Why An Updated BCS Formula Should Rank The College Football Playoff

For its entire existence, the BCS was a popular punching bag. Computer polls made up of complex algorithms surely done by nerds in their parents' basements determined which two college teams would play for a National Championship. It went against everything we were taught to believe and led to teams going to unfamiliar bowl games. Miami in the Rose Bowl! Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl! Oh, the humanity!

When the College Football Playoff was announced in 2014, it was hailed as a savior from the evil BCS. Finally, a true champion will be crowned and all the evils of the computer nerds would be righted!

But soon enough, the flaws were evident to everyone. Every week when the committee releases their Top 25, Jeff Long comes on TV to contradict himself talking about quality losses and situations which apply to one team but not to others. CFB fans are pulling their hair out because why is Oklahoma State not ranked higher and where is USC and WHY DOES JEFF LONG HATE US?

Why? Because the CFB Playoff's Top 25 is not based in any reality, but rather what a handful of people think. You and your buddies can hole up in a basement with a case of cheap beer and pizza and come up with a better poll.

Instead, we have a committee which includes a former government official, a retired general and several current AD's whose programs stand to benefit, both directly and indirectly, from having their conference represented in the playoff. Regardless of who leaves the room for a discussion about their schools or conference, the influences are always there.

Despite the constant claims of a fair and balanced poll, each week a Top 25 is released more eye-rolling is had. It's hard to judge 128 teams (in 2017 it'll jump to 130) where every team plays a 12-game schedule. And with media-market-driven expansion, all FBS leagues can't have even all their teams play each other.

It's not easy to make a Top 25, but the committee's effort so far has been lackluster at best. With the failure of people to judge a Top 25 consistently, it has shown that the answer is a little of Category A and a little of Category B.

The biggest problem with the BCS wasn't the poll, but the fact that only two teams would have a shot at a National Championship.

The second-biggest problem with the BCS was how much weight humans still had in the process. Take all human elements out of the BCS formula, replace the relic that is the Coaches' Poll, with the now-defunct Harris poll and maybe a couple more and have that determine the Top 25.

Redditor /u/ABNew has made a mock BCS poll the last two weeks (Week 10, Week 11) with the AP Poll subbing for the Harris Poll and the results have looked good. An updated BCS formula would be the most impartial way to determine the best four teams, and the best part is that it doesn't flip teams around nonsensically because Tyrone Willingham forgot Navy's quality loss.

We can all agree that going back to a singular national championship game after the season won't happen. There's too much money in the extra game and it's way more likely to expand to eight teams than contract back to two.

A  modified BCS poll, perhaps under a different name (branding!), selecting the top four (or eight) teams would be much better than Jeff Long sounding like a buffoon every Tuesday.

Don't worry, it's not going to go all Skynet on us like many people fear.