Game of The Weak
Last week, in the wake of BCS championship game TV ratings that were down 8.5% from 2011 (a low for the event, below), momentum built for a playoff system, as NCAA president Mark Emmert, previously a playoff foe, declared his approval of a Final Four format. Here, however, is SI's two cents: Whatever is done, make sure that any postseason culminates before the NFL playoffs begin.
Timing was a large part of the problem with this year's finale—besides its matching two SEC teams and its being an epic stinker. The BCS couldn't have buried its championship any more effectively than it did by holding it on a Monday night when football nation was tuckered out from a weekend of wild-card games and buzzing about Tim Tebow.
The ultimate goal should be a title game played on the college game's traditional Saturday, on or before New Year's Day. That might mean reshuffling other bowls, but these days nothing is sacred (see: Cal-Stanford, moved to October). If the BCS title game is meant to be a jewel, it deserves a more sparkling setting—not to be stuffed in a drawer amid the NFL's baubles.
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AL TIELEMANS (BCS)