The Roosevelts recently demonstrated how poorly the BCS system would have fared in selecting the Super Bowl participants over the past decade. On Monday we discovered it did even worse with the World Series. Today, we look at how different the NBA Finals would have been under a BCS system. We again uses ESPN’s Power Rankings as our BCS substitute, and select the highest rated team at the end of the regular season from each conference. The highlights and full results from the past 9 years (the NBA Power Rankings only go back to 2004) are below.
- The actual NBA champion made the BCS NBA Finals 3 times (2009 Lakers, 2008 Celtics, 2004 Pistons).
- The system correctly picked 1 NBA Finals matchup (2008 Lakers vs. Celtics)
- The system correctly selected only 5 out of 18 actual NBA Finals participants.
- The Bulls are the biggest winner, increasing their Finals appearances from 0 to 3, and Suns are close behind, increasing from 0 to 2.
- Other notable winners include the Cavs, Pistons, and Spurs who all gain an additional appearance.
- The Heat are the biggest losers by far, failing to make any to make any NBA Finals under a BCS system.
- The Magic and Thunder both lose their sole NBA Finals appearance.
Year By Year Results Of The BCS Applied To The NBA
2012
The game we are seeing: Thunder vs. Heat
Under the BCS: Spurs vs. Bulls
Teams Correct: Zero
Champs in the game? No
2011
The game we saw: Mavericks vs. Heat
Under the BCS: Lakers vs. Bulls
Teams Correct: Zero
Champs in the game? No
2010
The game we saw: Lakers vs. Celtics
Under the BCS: Suns vs. Cavs
Teams Correct: Zero
Champs in the game? No
2009
The game we saw: Lakers vs. Magic
Under the BCS: Lakers vs. Cavs
Teams Correct: One
Champs in the game? Yes
2008
The game we saw: Lakers vs. Celtics
Under the BCS: Lakers vs. Celtics
Teams Correct: Two
Champs in the game? Yes
2007
The game we saw: Spurs vs. Cavs
Under the BCS: Mavericks vs. Bulls
Teams Correct: Zero
Champs in the game? No
2006
The game we saw: Mavericks vs. Heat
Under the BCS: Spurs vs. Pistons
Teams Correct: Zero
Champs in the game? No
2005
The game we saw: Spurs vs. Pistons
Under the BCS: Suns vs. Pistons
Teams Correct: One
Champs in the game? No
2004
The game we saw: Lakers vs. Pistons
Under the BCS: Spurs vs. Pistons
Teams Correct: One
Champs in the game? Yes
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