With spring football descending upon us, I have decided to post about college football again. I am among the many who have problems with the NCAA's current system of determining its "national champion." While the Bowl Championship Series does a better job than the previous bowl system, it bothers me that only the top two teams in its final rankings have the opportunity to play for the championship. College football's Bowl Subdivision (1-A) is the only sport on the planet (I believe) that has computers decide who plays for the championship and, more importantly, who does not. I have seen proposals for 4-team, 8-team, and 16-team playoffs. While I think sixteen teams is too inclusive, I think four, even eight teams is too exclusive if BCS tie-ins are included, which would be a requirement for commissioners of the BCS conferences to even consider a playoff. With all that being said, here is my proposal:1. In its current state, the BCS is basically four games, although one is repeated as the BCS Title Game. I am proposing reducing this number to three.
2. At the end of the season, the top 12 teams in the country would be placed in the new BCS playoff.
A. The winners of the six current "BCS conferences" would receive automatic bids.
i. Conference championship games would be eliminated.
B. The teams would be seeded according to their BCS ranking.
C. The top four teams would receive first round byes.
i. To receive a first round bye, a team must have won its conference, but winning a BCS conference would not be a requirement.
Here is what the 2008-2009 playoff would have looked like:
Top 12 Teams (Rankings prior to conference championship games, seeded according to above system)
1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Southern California
4. Utah
5. Texas
6. Florida
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. Ohio State
11. Cincinnati
12. Boston College
ROUND 1 (Game played at home stadium of higher seed)
5 Texas vs. 12 Boston College
6 Florida vs. 11 Cincinnati
7 Texas Tech vs. 10 Ohio State
8 Penn State vs. 9 Boise State
ROUND 2 (Game played at home stadium of higher seed)
1 Alabama vs. Penn State/Boise State
4 Utah vs. Texas/Boston College
2 Oklahoma vs. Texas Tech/Ohio State
3 USC vs. Florida/Cincinnati
ROUND 3 (first two BCS Bowls, "home" team determined by seeding)
Alabama/Penn State/Boise State vs. Utah/Texas/Boston College
Oklahoma/Texas Tech/Ohio State vs. USC/Florida/Cincinnati
ROUND 4 (BCS TITLE GAME, site of game rotates between BCS sites, "home" team determined by seeding)
Winners of BCS Bowls
Questions/Issues with my proposed system:
1. Which current BCS game would be removed?
-My choice would be the Fiesta Bowl. It does not have the same type of tradition associated with it as the other three BCS bowls have.
2. What would be the future of the current bowls not included in the BCS?
-I don't think they mean all that much right now, and I don't think a playoff system would change that. If fan interest dwindled, the number of bowls could be reduced.
3. What about the financial concerns about this proposed system?
-I am not an accountant or an economist. Maybe somebody who understands economics better than I do could explain to me why this system would or would not work.
I think every team that could have had a legitimate claim for inclusion in the national championship picture would be included in this playoff. The first five teams excluded in 2008-2009 would have been TCU, Ball State, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, and Georgia (I doubt anybody, even fans of those teams, would argue that they should have been in the national championship discussion this past season). Boston College's inclusion over Virginia Tech is due to its higher BCS ranking prior to the ACC Championship Game; the same applies to Alabama's #1 ranking. This system would not be without its flaws, but most of those flaws already apply to the current BCS.
