Auburn’s ugly win over Oregon, with undefeated TCU looking on, strengthens the case for replacing or at least reforming the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system for determing college football’s national champion. And there is no question that many big-time schools exploit athletes and fail to give them any sort of education. But Gregg Easterbrook’s argument that academic achievement should factor into BCS selection, along with the New America Foundation’s “Academic Bowl Championship Series,” is silly. Why not also have debate teams ranked by physical fitness? Or maybe we could have have jazz bands face off on the gridiron before handing out awards for music.
