College football playoff proposal

Basically, I hate the BCS system. And while I would rather go back to the old days of just having the AP and Coaches determine the national champion and just have great bowl matchups without all this #1 vs #2 nonsense wrecking things like the Rose Bowl (Ohio State should be in the Rose Bowl dammit), no one else seems to agree with me. The basic consensus is that a playoff system would be optimal.

My playoff proposal is an attempt to keep the bowl tradition alive, while trying to meet this playoff fetish everyone seems to have and to prevent the BCS computer guys from losing their jobs. So here it is:

Basically, it is a straight up bracket. The winners of the 12 conferences plus 4 wild cards for a 16 team playoff. They will play in 8 first round bowls: Liberty, Peach, Fiesta, Independence, Holiday, Citrus, Hall of Fame (name will be changed back from the Outback bowl at gunpoint) and the Las Vegas Bowls. The winners will go on to play in the Sun, Cotton, Gator and Tangerine Bowls. Then the Sugar and Orange. The championship is held on New Year’s Day in the Rose Bowl.

The orders of the Bowls were decided by seniority. Rose Bowl is the championship because it is the oldest by far. Sugar and Orange are the next two oldest, both formed in 1935. Sun, Cotton, Tangerine and Gator are the next oldest, etc.

Similarly, the seedings will also depend on which bowl game a team initially starts out in, with the older beginning bowls getting the higher ranked team. For instance, the #1 seed will play the 16 seed in the Liberty Bowl, since it is the oldest of the first round bowls and so gets the first seed game. Peach Bowl gets #2 vs #15, etc. Las Vegas gets the #8 vs #9.

The seedings will be determined by the BCS computers.

I like my idea because it keeps the tradition of the bowls alive and gives us a playoff format. It may be less onerous for the bowls and be cause for less strenuous opposition from them because they would be kept around. Plus, it keeps the bowls more relevent than the current system which makes everything except the championship bowl unimportant on the national level, which may help advertising. In fact, it will increase ratings for some bowls like the Tangerine, Citrus and other little ones that seem to get no publicity nowadays. The other bowls can be kept around for novelty value and college paydays, they just don’t get to be part of the playoff structure.

While I suppose objections could be made about where each Bowl is placed, it’s not really important. I just picked seniority because it’s easier, you could easily replace the Tangerine Bowl with the Fiesta Bowl in the playoff order if you’d rather do it by prestige.

So any thoughts and opinions besides the fact that it won’t realistically happen due to the money stranglehold?

I’m not a big college football fan, so my opinion my be flawed, but I liked the old bowl system. Why? Chaos, pure and simple. What fun is there in arguing over who is better in No. 1 vs. No. 2 if they play? What a drag it would have been for Michigan/Nebraska fans to have to admit a few years back that yes, the other team was better when they both finished No. 1 in the two big polls. And isn’t that a big part of fandom? Speculation? Do I care if Miami beats Ohio State this year. Not really. But I think I’ll miss hearing from the two sides why they think their boys would have won. Besides, everyone knows the only reason the coaches voted for Nebraska is because Tom Osborne was retiring…

I like the BCS! Go ahead, stone me. Matchups like this year’s Miami vs. Ohio State would not take place without the BCS. It’s not perfect, but what is?

The problem hasn’t been that teams were “left out” of the championship game. The BCS’s problem years have been similar to last year, when there was only one team that really belonged in the “Big Game”.

Hola!

My problem with your proposal is that now college football plays 12 to 13 games already (I liked 11 games and should be held to that by the NCAA). A system such as yours would have the winner of the National Championship endure 4-6 additional games which would be grueling, (Football is much more physical, tiring and lethal than basketball).

Second, if the NCAA keeps the 13 game format, then your championship, the season would have to start in early-mid August which is too damned hot to play anywhere in America outside the Northwest USA. August practices have claimed lives because of heatstroke, at Florida and even in the NFL ranks.

Third, the Bowl system. There is in my opinion three tiers of bowls, small bowls (Independence, Humanitarian, New Orleans, Music City,Motor City, Alamo etc.) near good bowls (Gator, Outback, Cotton, Peach, Liberty etc.) and the BCS (Fiesta, Rose, Sugar and Orange). Obviously the best teams play in the BCS bowls (Unless you’re FSU which has lost 4 games but is in the Sugar because of ratings), the 8-10 win teams in the near good bowl, and 6-7 win teams in the crappy bowls. To set up the playoff like you would like it (me too) like March Madness in Basketball is to have excellent teams play mediocre ones (such as Miami (34-0) vs. Ole Miss (6-6). Not going to happen because the bowls pay differently, and who would want to watch first round slaughters like that?

If I was in charge, we would have regional playoffs, then have it build to a Eastern USA vs Western USA COLLEGE CHAMP. The Eastern conferneces would be the Big East, ACC, Big 10, and the SEC. The West would be the Big 12, Pac 10, Mountain West, and C-USA. A wildcard is selected by the winner of a game selected by committee to satisfy the independents and crappy confences that wont win anyway (i.e sunbelt confernence).

This wont happen either, so enjoy your football.

SENOR

There’s no reason why Miami and Ohio State wouldn’t play under my playoff proposal. Unless one of them lost before they had the opportunity.

For instance, the playoffs this year would feature Florida St., Colorado, Miami, Ohio State, Texas Christian, Marshall, Colorado St., USC, Georgia, North Texas, Boise St., Iowa, Washington St., Oklahoma, Kansas St. and Notre Dame.

That’s not too shabby, IMO.

No, the basic consensus among commentators and would-be commentators is that a playoff system would be optimal.

So far, I have never seen any indication that a playoff system is what college football really needs. It may not be obvious, but unlike pro football, college football isn’t (or largely is, but shouldn’t be) about pleasing fans and football commentators.

Adding a playoff system (and therefore a few more weeks onto the schedule) would just add to the already-numerous ways in which the football team takes priority over, say, being a college student and general human being. Moreover, a playoff system means that, say, Miami could have afforded dropping a game to Rutgers. It gives teams no incentive to make every game, and every snap of every game, count.

I agree that the current system produces ridiculous situations, but just look at basketball–where the “powerhouse” schools often get freebies into the tournament, while better teams have to scrap to make it in.

Anybody know whether ESPN Page2 has an archive, cause there was a wonderful column a month or so back about how little need there really is for a playoff?

Aha! Here it is.

Oops, didn’t see your post there, senor.

Anyway, my system would only have the two teams playing for championships playing 4 extra games. While I know football is a grueling sport, I think they could handle it. But yes, they would go back to the 11 game schedule.

As for people not watching, of course they would watch. How many office pools and bracket pools would be going on? Tons. Maybe more than during March Madness. Oh, people would watch.

Every other level of college football has a playoff. They somehow manage to play a schedule and have playoff games without destroying the players, or ruining the collegiate experience.

I’m personally baffled by the resistance to a playoff system. The commentators say that it’s all about money, but I can’t see how today’s bowls could make more than a playoff.

Are people really more interested in the Humanitarian bowl now than they would be in a game with playoff consequences? I would think that a whole host of fans would be interested in the playoffs that aren’t interested in these minor bowls. Not to mention that the minor bowls would have top teams playing as well!

I’m thinking how popular the Basketball tourney is in comparison to regular season games, it’s phenomenal! Perhaps it’s not perfect, but March Madness is real, and fans are totally into it, even for teams they don’t watch during the season.

In my job working in university fundraising, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a couple of Athletic Directors, and of course this subject has come up a few times.

I get the sense among university honchos that the BCS is treated as kind of a necessary evil. Yes it’s flawed, but it’s the best we’ve got. It keeps people talking about college football, which is what the NCAA and D-I schools most want. It’s an improvement on the previous system because it allows the big-money schools in the Big Ten and Pac-10 an equal shot at the title.

I think that, despite the opinion of the ESPN2 article, there are genuinely some people outside of the “chattering classes” who want a playoff. Head of the list are the “mid-major” D-I schools like Marshall, Bowling Green, BYU, etc. who right now have no real chance at cracking the BCS. Under the old system, they at least had a shot at the title (BYU, 1984). Now, with strength of schedule being a major factor in the BCS (it appears twice, affecting the computer rankings as well as the final rankings), even if a mid-major ran the table they would likely not even get a BCS wild-card. Name another sport where an undefeated team would not have a chance at the title–you can see why some schools truly desire a playoff system.

The real problem with a playoff, one that at least one AD told me, is something I’ve never seen from a sportswriter. It’s not really the bowl honchos that don’t want a playoff–they’d find a way to make money off the television rights at least equal to what they’ve got now. It’s the alumni of the “big schools.” For many alumni, the bowl game is their chance at a vacation, and year-end party. Alumni spend huge amounts on following their team to a (hopefully) warm-climate city. And the schools and the bowl games capitalize on this, because the bowl matchups are announced a few weeks in advance, so the alumni have time to book their flights, reserve their hotel, plan parties, etc. The big schools make a lot of money off this–they can throw expensive tailgates, sponsored events, etc. (Hence the emphasis on getting to a bowl, any bowl, even if you’re 6-6 and playing another 6-6 school.)

Now, what would happen if a big school was in a playoff? These alumni have been saving their money and vacation time all year for one game. They couldn’t afford money or time to go to, say, Las Vegas one week, and Orlando the next. And how many alumni would bank on their team winning their first-round game and moving on in the playoffs? Every fan would want to go to the first game, or potentially miss their vacation for the year. This isn’t like the NFL playoffs, where the home fans don’t have to make a three-day trip just to be at the game. Consequently, fewer alumni would attend. And, as you can imagine, local fans would not necessarily take up the slack, to see two teams they don’t have much interest in.

The upshot is that fewer fans would attend and the schools would make less money under a playoff system. I don’t think it will ever happen…though I have a feeling that what may happen after the end of the BCS contract (2006?) is that the C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, and WAC schools will make a big push at getting a playoff, get rebuffed, and might decide to join I-AA. In any case, expect some fireworks in a few years.

Dammit, you’re right, Duke. That is the hole in my proposal.

Crap, I really liked it, too.

Maybe we could move closer to the NFL type system and have the game occur at the higher seeded team’s home stadium (with the semi-finals and Rose Bowl occuring at their traditional locations).

Not sure how much hell this would cause TV coverage and/or the halftime productions though.

Neurotik: Just to make things clear, I’m in favor of a playoff too, and before I had those conversations with the university honchos I thought it might happen too. But now I’m convinced we’re stuck with the bowls. :frowning:

Although that might also cheapen the “Bowl Experience.”

Ok, then how about having an 8-team playoff, set up like this:

The 8 teams are picked and seeded as they are now for the 4 BCS bowls (or some other way :)). The playoff is set up as a normal bracket, with the higher-seeded team getting home field in the quarters and semis, and the championship game played at one of the 4 bowls, as it is now. I suppose this could also be set up with 12 conference champs seeded by BCS ranking and played the same as the NFL playoff system, although that would require an extra round.

The six teams that are knocked out in the quarters and semis play in the 3 other BCS bowls.

So this only requires adding 2 games to a team’s schedule, it avoids the problem of fans ‘following around’ their teams to several sites, because they’re home games for one of the teams, but it still guarantees a bowl game to those who might lose in the playoff.

I like the idea of an 8-team playoff too. Anyone outside the top 8 can still play in a minor bowl, like now. What I would do differently from borschevsky is that teams that lose in the first round of the playoffs are finished - these were their bowl games. This way, there is only a total of 3 extra games across the whole college schedule. Two teams play one more game than under the current system and two teams play twice more.

There’s no need to make the season any longer. How much time is there between the first bowls and the end of the regular season? A lot.

And “academics” is no excuse. First of all, 1-AA, II, and III all have playoff systems. And 99.9% of those guys will never go pro, so they NEED their degrees. Second of all, look at the time involved–game on saturday, fly into to town friday, be home by sunday. They don’t miss a thing. The NCAA basketball tournament takes up much more academic time, and no one ever complains about that.

Besides everything else, a problem is that the NFL has two weekends locked up for TV, having two Saturday and Sunday games each of those two weekends.

An additional championship game could be easily added. Have the bowl games match the 1/4 and 2/3 teams, then the final game could be played on the “open” weekend before the Super Bowl. Not many people would be affected and the players would have some time to recover prior to it.

A more complicated idea would have each conference play all their conference games prior to the last regular game, which would have a “flex” schedule, having the top teams play the first playoff then. That would entail some last minute travel changes etc, but possibly could be done, as there would be a limited number of rematching etc.

aahala, I actually like that last idea. Teams could ditch one non-conference game at the beginning of the year in preparation for the “flex” game at the end. Then 1/4 and 2/3 could play off before the bowls, at the 1 and 2 schools. 'Course, the other 113 teams in I-A wouldn’t have much to play for during that last week, but you could say that they don’t have much to play for in the non-BCS bowls either.

Just for the record, the BCS conferences are currently meeting “to discuss a possible playoff.” Don’t hold your breath for that to happen though, not least because the “mid-major” conferences aren’t represented at the meeting.

I talked the other day with a few fundraisers about all this. We seem to have come to the conclusion that the BCS will stay, and the members of the non-BCS conferences will either drop to I-AA, join a “mid-major superconference,” or try to get admitted to a BCS conference (probably without much success). In a few years’ time you could see as few as 70 schools still playing I-A ball. If we still had 30 bowls, you could see teams with records like 3-8 and 4-7 facing each other. Won’t that be fun :frowning: