We've Been Using the BCS This Whole Time and It's Been Fine

The much-maligned BCS was replaced by a selection committee tasked with  anointing the four best teams in college football. Much time and energy is spent every week. There’s a big television show on Tuesday night with a dramatic reveal. Times change and the march for progress continues. This is what it means to be a human.

But what if it didn’t have to?  What if there was an obvious and minor fix to the BCS system that could have been implemented to determine a four- or eight-team playoff?

Check out the simulated formula for this year next to the playoff committee’s rankings. The two are very much like each other.

What if we’d kept the BCS, but expanded the field to four teams? That would have been fine.

Here’s the simulated standings from last year.

Again, that looks pretty familiar, doesn’t it, folks?

Noticing a trend?

Look, I’m not expecting everyone to go full Will Forte and literally sing the praises of the BCS, but with time, it’s aged quite well. Sure there were some problems. Spoiler alert here: there will always be problems. What I’m positing is that we could have been operating with a four-team playoff based on the formula this whole time and found relative satisfaction.