I can’t imagine anyone who follows college football at this
point (with more than ½ a brain) can believe that the system we have now is a
good one. It is a joke that we are going to now have 5 teams with legitimate
reasons to be in the National Title game and we have to pick 2. Why pick 2? Why
not just have a playoff system? It really is not as difficult as the NCAA and
the presidents would want you to think. You could even include teams from the lower
conferences, so they won’t complain. Here it goes, my solution to this problem
known as the BCS.
1.
Move the season up one or two weeks depending on whether you
want a bye week at the end of the season before the playoffs start.
2.
Play the season as it is being played right now, no changes to
conferences, conference championships, or anything like that.
3.
At the end of the regular season, you take the winner of each
BCS conference. This season that would be LSU (SEC), USC (Pac-10), Ohio State
(Big 10), Oklahoma (Big 12), Virginia Tech (ACC), and West Virginia (Big East).
4.
Also, you include the winners of the non-BCS conferences. This
season that would be Central Michigan (MAC), UCF (Conference USA), BYU (MWC),
Hawaii (WAC), and Florida Atlantic(Sun Belt).
5.
Then the five highest rated teams that are left are added as
at-large teams, but not more than one at-large per conference. This season they
are Georgia, Missouri, Arizona State, Boston College , and
Illinois.
6.
Then you seed them with the BCS conference champions taking
the first 6 seeds and then the last 10 seeds would be split among the other
conference champions and the at-large teams. This season that would be
something like Ohio State, LSU, Va. TEch, Oklahoma, USC, West Virginia,
Georgia, Missouri, Hawaii, Arizona State, Illinois, BC , BYU, Central Florida, Central Michigan, and Florida Atlantic.
7.
The first 3 rounds are played directly following the season,
before the bowl season begins. This leaves the championship game to be played,
as it is now in early January. The teams that are left will be filed into the
other available bowl games depending on how they fair in the playoffs. If you
wanted a bye week in between the end of the regular season and the playoffs,
the season would need to begin closer to the beginning of August. You could also get rid of the twelth game that was added a couple years ago.
Now that would leave us, with a system that allows teams to
play it out on the field, brings in more revenue for the NCAA, does not leave
the little teams out, or eliminate the bowl system. I’m sure there are flaws to
this systems and I would love to know about them so I can tweak this
accordingly. I hope that many of you agree with this idea because if nothing
else, it’s better than the #### we have now.
I think the system is broke and we need a playoff, but if you want the best two teams (because MO & WVU lost to PITT and didn't take care of business) for a one game playoff, you have the right two teams (OSU vs. LSU).
Colorado, I agree that the scenario we have this year worked out okay, but I can't say that LSU or Ohio State would necessarily make a final in a playoff because of how hot Georgia and USC are right now
Let me say first that i totally agree, but the problem is and probably always will be are the traditional bowls (like the rose bowl and the orange bowl) would never want to be considered a losers bowl. as it is now those bowls are filled with traditional matchups and occasionally host the national championship and the way they see it teams earn the right to go there not that they end up there as a consolation prize for not making it to the national championship but doing good enough in the playoffs.
I agree shaggy, and they could still have their traditional matchups, they could still take the best Pac-10 and Big 10 team, and rotational National Championship. The main problem with this is and will always be the bowl traditionalists and the presidents of the colleges.
With the amount of money available to the schools with the current system, how much more do you think that Micro Soft, Budweiser, Ford Motor Company or anyone else would pony up for the naming rights to the football playoffs? If this is all about money, and I believe that it is, don't these guys see the earnings potential in a playoff? A 30 second ad would cost 500 grand and a warm thermos of blood. Super Bowl advertising and their revenue would pale in comparison to what could be made with a college football playoff.
Don't come to me with the idea that we are exploiting the kids. They are already being exploited, might as well have the money.
I def. agree with you about the whole exploiting kids thing, but the problem is they won't ever admit they are exploiting kids. I think the bowl advertisers would love this system as it just gives them more important games to advertise on. The problem is going to be the presidents and then the people that are just in love withe bowl system and don't want to see it changed at all, even if we have 2 new bowls every year it seems.
I like Dashman's proposal, though I think every div 1-A conference champ needs to have a chance in any play-off system.
I propose we have the conference championship weekend (Dec 1 this year) be the 1st round of the play-off. Those conferences who do not play a championship would play an at-large team, with the conference champ hosting the game (This would be six at-large teams playing at the Big 10, Big East, PAC 10, MWC, WAC and Sunbelt champs with seeding for those games being decided by a poll - like the BCS poll). After championship weekend, you would have a field of 10 teams: The champs of the ACC, SEC, C-USA, MAC and Big 12 title games, plus the victors of the 5 games mentioned above. The following week-end, the four lowest seeded teams would have to play-off to reach the field of eight.
The BCS bowls would then select match-ups from these eight - allowing bowl committees to select their match-ups. Likely, the Rose Bowl will still be able to have it's historic PAC-10 v. Big 10 match-up, The Sugar- the SEC champ, the Orange the ACC Champ etc. The bowls would still survive, bringing tourism to these bowl sponsoring cities, and then the next two week-ends in January would see the semi-finals and Championship games.
This proposal adds just one week to the season for the two teams in the title game and leaves the bowls intact. It would allow every div I team the opportunity to reach the title game, though the so-called "mid-major" conferences would likely be among the 4 lowest seeded teams and have an extra game (the second weekend in Dec.) to play.
That's a good proposal, but I think you are punishing the conferences for having a championship game. In that scenario, you leave out Georgia, but include Tennessee. I just don't think you can use the Championship games as the first round of a playoff system unless every conference is mandated to have one.
i just dont think its fair that if u go undefeated in the regular season that u have nothing to show for it in the end. I know Hawaii sucks and they are overrated but say what u want about 2006 Boise St was the best team that year dont deny it they ere better then the Gators if u dont agree then #### u.
Also in 2004 u saw USC crush OU so we all know that it should of been USC and Auburn OU got in in 03 and 04 and lost both times they shouldn't of been there either time even Utah could of played for the NC that year. But heres what bothers me the most if there is a team who goes undefeated and is ranked 3 or higher they should get to challenge the number 2 team for that final spot. ex) in 04 Utah plays Auburn and say Auburn wins then Auburn plays Oklahoma and the winner of that plays USC and by the way Auburn would of crushed OU that year.
But heres what i think they should do for the playoffs and this is really farfetched so it will probably never happen.
Combine the FCS with the FBS and with the conference tournament have four teams in it, and like the ACC and SEC have east and west north south division in each conference have the top two in each division so it will still be a four team playoff.
Then four the National Tournament have it like the March Madness tournament a 65 team playoff. THATS RIGHT. I know it sounds cheesy but people would love that so much and they would be so excited and think of all the money and endorsements u would get.
Edclinh, it is a radical change, but have you seen the BS we have right now? Also, it does not miss college fans in August, when there is NO NFL. Give me a break, it'd be competing with baseball.
Elbear618 You are on the right track. It can even be made more simple. Winners of the 6 major division 1A conferences and 2 at large. You can still use the BCS Bowls as round #1 playoff games and The Championship is played 1 week later than it is now. This will allow the lesser bowls to still be played Christmas week as everyone looks forward to New Years and the REAL College footbal Championship playoffs! BCS committee....PLEASE DO THIS!!!!
I like the way you have the playoff laid out with one exception. Why not get rid of the BCS label all together? It was never fair to begin with. Even the United States Congress said it is unfair and needs to be fixed or they will fix it for the BCS. Why not use conference champions 1st, and then seed the rest of the teams in the early playoff games. Decide the real champion on the field. If it was done this way, in two to three years a level of parity could begin to be reached by taking the recruiting advantage that now exists away from the so called BCS schools, and allowing good kids with good teams all over this country to reach their potential. Those schools that don't want to make a financial commitment to field a top quality team can decide to go to a lower Division. This is fair also, cause its their choice, and it cleans out those teams that disagree with this set up. Teams like Bosie State, BYU, TCU, Utah etc., who have made huge financial commitments to fielding quality products, should have a level playing field and the ability to challenge fairly all competitions.
Definitely have a playoff system with the winners of each conference + the best team of the independents. That should be 16 teams (if I counted correctly). Then games could just be drawn from a "hat" and the same old bowls could still be used. I only say that the "pulling" of games be done because then it would give added factors of chance, sportsmanship, and "upsets." :D
One other stipulation I think should be made is that whatever bowls are being played should be in a neutral area in relation to the schools (thus the national championship could not be OSU v. LSU in New Orleans; it just ain't fair).
Final thing should be the awarding of the Heisman AFTER the championship game.
The BCS is a #### joke. What more needs to be said? look at what they've done to the bowl season. Hey! BCS! WAKE UP! it doesn't work! The Rose Bowl was embarassing, why not have USC play Northwestern? either go back to the Bowl invite system or play it off. YOU CAN'T CONTINUE TO OPERATE IN NO MAN'S LAND! YOU #### RETARDS!!!!
No doubt. A playoff system must be introduced. Michigan proved yesterday that you can't count on the higher seeded team to be more deserving in terms of a shot at the title.
How often do we get 2 #1 seeds in the Final Four in the basketball tourney, let alone the Final Game?
and the final embarrassment for the B.cS. What a #### joke. #"1" gets completely blown out of the stadium by #"2". I can hardly watch these #### games. A complete and utter mess. CAN'T WE DO SOMETHING? when and where is the next BCS commitee meeting? I want to take a national representative group to the meeting and apply some real pressure to these idiots. If money is th #1 consideration, no problem, we can work with that too. It just seems like non football people are running this thing and it is TERRIBLE!!!
i love the system that you thought up. one flaw i see is why don't you just seed the teams as they are in the polls, the bcs champs dont have to be first, say if ucla had pulled it out they could have been pac-10 champs and not even ranked.
This is a great format that I cam up with two years ago. The only difference was I used the polls to seed the teams so two teams from the same conference could both host home games.
My name is Lawton, and I've lived my whole life in the greatest city in the world, Charleston, South Carolina. I'm 20 years old and been following sports for as long as I remember. My dad is from Detroit and follow everything Detroit from the great Red Wings the embarassing Matt Millen, i mean Lions. I'm writing this blog because I want to share my passion for sports with others and hopefully people will comment.
