Any college football fan is familiar with the BCS, or Bowl Championship Series.  The BCS exists to determine an unofficial National Title winner within college football.  Yes, an unofficial winner. The NCAA does not officially recognize the BCS champion; in fact, the NCAA has not ever recognized a college football team as NCAA champions.  Because football does not have an inclusive bracket style tournament to close the season, they simply cannot justify declaring a champion.

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The BCS, in theory, was a good idea.  Without any kind of playoff format, there was often confusion and argument about who the unofficial NCAA football champion was each season.  Since its inception in 1998, the BCS relied on a human committee as well as mathematical formulas and computer programs to calculate which teams were most deserving to be recognized as champion.  There were to be five BCS bowl games at the end of the season that would stand as the primary evidence of final rankings. Unfortunately, this became a popularity contest and those involved were more concerned with appeasing the big programs instead of rewarding success.  

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The BCS worked to some extent, as long as traditional programs won out and lesser schools lost, but the parody in college football put that hope to rest in a hurry.  By the mid-2000s, teams like Boise State and TCU were regularly going undefeated and screaming “What about us?!” at the end of the season. The committee, along with all of the big school alums who acted as experts and analysts, dismissed their cries, citing weak schedules.  

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The question of why even include certain conferences in the BCS became a hot topic.  Sure, occasionally their cries would result in a BCS bid. Much to the committee’s displeasure, the smaller schools actually performed pretty well, most notably in 2007 when Boise State beat Oklahoma and two years later when Utah embarrassed an undefeated Alabama.

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Fast forward to 2014.  The outcry to have some kind of playoff for the BCS title was unbearable and the powers that be finally succumbed.  They announced a four team playoff that would begin after the 2014-15 season. The committee would select the four teams they deem most deserving and throw them into a bracket style, loser goes home tournament.  

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After four years of this playoff, it is evident that nothing has changed.  Things have not even changed for the less popular schools in the big conferences.  The first year of the playoff saw Ohio State get in over TCU and Baylor, who were the co champions of the Big 12.  Any casual fan would look at their resumes and think either Big 12 school deserved the bid over the Buckeyes. Ohio State eventually won the title that year, but there will always be suspicion that they were selected to participate before the selection process.

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And that leads us to this year.  The University of Central Florida (UCF) Golden Knights are currently undefeated.  They have not lost a game in two years, including wins over Maryland (Big 10), Pittsburgh (ACC) and Auburn (SEC) in last year’s Peach Bowl.  They have a Heisman contending QB who is electric, both with his arm and with his legs. They have also already heard the buzz that they will not, under any circumstance, be included in this year’s college football playoff.  In essence, perfection still will not get UCF any recognition.

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One year might be a fluke and a team has to gain some credibility, but that does not seem to be the case with UCF.  Yes, their strength of schedule is not awesome and to include them looks like a penalty on teams that play tougher schedules.  What is hard to understand is delivering information in a manner that encourages a team to lose, effectively removing their motivation to win.  Even harder to fathom is how a kid can go be a college athlete, win every game they play for four years and never get to contend for a national championship.

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This season is not over and UCF might lose a game or two before all is said and done, but they recently won a game which their Heisman hopeful sat out, making them look a little more like a complete team.  

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It is very rare for any team to go undefeated for an entire season, much less multiple seasons in a row.  The BCS playoff committee will not have to deal with this kind of thing very often, but they need to figure out how to reward smaller teams that do everything asked of them.  Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, USC, Clemson, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Michigan- those schools will be back. If they get left off one year, who cares? When a small school like UCF has a special run like this, it demands a little more than complete dismissal.