The BCS Name Is On Its Way Out

Here's a deceptively tricky question: Just what is the BCS? It's a series, of some kind, or an organization. That exists inside a computer, maybe? A magic computer that spits out teams and those teams have to play each other in a BCS game, which is just a regular national championship game, but it's the BCS National Championship Game, so maybe it's a sponsor like Tostitos? Bill Hancock runs the thing, but what he actually does is anyone's guess.

As Jim Delany said, "There is a mark. There is a series of contracts. That's all it is." Soon there won't even be that. CBS is reporting what the conference commissioners have known for a while: With the advent of a playoff will come the death of the BCS name.

No more BCS branding. No more three-letter shorthand for what ails college football. Which doesn't mean everything will magically be fixed. Even with a four-team playoff, we're not all going to agree on who the four best teams are, or on the best method of selecting them from a bouillabaisse of rankings and polls and conference contracts. But the jettisoning of the hated BCS title is a good sign, along with the coming playoff, that the powers that be recognized the old way was radioactive. Just be ready to bitch about whatever they replace it with.

[ CBS Sports]