While many fans of college football can agree that a playoff is needed, there is much debate over how this would actually work. Luckily for you I have worked out all these details. Here is my proposed system for a college playoff, as well as an example of how it would've worked this year. Let's start with some guidelines:
1. 16 Teams qualify
2. 6 Auto-bids are given to the Champions of the 6 "BCS Conferences" (ACC, Big10, Big12, Big East, Pac10, SEC)
3. 10 At-Large bids are given to the 10 highest remaining teams in the final BCS standings regardless of conference affiliation
4. Seeding is based on BCS standings
Now that I have outlined how teams qualify for the playoff, we get to the most debateable and hardest part of the equation. What to do about the bowls and when the games would be played. Here's how I would adress these issues:
- The first round (16 teams) would be played at the home field of the highest seeded team in the matchup. The first round we be played the week IMMEDIETLY following the conference championship games. The whole college football season would also be reduced by week, therefore Championship weekend would occur a week earlier than it is now. Since there are 8 games and a lot of television conflicts, these games would be played Saturday through Thursday. (skipping Sunday b/c of the NFL) This will not give any team an advantage because there is a long layoff until the next round.
- All non-BCS bowl games would be played before 3:30 P.M. on New Years Day, and any team that did not advance to the quarterfinals of the playoff would be eligable to participate in a bowl. This way the non-BCS bowls are still able to field competative matchups.
- The quarterfinal round would be played starting at 3:30 P.M. on Jan 1st and continue through the 2nd. They would be played as the 4 traditional BCS games with the matchup at each bowl alternating each year. For example this year the Rose Bowl would get 1 vs. 8 in 2010 they would get 4 vs. 5, etc.
- The semifinal round would be played on Jan. 8th and Jan 9th at a nueteral site somewhere with the Championship game being played Jan 15th at the same nuetral site.
Here is how this system would have played out this year:
Round 1: 12/06 - 12/11 Round 2: 1/1 - 1/2 Round 3: 1/8 - 1/9
#1 Oklahoma vs.
#16 Virginia Tech
Rose Bowl: #1 Oklahoma vs. #8 Penn St.
#8 Penn St. vs.
#9 Boise State
Nuetral Site: Oklahoma vs. Alabama
#4 Alabama vs.
#13 Oklahoma St.
Fiesta Bowl: #4 Alabama vs. #5 USC
#5 USC vs.
#12 Cincinatti
Championship @ Nuetral SIte 1/15: Oklahoma vs. Florida
#6 Utah vs.
#11 TCU
Orange Bowl: #3 Texas vs. #6 Utah
#3 Texas vs.
#14 Georgia Tech
Nuetral Site: Florida vs. Texas
#7 Texas Tech vs.
#10 Ohio State
Sugar Bowl: #2 Florida vs. #7 Texas Tech
#2 Florida vs.
#15 Georgia
I think this system could work out perfectly. No legitimate teams get screwed, all the bowls maintain their competitiveness and prestige, and the playoffs do not take too much class time away from the "student-athletes." Please let me know what you think of my system and any flaws you see in it. Thanks for reading.
-Rich Yates
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