Your Take-“Defending The BCS”

In the wake of the BCS National Championship game, some critics are using the opportunity to raise questions about the Bowl Championship Series. But I have a question for the critics: Can they name the team that won the college football national championship in 1997? It’s a trick question. The year before the BCS was created, there was no single champion. Instead, two teams that didn’t even play each other in a bowl game each claimed a share of the national championship: Michigan won the Rose Bowl and captured the Associated Press Poll title while Nebraska prevailed in the Orange Bowl and claimed the Coaches Poll title. A rare occurrence? Hardly. Three times in the decade preceding the creation of the Bowl Championship Series, two teams shared the national championship in a single year. And in the 56 years before the BCS began, the Associated Press’s number one and number two