How a College Football playoff would look in 2010 if I was in charge

[Bear Pand]

Despite that guy's whining the Capital One bowl will probably sellout, and I'm guessing the majority of fans there will be rooting for Bama. I'm not saying this to point out how great the bowl is, I probably won't even watch it...but still.

[bucky]

I like Bowl games. But kind of wish they had value other than historical. The Rose Bowl (Granddaddy) was bragging rights between Big Ten and Pac Ten. Now we don't even have a Pac Ten team in the Rose Bowl. History gone. Bowl game means very little.

[FirstTimer]

I'm excited about The Sun Bowl.

[Hasselbeck]

I'm excited about The Sun Bowl.

I would go to that game if it weren't in El Paso.

[FirstTimer]

Here's a Fox Sports set up:

Like the NCAA's college basketball tournament, you'd reward each of the 11 FBS conference winners with automatic bids.

Five at-large bids would then be given to the top five non-conference winners with the highest BCS rankings at the end of the season. This would not limit the amount of teams per conference in the tournament. In 2010's case, for example, Michigan State -- coming off an 11-1 season in which they handed the Rose Bowl bound Badgers their only loss -- is on the outside of the BCS bubble looking in because of the two team-per-conference-maximum rule. They’d have their shot with the Schrager Sixteen.

More rules to satisfy the masses?

If Notre Dame, Navy, or Army finish in the top 16 of the regular season's final BCS standings, they’d be rewarded one of the five at-large bids.

As they do now, the final BCS standings would determine conference champions in case of ties and regular season co-champions. Boise State, at No. 11, would be in from the WAC as an automatic bid. Nevada and Hawaii would be out.

How would the actual scheduling and seeding work?




The eight higher-seeded teams would host first-round games, while all subsequent rounds would be played at neutral sites (a rotation of the four current BCS bowl sites, and a yearly rotation of three other non-current BCS bowl sites).

No conference rivals would be allowed to square off in the first round.

No teams would face teams they played against in the regular season in the first round.

Seven bowl sites would be involved in the playoffs each year, while the 28 other bowls would host minor bowl games, just as they do now. The NCAA Tournament games would be played on Thursday and Saturday nights. The minor bowls would be played on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. ESPN, which actually owns six bowls, would still get its usual onslaught of minor bowl games throughout the week.

Everyone wins.

So, how exactly would the 2010 NCAA Football Tournament look?

Drum roll, please.



Left side of the bracket

1. Auburn (SEC Champion)
vs.
16. Miami of Ohio (MAC Champion)

8. Arkansas (At Large 3)
vs.
9. Michigan State (At Large 4)

4. Stanford (At Large 1)
vs.
13. Connecticut (Big East Champion)

5. Wisconsin (Big Ten Champion)
vs.
12. Virginia Tech (ACC Champion)

Right side of the bracket

2. Oregon (Pac-10 Champion)
vs.
15. Troy (Sun Belt Champion)

7. Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion)
vs.
10. LSU (At Large 5)

6. Ohio State (At Large 2)
vs.
11. Boise State (WAC Champion)

3. TCU (Mountain West Champion)
vs.
14. UCF (Conference USA Champion)
Okay, now let those first-round matchups digest for a moment.

Imagine, instead of preparing for an empty Saturday to be filled only by the least suspenseful Heisman Trophy ceremony ever, we had Boise State traveling to The Horseshoe in Columbus for the Gordon Gee Bowl. Or, instead of relying on Div. II playoff games next Saturday afternoon, we had Les Miles’ LSU Tigers taking on the Sooners in Norman under the lights? Wisconsin-Virginia Tech up in Madison in the middle of December?

Don’t be ashamed if you’re all hot and bothered by just imaging such possibilities. It’s a completely normal physical reaction.


After the first round, consider a potential second-round battle between SEC West rivals Arkansas and Auburn. Or Ohio State, after getting past one non-BCS conference opponent (Boise State), facing another “Sisters of the Poor” school in TCU at a neutral field in the Elite 8?

I’m sweating. I’m hyperventilating.

We need this, America. Hell, we deserve it!

The usual three knocks against a playoff, quite personally, are rather short sighted.

The thought that early season games would be of no significance because of a playoff would be dismissed when you consider that just five at-large bids are up for grabs at the end of the year. More than one loss in a season puts you in very dangerous territory. Undoubtedly, the late August/early September out-of-conference bouts would still be of great importance.

The theory that schools would somehow make less money with a playoff system is wrong, too. With merchandise, TV broadcast deals, sponsorship and advertising dollars, I find it hard to imagine a playoff system wouldn't generate more money than the current bowl process. The current system’s cookie jar is awfully big and all the schools seem quite content with having their hands in it. A playoff cookie jar would be even larger.

As for the whole “tradition” argument? It’s lazy. No one yearns for the days before an NFL wild-card round, I’ve never heard anyone long for the pre-BCS bowl era of college football, and I certainly don’t think anyone would reminisce long and hard for the years when there were 45 days separating conference championship weekend and the BCS National Championship Game.

All things considered, a college football playoff is an amazing thing to consider and dream about.

Alas, that's all we can do for now. Dream about it.

[NAHSTE]

I'd love to have the luxury of seeing my team lose to Arkansas in the last week of the season and still get rewarded with a shot at the title, but most would think that's a broken system.

Wait what? That already happened under the current system? Then what's there to lose?