Now that the NCAA has been given the opportunity to prove that it is not fair in the assignment of host teams for the NCAA playoffs, it is time to complain. The MEAC commissioner and conference athletic directors need to petition the NCAA to change the selection process. There is absolutely no reason for teams from the Southern Conference to host playoff games year after year after year. No wonder the conference seems to own the FCS Championship.

Appalachian State has won the title the past three seasons and has a distinct advantage because the team plays at home. When I was stationed in Hinesville, Ga., "back in the day," Georgia Southern won Division I-AA championships in consecutive years. The constant from those years: Georgia Southern is in the Southern Conference and playoff hosts year after year.

When we beat the Furman Paladins 17-0 under the late Bill Davis, we went to Greenville to do so. Do I need to mention that Furman is a Southern Conference team? To make matters even worse, five teams from the Colonial league got in this year and three teams play at home.

The NCAA needs to change the selection process immediately. Since there are eight teams that get automatic bids to the playoffs by virtue of winning their conference titles, the host teams need to rotate by conference annually. Regardless of who wins the conference title, those teams need to rotate. The teams receiving an at-large bid should also be subjected to a rotating system that is fair. The NCAA uses the "bid process" to mask the bias it has toward certain teams/conferences.

In the past, the MEAC has attempted to ignore the problems of the NCAA by playing a Black College Championship against the South Western Athletic

Conference (SWAC). That conference (the SWAC) has decided to take matters into its own hands by having its own playoff system and the Bayou Classic. It is time for some "change we can believe in" and take steps to make the system fair. The MEAC commissioner should not allow the conference to be treated as a second rate group.

-- Charles R. Allen, S.C. State alumnus

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