A new era has arrived, college football fans. The Bowl Championship Series and its controversial selection process has taken a step back in deference to a four-team playoff that will decide college football's national champion.
After what seemed like decades of outcry for a playoff, or really any system other than the infamous BCS, college football fans have what they wanted.
Under the new format, the top four teams in the country will be pitted against each other. Semifinal games will be played on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day along with four other "premier" bowl games, according to the playoff's official website.
The site also proclaims that college football's champion will be decided on a Monday. "Championship Monday," to be precise.
Many fans will applaud the playoff system simply because it isn't the BCS, but those fans are overlooking how this playoff is just as flawed as the format it replaces.
According to the website, the nation's top teams will be selected by a committee that weighs teams based on the following criteria: strength of schedule, head-to-head results, comparison of results against common opponents, championships won and other factors.
Doesn't that vagueness just fill you with such joy? Because to me, that bland and terribly broad set of standards is nerve-wracking.
Consider this: Not only will teams with multiple championships in their school history be rewarded over teams with little to no past championship pedigree, but the cop-out of "other factors" leaves the selection committee with the power to nominate a team based on any number of subjective or unworthy reasons.
For instance, an otherwise undeserving team might be selected because its star quarterback is a headline machine (think Texas A&M; in the past few seasons with Johnny Manziel under center) or an SEC team might be selected simply because of its conference rather than its true merit as a playoff team.
It is also interesting to note that neither Associated Press or USA Today polls are listed as criteria for deciding the playoff teams, which means we may have a situation where a No. 7 seed plays as one of the four top teams in the game.
That creates an interesting conflict that might spell the doom of rankings and polls or give rise to another wave of debate on the subjectiveness of the playoff selection process or the merit of these rankings.
Based on the given criteria, the selection process sounds rife with holes that might lead to the same mistakes and controversy that were made in the BCS era.
Now, I will admit that in this day and age, there is no way to please every fan.
Nor is there a way to take into account every deserving team in the sport; there are simply too many.
But it seems like this playoff came about simply because of the fact that the NCAA caved to public pressure regarding the BCS and scrambled to appease the angry mob that was all too eager to tear it apart.
In a very pivotal time for the NCAA it has implemented a system that is more aesthetically pleasing than the bowl system but is no more effective at designating a champion.
Reach the sports editor at icbeck@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @ICBeck21
