Fresno’s Title Win: A Win for All Mid-Majors
Just a little after 10:00 EST on Wednesday night, NCAA crowned a new national champion in College Baseball. No, it wasn’t Oregon State repeating for the 3rd straight year. And it wasn’t UNC, who was a part of the previous two championship series that lost to Oregon State. Was it Miami, the nation’s #1 team? No. It was the Fresno State Bulldogs, a WAC conference team who fought their way into the College World Series and might have just changed the landscape of all college sports, forever. 
People have been complaining, myself included, about a concept that we see in all other major sports except in Division 1 football: a playoff system. A playoff system pushes athletes to do their best and play on a different level than ever seen before. This also gives us fans hope and energy that something good and special is going to happen. Division 1 football is played through the regular season and throughout the bowl season. Unless you are in the BCS or in the BCS Championship game, getting to a bowl means you had a good season, but not a great one.
Fresno State did what Rice did in 2004: a team from a mid-major conference can win the National Championship by earning and winning their way through their post season tournaments, regionals, super regionals, and the College World Series. It does take some luc, but it also takes more teamwork than just individual effort. Do you think Memphis would have had a shot at the national title in basketball if we just had a BCS in men’s hoops? Nope.
There have been teams in the past from mid-majors that have gotten invites to the BCS games. Utah and Boise both won their games, while Hawaii got beat by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Two others have gone undefeated in the bowl era without invites: Tulane and Marshall. They have tweaked the system to include more schools, but it still isn’t enough. It’s not fair to teams that work just as hard as the “big boys” to be denied a shot at the National Title just because they belong in a smaller, not weaker, conference.
Screw the money. Screw the sponsorships. Screw the bowls. Give us diehard fans a true national championship that is played on the fields, not through polls or a computer average.
While I have thought I’d like to see a playoff as well, I don’t necessarily agree with what you have said.
While what Fresno State did was an accomplishment, I don’t think that baseball and football can be compared. I think baseball can be more individual than a team sport, as a home run or an error by one person can win or lose a game, where as usually a team, rather than an individual, wins football games.
Also to touch on what you said about Memphis, while they did play in a mid major conference, they did play non-conference games against Georgetown, UCONN, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and USC, all teams that also ended up in the NCAA tournament, which I believe helped them be prepared for their championship game run. While they played in a mid-Major conference, their non-conference schedule was filled with games against the “Big boys”. Some mid-major football teams do not which leads me to…
The mid- majors who want consideration for the BCS championship game. While there have been exceptions, Boisie state and Utah (though they beat a Pitt team that won a 4 way tie breaker for the Big East bid and shouldn’t have been there) that have won BCS games, not all should have been there. Look at this years non-BCS team in the BCS, Hawaii. Hawaii played a very weak schedule, beating just 2 teams that ended up with a winning record. When they played a good team, Georgia, the talent and skill level difference was embarrassingly obvious.
While there should be a playoff, schedules and to an extent, conferences, do need to be taken into consideration, so that the Best teams will be selected to compete for the title.