The world of college football has a rankings problem.
For years, it was the Bowl Championship Series and the BCS rankings that were much maligned among college football fans, with computer models deciding who deserved to play for the national championship. This notable excluded the Oregon Ducks back in 2001, relegating an undefeated Oregon team to the Fiesta Bowl with Joey Harrington at the helm, while Nebraska went on to get destroyed by Miami in the championship — a game that every Duck fan believes they deserved to play in.
Now, the College Football Playoff committee is under fire once again after the 2023 rankings came out and excluded the undefeated Florida State Seminoles, a team who just won the ACC Championship. It is the first time in the 10 year history that an undefeated Power 5 champion has not made the playoff, instead getting bumped out by a one-loss SEC Champion Alabama Crimson Tide.
So which system is more hated, the old BCS or the current CFP? A year from now, it will be less of a conversation as we expand to a 12-team playoff, but for now it is the biggest topic of conversation in college football.
Though the BCS is no longer used, the model that it utilized to determine rankings still exists. Here’s how the BCS model would have ranked the top 25 teams in 2023, compared to how the CFP ultimately decided things: