Posted on 11/25/2007 5:03:26 PM PST by Perdogg
This time of year, we hear a lot complaining from sports writers about the BCS. There should be a holiday for this. Last night I also heard commentators complaining about the College overtime. So, since college football is broken, how do we have an equitable playoff system that objectively seeds the teams?
If we seed the BCS teams, then it's still not really fair. It would only enriched the big programs.
How do we make a college football playoff fair, that would not give more power to the sports writer? If they had the power, Notre Dame would be in it every year.
The overtime problem is easy. Play an extra quarter and at the end the of quarter (15:00 minutes), the team with most points wins. If not, the game ends in tie.
Here's an example of a (UNC Tarheels) schedule you would likely to see under a playoff system:
(SEC West V ACC Coastal) @LSU Auburn @Arkansas Miss. State @Alabama Ole Miss
ACC Schedule
Virginia Tech @Virginia Georgia Tech @Miami Duke
1 parity game (ACC Coastal V Big XII North)
@Kansas State (4th Big XII North)
Conference Championship game.
Then the playoff system would be seeded based on won/loss records of the Conference champions. Any ties in records would be based on conference v conference play, or common opponents. Then the 8 team playoff system would take place, ending with the championship game the week before the Super Bowl.
The regular season would start in late August and end the week after Thanksgiving. No more open dates, and Notre Dame would have to join a football conference or miss out.
Any ideas?
The BCS system will really look bad if Missouri and W Virgina both lose (unlikely, since W Virginia plays at home against Pitt, but perhaps the #2 curse will continue). In that case, the system will let Ohio State in, since they are currently in #3. The other team has to be a two-loss team. Georgia probably can’t go, since they didn’t make the SEC championship. If LSU beats Tennessee, they’ll probably get the nod. Oklahoma fans will be bitter in that case, but that’s the breaks. In that case, USC (assuming they get by UCLA this time and find their way to the Rose Bowl) doesn’t get to play Ohio State or LSU. Too bad, really.
I think everyone should be in a conference - join up or don’t play. Hey, I”m a homeschooler and that’s how they treat us! lol
The attack on the college overtime started this morning on Mike-and-Mike.
The Monday morning quarterbacks.
...And that is the big factor, the conferences and the need for the independents to join up.
It is bad already as seen by this wild and crazy season.
I would agree it should be changed. Maybe move the ball from the 25 to say maybe to 40 yard line. It’s silly that a team could run 3 plays gain no yards from the 25 and kick a FG and possibly win the game in OT.
WEll I don’t like the OT system in the NFL either - it is basically a coin toss.... ;^)
I suspect it would be Michigan.
The call Mizzou the show me state!!!
I played at a I-AA school. We were in the playoffs 2 years.
It’s kind of like seeding in the NCCA Basketball Tournement.
But its not really seeded #1 plays #16, #2 plays #15 by a ranking.
The seeding determines if you have a home game or not.
Where they can, they try to match up teams in brackets that make sense regionally.
This year :
16. New Hampshire (7-4) at 1. UNI (11-0)
9. Delaware State (10-1) at 8. Delaware (8-3)
12. Fordham (8-3) at 5. Massachusetts (9-2)
13. Eastern Illinois (8-2) at 4. Southern Illinois (10-1)
15. Eastern Washington (8-3) at 2. McNeese State (11-0)
10. James Madison (8-3) at 7. Appalachian State (9-2)
14. Wofford (8-3) at 3. Montana (11-0)
11. Eastern Kentucky (9-2) at 6. Richmond (9-2)
You can see the seedings and what they “try” to do.
4 of the first round matchups are bus rides for the visitors.
If it was a real seeding based on pure power rankings, every would be flying, and the away teams would have almost no fans at the game.
The championship game is pre-set, and has been in Chatanooga, TN for the past couple of years.
Top 7 bowl games.
Jan, 1 four games
Jan. 8 two games.
Jan. 15 Championship game.
Every 7th year a major bowl would host the National Championship game.
BUT every year, each major bowl would host at least a playoff game.
Want more teams in? Eliminate the 11th and/or 12th game and conference championship games and expand the field to the lesser bowl games as playoff games.
Eliminating the 11th/12th game and conference championship would expand the field to 32 teams and would have a total of 31 bowl games become part of the playoffs.
Too much to ask of young players? It's what they are used to in high school playoffs. It's what every other Division in college football is used to playing.
Miss too much school? Are BCS school athletes that much dumber than the other divisions that all have playoffs? If school administrators are that concerned for their scholar athletes, where is that concern for the other sports?
Even at 32 teams, with the elimination of the 11th/12th and conference championship games it would be only one more game than the National Champion has played in the past regular season/conference championship/BCS format.
Never get the bowls to agree? Now that there is a "National Championship" game, the bowls lose a lot of their national appeal. Best way to get it back? Make the games mean something.
Worried about eliminating the 11th/12th game and conference championship game and not having as many games to pad the bottom line? More money to be made by going through the playoffs than by scheduling East Woeful State for a home game 70-0 blowout.
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I missed it. What did Mike and Mike say about overtime?
This is what I want to see, a bracket system, like the basketball setup in March and this example presents. Get rid of the BCS.
Half kidding on that. But I have long argued that a play off system such as you describe is quite workable. Your post answers several drawing backs except one, the leagues need to buy into it. My idea would resolve that. Here's how:
Re organize all leagues into 16 leagues of (up to)16 teams each (that is potentually 256 teams). Each league would have two divisions and a Conference championship.
They would play a 10 game regular season and a 1-2 game pre season. The 16 league championship games would essentially be round one of a 32 team elimination tournament. These games would occur Thanksgiving weekend or first weekend in Dec.
They would then follow the system you described for the bowl playoffs. Round 1, eight bowl games at the lesser bowl and then the bigger games at the big bowls rotating as you describe.
What about the independents? OK, make it 14 leagues (224 teams) and one "at large" play off of the top two independents, based on their won loss records or rankings. Alternative is, if they want to be independent, fine, then they are not eligible for the NCAA plaoffs.
BCS Conferences: ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, SEC
Non-BCS Conferences: Mac, Wac, MWC, C-Usa, Sun Belt
From these you can have 3 possible Playoff Scenarios -- all scenarios also require all teams to be in a conference.
8 TEAM PLAYOFF : 6 BCS Conference Champs, 2 Highest ranked Non-BCS Conf Champs.
11 Team Playoff : All 11 Conference Champions. Seed teams 1-11. 1-5 get first round Bye, 6-11 play for final 3 spots (6 vs 11, 7 vs 10, 8 vs 9)
16 Team Playoff : All 11 Conference Champs, 5 AT LARGE teams.
16 team playoff and 11 team playoff first round games are played at the HOME FIELD of the top seeded teams.
Once you are down to 8 teams the games are played at Current Bowl sites : Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Capitol One, Outback. Championship and Semi-Final games will ALWAYS be at the 4 BCS Bowl sites. The PREVIOUS Championship Site will host a QUARTERFINAL game the next season with the Cotton, Capitol One, and Outback sites.
Example (Last season the Fiesta hosted the NC game). So this season would be Q-FINALS : Fiesta, Cotton, Cap one, Outback. S-final : Rose, Orange. Championship : Sugar Bowl. Next year the Sugar would host a Q-Final game, Fiesta would host a S-Final game and either the Rose or Orange would host the Championship.
SEEDED Conference Champions :
1. Big East : W Virginia
2. Big Ten : Ohio State
3. SEC : LSU
4. ACC : Va Tech
5. Pac 10 : USC
6. Big 12 : Oklahoma
7. WAC : Hawaii
8. Sun Belt : Troy
9. MWC : BYU
10. C-USA : UCF
11. MAC : Bowling Green
8 Team Playoff : Troy vs W.Va, Hawaii vs Ohio State, Oklahoma vs. LSU, USC vs. Va Tech
11 Team Playoff : (BYU at Troy Winner) vs W. Va, (UCF at Hawaii Winner) vs. Ohio St, (B. Green at Oklahoma winner) vs. LSU, USC vs. Va Tech
16 Team Playoff (At large teams - Georgia, Kansas, Florida, Arizona ST, Illinois) : Bowling Green vs W. VA, UCF vs Ohio State, BYU vs LSU, Troy vs. Va Tech, HAwaii vs USC, Illinois vs Oklahoma, AZ State vs Georgia, Florida vs Kansas
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