse (Utah, Texas and USC all have claims this season) but eventually, someone, somewhere is going to finally cave and we'll get us that playoff. Either that or Barack Obama is just going to throw down an ultimatum if the next election looks close. He'll have my vote.

*may only be worth a percentage of a normal title