Upsets and excellent games have made sure that this NCAA football season will be a memorable one, but many college football fans are keeping their eyes on are the controversial BCS rankings. With six teams in the country undefeated at 10-0 (Florida, Alabama, Texas, TCU, Cincinnati, Boise State) and Georgia Tech at 10-1, and only a few weeks left in the regular season, there are a lot of teams fighting for spots in the national title game.

Controversy awaits, like every year, over whether the BCS rankings will be accurate in deciding post season. Looking at the schedules for these seven teams, it is likely they will win all their upcoming games, the exception being first ranked Florida and second ranked Alabama who play each other on Dec. 5.

At the end of the regular season, it’s possible for there to be five undefeated teams or up to seven teams who are 10-1. This is frustrating considering only two teams are able to compete in the national title game.

This is the crux behind the controversy and flaws inherent in the BCS system. The formulas that arbitrarily give teams rankings often do not reflect the actual performance of the team, especially when there are multiple teams with excellent records. This often leads to teams being left out of bowl games despite their strong records.

Sometimes, undefeated teams are left out of title games where two teams with worse records play, and two teams can possibly share a title. Utah has been left out for a team with a worse record twice in the past five years. This happens because of inequalites for teams not in a BCS conference. Teams in a BCS conference are automatically at an advantage compared to non-BCS conference teams because a conference championship automatically grants them a bid to a BCS bowl game.

There are six BCS conferences: the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Big 12, the Big East, the Big Ten, the Pacific (PAC) Ten and the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

Every BCS conference team that gets invited to a bowl game earns their conference about $18 million in BCS revenue, as well as an extra $4.5 million for any additional teams in bowl games. For every non-BCS conference team that makes a bowl game, that conference receives nine percent of BCS revenue from television rights. If any other team from a non-BCS conference plays in a bowl game, then that conference receives $4.5 million from the BCS.

This revenue disparity is an example of why the current BCS creates disadvantages between conferences. In fact, it is so rare for a non-BCS conference team to reach the BCS title game that teams that do are given the nickname “BCS busters.” There have only been four busters in the history of the Bowl Championship Series.

For several years, fans, writers and sports commentators have called for a change to this system. The most common idea is a playoff that would be played at the end of the regular season elimitating the field until the two best teams remain for the national title game. This approach is used in all other college sports and in professional sports as well.

The playoff system has been a solid system for determining team’s rankings in the postseason, its longevity is a testament to its effectiveness. It’s a system that is far more effective than one allowing for inferior teams to play in national title matches and perpetuating inequality among schools and conferences.