matt weighs in

[Note: Read part 2 of my college football solution here, after reading part 1.]

I will say it again: College football needs a playoff. Here, in the first of two posts, I am going to tell you why and answer some questions in the way of making it happen.

The BCS (Bowl Championship Series) has started Facebook and Twitter accounts to help make their case that the current system of finding the two teams to play for the “national championship” is the best way to do it. I tackled this back in January 2008, but I feel the need to tackle it once more. College football needs to get this right.

The questions that need to be answered are these:

• How many teams should be in a college football playoff?
• How should these teams be determined?
• When do they play the playoff games?
• Where do they play the playoff games?
• What happens to the current bowl system?

I will try to tackle these as quickly as possible.

How many teams should be in a college football playoff?
I am convinced that 16 teams should play in a college football playoff. Eight teams are too few, as there are 11 conferences, and 24 or 32 teams are too many. Just as in college basketball, where the lower seeded teams will not win the championship and there should not be more than 32 teams in March Madness, there are not more than 16 teams in college football that have a chance to win the championship.

How should these teams be determined?
Back in early 2008 when I first wrote about the BCS, my favorite option for determining the 16 playoff teams was to take the top 16 based on the final BCS rankings of the year. I now think that the right way to choose the 16 playoff teams is by taking the 11 conference champions, and then add the top five BCS ranked teams who did not win their conference. This way, the rankings, and playing a tough schedule are still important, since teams can still make the playoff by getting one of the five “at-large” spots. A committee can then rank them 1-16 to determine seeding in the playoffs (or, again, use the BCS rankings to determine seeding).

The conference champions have to be used, otherwise there is no reason for these conferences to exist in the top NCAA division. Troy and Middle Tennessee State play in the Sun Belt conference and Ohio, Temple, and Central Michigan play in the Mid-American conference. One of these teams will win their conference, respectively, yet none are ranked in the top 25 of any poll, including the BCS, so none have a chance to ever be the BCS “champion.” The BCS does not even include all teams or conferences in the top NCAA division there is? Is that fair? For what and for whom are these teams playing? The winners of all conferences need to be included. Teams in the major BCS conferences play each other every year, so their rankings will be inflated, since they are playing teams deemed to be tougher. Compete in your tough conference, or at least be ranked highly, and your team still has a good shot of making it in my playoff scenario.

When do they play the playoff games?
A 16 team playoff would need four weekends to determine a champion. Teams should play an 11- or 12-game regular season schedule with a conference championship game, if needed, played after to determine the winner. This can be done by the first week of December. Playoff games take place over the next five weeks, with a week off between quarterfinals and semi-finals. The semi-finals would be played on New Year’s Day and the Championship game played the week after. Here is what I wrote back in 2008, using the 2007 college season as an example:

There were 14 weeks between Saturday, September 1, 2007, and Saturday, December 1, 2007. This would have allowed teams to play 12 games, have one bye week during the season, and then have conference championship games on December 1st, if the conference chooses to do so.

Tell me this can not work. In that scenario, 1st round games would have been December 8th, quarterfinals on December 15th, time off, then semi-finals on January 1st and the championship game would have been January 8th. It won’t play out exactly like this each year, but the season start date can be moved around to accommodate this schedule each year.

Where do they play the playoff games?
The playoff games would take place on the higher seeded team’s home field in the 1st and 2nd rounds. The semi-finals and championship games would be played on neutral sites, pre-determined by college football. See next question.

What happens to the current college football bowl system?
My favorite part is that the current bowl system could still be utilized. Most of the college bowl games now are filled by teams who finished third or lower in their conference. These teams can still go to the Insight Bowl, the Hawaii Bowl, or the Chik-fil-a Bowl. But people, including the NCAA and BCS bo-bos are more worried ($$$$) about the major bowls played New Year’s Day and after – these are the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and National “Championship” Game. These can still be used.

Two of these Bowls can host the four remaining playoff teams in the semi-final games on New Year’s Day. The other two Bowls, whatever date they are set to play, can host the losers of the quarterfinal games. Each Bowl is guaranteed to host a game with great teams playing. The National Championship Game rotates to each BCS Bowl location now, and that could continue, so every four years, each bowl will host two major games, earning major dollars.

I think I will stop here for now. For my Daily Rave on Tuesday or Wednesday, I will attempt to break down how the current college football season will play out and which teams would probably get in my playoff scenario versus taking the top-16 teams in the BCS rankings. Since we do not have a playoff yet, this speculation is not perfect, but it is closer to getting it right than the current BCS system. I have said it many times before, and will say it again here, there is B.S. in B.C.S.

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Again, here are the links for the BCS Facebook and Twitter accounts. Have fun reading the savagery:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Inside-the-BCS/208135432288
Twitter: twitter.com/INSIDEtheBCS

Also, you will see me put “champion” in quotes whenever I talk about the current college football system of determining its “National Champion.” Sorry, the current “champion” is as mythical as a unicorn or Hogwarts.

Read Part 2!