How to choose the contenders

Fall is in the air, it's getting cooler, and, best of all, College Football is here! With a couple of games already in place, now begins the best time of the year.

I had a friend comment on Facebook the other day that he doesn't like college football's BCS and the way it picks the teams that play for the championship because it's too scientific and relies too much on subjective polls.

Think about it a moment. It's flawed because it's too scientific but not scientific enough? There is a problem because it's too subjective, but not subjective enough?

When you come down to it, it has to be one or the other, doesn't it? You either let people choose, which is subjective and prone to bias and sentiment. Or you put together something objective so there is no question who the participants will be based on how the season shapes out. It has to be one or the other.

The problem is there are flaws both ways.

After all, if the subjective polls were the answer, wouldn't they all agree with each other? If the computers were the answer, wouldn't they all have the same ratings? Objective and subjective methods of choosing have as much variation amongst themselves as they do with each other.

So, in the end, you pick one or the other, or you do what the BCS has done and try to balance the subjective with the objective. Frankly, i think that balancing the two different approaches of choosing the participants is the best way you can go and give the BCS a lot of credit.

The fact remains that you will always have an issue with how teams are chosen. As long as there are only 2 teams chosen for the championship, there will be strong arguments for why a different team is more deserving.

And as long as you have 16 teams in a tournament there will be a strong case that can be made that one or more teams would have been more deserving. Unless every team is in the tournament you will have arguments about how the teams are chosen and complaints that some were unfairly snubbed.

So in the end, the question isn't so much how to choose the 2 teams. It becomes more about whether it should be just 2 teams. That of course, is subject for another discussion.