There has been controversy with the football system at all levels: The NFL and NCAA. Several people want the systems to be changed. There are flaws with both systems, proving there is no perfect system.

Let's start with the college football system. The BCS- or Bowl Championship Series- has multiple flaws. There are conferences with ten or so teams. The team that wins the most games inside the conference wins the conference. This is fine, but some conferences are valued more than others. The major conferences are: SEC, Big 12, Big 10, Big East, ACC, and the Pac-10. The winners of these conferences are automatically put in major bowl game. Other conferences- C-USA, Horizon, MAC, etc.- have winners, but they are forced to play in meaningless bowl games.

This year, UConn won the Big East with an 8-4 record. They were put into a big bowl game, where they were crushed by Oklahoma. TCU, a team from the Mountain West, went to the Rose Bowl and won, proving non major conference teams can win too. The BCS has no playoff, which is unfair to teams like TCU, which had no chance of winning the national championship. Bowl games put the top two ranked teams against each other in the national championship game, which is unfair to number three. People have even been taking shots at it, like this line from Sports Illustrated:

"I guess the Patriots are really trying to solidify their position at the top of the BCS?'' AOL Fanhouse's Dan Graziano wrote as the Pats played Tom Brady into the third quarter of a 31-0 game, a game with no playoff significance for the Pats.

The NFL also has a controversial system. Sure, it has a playoff. But similarly to the BCS, winners of each division make the playoffs. This year, the Seattle Seahawks finished the season 7-9, but had the best record in the division! They made the playoffs as the fourth seed in the NFC, and got to host the New Orleans Saints in the wild card game. The Seahawks stunned the world by winning that game, but they won 4 less games than the Saints and lost to the Saints in the regular season. Did they belong in the playoffs? I do not think so. Also, they did not deserve home field advantage. they became the first team with a losing record to make the playoffs in a non-strike year.

The Seahawks have been outscored by opponents by 97 points. They finished the season losing 5 of their last 7 games. They had the second to worst rushing offense and were fourth to worst in yards per game. The Oakland Raiders also made history this year. They became the first team to win all the games inside the division, but still miss the playoffs. They were 6-0 in the division, but 2-8 outside it. In the BCS, they would have made a major bowl game for winning their division. Instead, they finished 8-8, 2 games out of first in the division.

I believe both systems are horrible, but that the BCS is worse. What do you think?