MOtorboat
11-21-2008, 05:08 PM
Time for the annual rant, because its Friday, and I’m freaking bored…plus I have to work all weekend, so I’m gonna slack off for the next 30 minutes (OK, it took an hour).
Oh…and I haven’t written anything extensive in a long time, especially for this web site, and I know this isn’t NFL related, but I think for the most part, we are all football fans in general, and many of us watch college football as well…so here, goes…
There are only two fair ways that college football could decide a National Champion, in my personal opinion.
So let’s lay those two scenarios out.
Scenario 1: 16-team playoff using the BCS Standings/Formula
This is probably the most feasible scenario of the two. It incorporates all the conferences, it fixes the problem that most troubles me about the current system – win your damn conference – and it would allow for the use of the current sites for bowls past the first round.
First, the most important part of the equation. Win your damn conference. There is no way that Oregon State should win the Pac-10 and USC should go to the National Title Game. No way. In turn, there’s no way that Oklahoma or Missouri wins the Big 12 and Texas goes to the National Title Game. That’s absurd, and it’s happened before.
Either the regular season means something or it doesn’t. I hear too often this ridiculous notion that the regular season matters more than any other sport in the Bowl Division, yet a team that doesn’t even win their own conference gets into the national title game.
Right now…11 conference winners:
ACC – Georgia Tech
Big 12 – Texas Tech
Big Ten – Penn State
Big East – Cincinnati
Conference USA – Tulsa
Mid-American – Ball State
Mountain West – Utah
Pac-10 – Oregon State
SEC – Alabama
Sun Belt – Troy
WAC – Boise State
*Current Conference Leaders
Yes…all of the conferences get a fair shake.
That leaves five at-large bids. Of course the debatable part, but there’s always going to be something subjective when choosing playoff contenders, just as there is when choosing bowl participants.
Right now, according to the BCS Formula those teams would be Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, USC and Ohio State. That leaves these teams as the last couple of teams out: Georgia, Oklahoma State, Missouri, BYU and Michigan State.
The 16 teams would then be seeded according to their BCS Standing.
1.) Alabama
2.) Texas Tech
3.) Texas
4.) Florida
5.) Oklahoma
6.) USC
7.) Utah
8.) Penn State
9.) Boise State
10.) Ohio State
11.) Ball State
12.) Cincinnati
13.) Oregon State
14.) Tulsa
15.) Georgia Tech
16.) Troy
The teams would then be matched up similar to a region in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, 1-16, 8-9, 4-13, 5-12, 3-14, 6-11, 7-10, 2-15. That would make the first round matchups, in bracket order:
(16) Troy at (1) Alabama
(9) Boise State at (8) Penn State
(13)Oregon State at (4)Florida
(12) Cincinnati at (5) Oklahoma
(14) Tulsa at (3) Texas
(11) Ball State at (6) USC
(10) Ohio State at (7) Utah
(15) Georgia Tech at (2) Texas Tech
This sets up some pretty incredible possible second round and third round match ups, as well. Could you imagine sitting down to your television the weekend before Christmas to watch Oklahoma at Florida, or USC at Texas, and then sitting down the following weekend, over Christmas to watch USC or Texas at Texas Tech, or Florida or Oklahoma at Alabama?
How does the Bowl System work into this? Pretty simple. Play first round games on campus in the second week of December, or Saturday, Dec. 13, this year. After the first round, you have four games in the quarterfinals, two games in the semifinals and then the national championship, so a total of seven games. Take the four current BCS Bowls, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose, and add three more bowl sites, based on a bidding system. For the sake of the argument, let’s say it’s the Cotton, Capitol One and Outback Bowls.
Rotate the Big Four through the National Championship Game as they already do, and rotate them through the semifinals, where every year, one gets a quarterfinal game. The other three bowls will always be quarterfinal games.
I heard you say it, “but, the fans won’t travel…” Bullshit.
The television contract would be bigger. The Bowls will still sell out, and there’s more at stake in every single one of these games. Period.
What about the other bowls? Keep ‘em. They already mean jack squat as it is.
Scenario 2: Incorporating the region system that FCS, Division II and Division III already use.
This is probably more difficult of a system to incorporate, and probably more difficult to sell, but it may be the better of the two. (Thank you cswil).
First, the country is broken into four regions, by conference affiliation. For sake of the argument, here’s one proposal for doing that:
West
Pac-10
WAC
Mountain West
North
Big 12
Big Ten
Mid-American
South
Conference USA
SEC
Sun Belt
East
ACC
Big East
Independents
Once the conferences are separated into the four regions, those regions are given a seeding committee, and they rank the Top 10 teams in each region, each week. The final regional ranking would decide the six participants in the playoffs in each region. The committee would be appointed by the NCAA.
For the sake of the argument, just off hand, the Top 10 from each region, assuming the above regions were used:
West, W-L
USC, 9-1
Utah, 11-0
Boise State, 10-0
BYU, 10-1
Oregon, 7-3
Oregon, 8-3
TCU, 9-2
Arizona, 6-4
California, 6-4
Air Force, 8-3
North W-L
Texas Tech, 10-0
Texas, 10-1
Oklahoma, 9-1
Penn State , 10-1
Missouri, 9-2
Ohio State, 9-2
Ball State, 11-0
Michigan State, 9-2
Oklahoma State, 9-2
Northwestern, 8-3
South, W-L
Alabama, 11-0
Florida, 9-1
Georgia, 9-2
South Carolina, 7-4
LSU, 7-3
Tulsa, 8-2
Vanderbilt, 6-4
Mississippi, 6-4
Kentucky, 6-5
Rice, 7-3
East, W-L
Cincinnati, 8-2
Georgia Tech, 8-3
Miami (FL), 7-4
Maryland, 7-3
Florida State, 7-3
Pittsburgh, 7-2
Virginia Tech, 6-4
West Virginia, 6-3
Boston College, 7-3
Wake Forest, 6-4
The Top 6 teams, as stated, would advance to the playoffs. Each region would have a mini-playoff, where the bottom four teams would be seeded one through four and one would play four, two would play three. The winners of those games would play he No. 1 and No. 2 ranked team in each region.
Past that, the West region would meet the North region and the East region would meet the South Region in the semifinals, and then moving on to the National Championship.
I’m less of a proponent of this system, but it would work equally as well. The Bowl System could also be easily incorporated as it was with the 16-team playoff.
The first round matchups would be as follows:
East
Byes: (1) Cincinnati will face (4)-(5) winner, (2) Georgia Tech, will face (3)-(6) winner
(5) Florida State at (4) Maryland
(6) Pittsburgh at (3) Miami (FL)
South
Byes: (1) Alabama and (2) Florida
(5) LSU at (4) South Carolina
(6) Tulsa at (3) Georgia
North
Byes: (1) Texas Tech and (2) Texas
(5) Missouri at (4) Penn State
(6) Ohio State at (3) Oklahoma
West
Byes: (1) USC and (2) Utah
(5) Oregon State at (4) Brigham Young
(6) Oregon at (3) Boise State
Phew…flame away.
Oh…and I haven’t written anything extensive in a long time, especially for this web site, and I know this isn’t NFL related, but I think for the most part, we are all football fans in general, and many of us watch college football as well…so here, goes…
There are only two fair ways that college football could decide a National Champion, in my personal opinion.
So let’s lay those two scenarios out.
Scenario 1: 16-team playoff using the BCS Standings/Formula
This is probably the most feasible scenario of the two. It incorporates all the conferences, it fixes the problem that most troubles me about the current system – win your damn conference – and it would allow for the use of the current sites for bowls past the first round.
First, the most important part of the equation. Win your damn conference. There is no way that Oregon State should win the Pac-10 and USC should go to the National Title Game. No way. In turn, there’s no way that Oklahoma or Missouri wins the Big 12 and Texas goes to the National Title Game. That’s absurd, and it’s happened before.
Either the regular season means something or it doesn’t. I hear too often this ridiculous notion that the regular season matters more than any other sport in the Bowl Division, yet a team that doesn’t even win their own conference gets into the national title game.
Right now…11 conference winners:
ACC – Georgia Tech
Big 12 – Texas Tech
Big Ten – Penn State
Big East – Cincinnati
Conference USA – Tulsa
Mid-American – Ball State
Mountain West – Utah
Pac-10 – Oregon State
SEC – Alabama
Sun Belt – Troy
WAC – Boise State
*Current Conference Leaders
Yes…all of the conferences get a fair shake.
That leaves five at-large bids. Of course the debatable part, but there’s always going to be something subjective when choosing playoff contenders, just as there is when choosing bowl participants.
Right now, according to the BCS Formula those teams would be Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, USC and Ohio State. That leaves these teams as the last couple of teams out: Georgia, Oklahoma State, Missouri, BYU and Michigan State.
The 16 teams would then be seeded according to their BCS Standing.
1.) Alabama
2.) Texas Tech
3.) Texas
4.) Florida
5.) Oklahoma
6.) USC
7.) Utah
8.) Penn State
9.) Boise State
10.) Ohio State
11.) Ball State
12.) Cincinnati
13.) Oregon State
14.) Tulsa
15.) Georgia Tech
16.) Troy
The teams would then be matched up similar to a region in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, 1-16, 8-9, 4-13, 5-12, 3-14, 6-11, 7-10, 2-15. That would make the first round matchups, in bracket order:
(16) Troy at (1) Alabama
(9) Boise State at (8) Penn State
(13)Oregon State at (4)Florida
(12) Cincinnati at (5) Oklahoma
(14) Tulsa at (3) Texas
(11) Ball State at (6) USC
(10) Ohio State at (7) Utah
(15) Georgia Tech at (2) Texas Tech
This sets up some pretty incredible possible second round and third round match ups, as well. Could you imagine sitting down to your television the weekend before Christmas to watch Oklahoma at Florida, or USC at Texas, and then sitting down the following weekend, over Christmas to watch USC or Texas at Texas Tech, or Florida or Oklahoma at Alabama?
How does the Bowl System work into this? Pretty simple. Play first round games on campus in the second week of December, or Saturday, Dec. 13, this year. After the first round, you have four games in the quarterfinals, two games in the semifinals and then the national championship, so a total of seven games. Take the four current BCS Bowls, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose, and add three more bowl sites, based on a bidding system. For the sake of the argument, let’s say it’s the Cotton, Capitol One and Outback Bowls.
Rotate the Big Four through the National Championship Game as they already do, and rotate them through the semifinals, where every year, one gets a quarterfinal game. The other three bowls will always be quarterfinal games.
I heard you say it, “but, the fans won’t travel…” Bullshit.
The television contract would be bigger. The Bowls will still sell out, and there’s more at stake in every single one of these games. Period.
What about the other bowls? Keep ‘em. They already mean jack squat as it is.
Scenario 2: Incorporating the region system that FCS, Division II and Division III already use.
This is probably more difficult of a system to incorporate, and probably more difficult to sell, but it may be the better of the two. (Thank you cswil).
First, the country is broken into four regions, by conference affiliation. For sake of the argument, here’s one proposal for doing that:
West
Pac-10
WAC
Mountain West
North
Big 12
Big Ten
Mid-American
South
Conference USA
SEC
Sun Belt
East
ACC
Big East
Independents
Once the conferences are separated into the four regions, those regions are given a seeding committee, and they rank the Top 10 teams in each region, each week. The final regional ranking would decide the six participants in the playoffs in each region. The committee would be appointed by the NCAA.
For the sake of the argument, just off hand, the Top 10 from each region, assuming the above regions were used:
West, W-L
USC, 9-1
Utah, 11-0
Boise State, 10-0
BYU, 10-1
Oregon, 7-3
Oregon, 8-3
TCU, 9-2
Arizona, 6-4
California, 6-4
Air Force, 8-3
North W-L
Texas Tech, 10-0
Texas, 10-1
Oklahoma, 9-1
Penn State , 10-1
Missouri, 9-2
Ohio State, 9-2
Ball State, 11-0
Michigan State, 9-2
Oklahoma State, 9-2
Northwestern, 8-3
South, W-L
Alabama, 11-0
Florida, 9-1
Georgia, 9-2
South Carolina, 7-4
LSU, 7-3
Tulsa, 8-2
Vanderbilt, 6-4
Mississippi, 6-4
Kentucky, 6-5
Rice, 7-3
East, W-L
Cincinnati, 8-2
Georgia Tech, 8-3
Miami (FL), 7-4
Maryland, 7-3
Florida State, 7-3
Pittsburgh, 7-2
Virginia Tech, 6-4
West Virginia, 6-3
Boston College, 7-3
Wake Forest, 6-4
The Top 6 teams, as stated, would advance to the playoffs. Each region would have a mini-playoff, where the bottom four teams would be seeded one through four and one would play four, two would play three. The winners of those games would play he No. 1 and No. 2 ranked team in each region.
Past that, the West region would meet the North region and the East region would meet the South Region in the semifinals, and then moving on to the National Championship.
I’m less of a proponent of this system, but it would work equally as well. The Bowl System could also be easily incorporated as it was with the 16-team playoff.
The first round matchups would be as follows:
East
Byes: (1) Cincinnati will face (4)-(5) winner, (2) Georgia Tech, will face (3)-(6) winner
(5) Florida State at (4) Maryland
(6) Pittsburgh at (3) Miami (FL)
South
Byes: (1) Alabama and (2) Florida
(5) LSU at (4) South Carolina
(6) Tulsa at (3) Georgia
North
Byes: (1) Texas Tech and (2) Texas
(5) Missouri at (4) Penn State
(6) Ohio State at (3) Oklahoma
West
Byes: (1) USC and (2) Utah
(5) Oregon State at (4) Brigham Young
(6) Oregon at (3) Boise State
Phew…flame away.