College Football Needs A Playoff

College Football Needs A Playoff

Topic Author: Sam Farnsworth

Posted: Dec 3, 2007

Replies Posted: 11 comments

Save

del.icio.us

Google

Yahoo

digg

Recent Blog Topics

My Broncos, NFL Predictions

2008 High School Football Predictions

Bad Judgement In Olympic Gymnastics

Who Do The Packers Think They Are?

What's Up With Vegans Anyway?

It's Summer! Whip Out The BBQ!!!

Post Your Comments

College Football Needs A Playoff

The BCS has it wrong once again. When is this going to change? When are we finally going to see a playoff system that will give BCS teams as well as non BCS teams legitimate chances at a national title? The NCAA has a 65 team playoff for college basketball. There is never any argument as to who the national champion is at the end of that tournament.

I understand that football is a different beast. There is no way you could have 65 teams in a college football playoff. But you could have 16. The NCAA Championship Subdivision (Formerly Division I-AA) has a 16 team playoff. NCAA Division II has a 24 team playoff. NCAA Division III has a 32 team playoff. Each division handles it very successfully. Why cant the NCAA Bowl Division (Formerly Division I) have a playoff of a similar scale? A "plus one" scenario just wont cut it. And an eight team playoff still leaves out legitimate title contenders. My scenario would include 16 teams over a four week period (five weeks at most).

My first idea was to give an automatic bid to each conference champion. There are 11 conferences that would get an automatic bid (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, C-USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, PAC-10, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC) which would leave five at large bids. If you think that the BCS ranking system is a fair system then you would be satisfied by using the BCS rankings to determine the five at large bids. The five highest ranking schools in the BCS rankings that have not already locked up an automatic bid would get the at large bids. The 1-16 seedings would be given based on your BCS ranking as well.

I came up with a mock bracket and seedings that would include the following: 1. Ohio St., 2. LSU, 3. Va. Tech, 4. Oklahoma, 5. Georgia, 6. Missouri, 7. USC, 8. Kansas, 9. West Virgina, 10. Hawaii, 11. Arizona St., 12. Florida, 13. BYU, 14. Central Florida, 15. Bowling Green, 16. Troy.

But then my co-worker Zach Kerker made the argument that Illinois (9-3) or Boston College (10-3) deserves a shot at the national title over a team like unranked Troy (8-4). He says that both Illinois or Boston College has a much more legitimate chance at making it to the title game than does a school like Troy or Bowling Green (8-4). I have to agree. But that would rule out giving an automatic bid to each conference champion.

After much deliberation and verbal jousting between the two of us and 11 News anchor Glen Mills, we decided it would be much more fair to include the Boston Colleges of the football world than the Troys. My next sollution would be to give an automatic bid to a conference champion that has two losses or less on its overall record. This would eliminate Troy, Bowling Green, and Central Florida and would now include Illinois, Boston College, and Clemson to the mix.

Using this method and still using the BCS rankings to determind seeding, this is the bracket I have come up with (* = at large bid):

1. Ohio State (11-1) vs. 16. BYU (10-2) - OSU def. BYU 28-11

8. Kansas* (11-1) vs. 9. West Virginia (10-2) - Kansas def. West Virginia 33-14

5. Georgia* (10-2) vs. 12. Florida* (9-3) - Georgia def. Florida 24-7

4. Oklahoma (11-2) vs. 13. Illinois* (9-3) - Oklahoma def. Illinois 52-12

3. Virginia Tech (11-2) vs. 14. Boston College* (10-3) - Va. Tech def. Boston College 28-3

6. Missouri* (11-2) vs. 11. Arizona State* (10-2) - Arizona State def. Missou 49-13

7. Southern Cal (10-2) vs. 10. Hawaii (12-0) - USC def. Hawaii 30-27

2. LSU (11-2) vs. 15. Clemson* (9-3) - LSU def. Clemson 45-44

Here are the second round matchups that will be simulated later this week. The second round games will be named after the four current BCS bowls.

1. Ohio State (12-1) vs 8. Kansas* (12-1) in the Rose Bowl - Ohio State def. Kansas 28-21

5. Georgia* (11-2) vs 4. Oklahoma (12-2) in the Orange Bowl - Oklahoma def. Georgia 24-7

3. Virginia Tech (12-2) vs 11. Arizona State* (11-2) in the Sugar Bowl - Arizona State def. Virginia Tech 20-0

7. Southern Cal (11-2) vs. 2. LSU (12-2) in the Fiesta Bowl - LSU def. USC 38-10

Here is the BCS Final Four pairings.

1. Ohio State (13-1) vs. 4. Oklahoma (13-2) - Oklahoma def. Ohio State 30-28

2. LSU (13-2) vs. 11. Arizona State* (12-2) - LSU def. Arizona State 33-30 O.T.

BCS Championship:

4. Oklahoma (14-2) vs. 2. LSU (14-2) - LSU def. Oklahoma 62-56

Our champion according to our simulation is LSU.

Posted by: KansasToonami Location: Lawrence, KS
Thanks for running the rest of the bracket simulation. Wow, that's a high-scoring final... and no overtime? ;-) Guess the defenses took the day off... or did you have the time set to 15 minute quarters? Sometimes the game will go crazy if given too much time... anyway, thanks again for showing us what a *good* college football postseason would look like. My boycott of the bowls is proceeding without incident. :-p

Posted by: Aunt Jamima Location: Clifton
That's right. This is the big money! Good picks for the last four teams too. But it will be LSU to win it all. This is the money, but the BCS has it right. You know that too, don't you???

Posted by: KansasToonami Location: Lawrence, KS
Good setup with the bracket, there are various ways to do it, and you hit on the major considerations (conference champions, at-large teams, BCS rankings). I did three (!) separate scenarios on my blog over at *cough* that E-sumpin' place, but I only ran a simulation (via PS2) for the first option, which was strictly AP seeding. I like your scenario as a compromise, though to be fair, that automatic bid requirement should also apply to the "major" conferences! There have been cases where BCS conference champions have had three or four losses, so perhaps it's just as well to allow Central Michigan (MAC) and Florida Atlantic (SunBelt) in as the 15 and 16 seeds (BGSU and Troy were good, but not conference champs); that would ensure all the conferences are "on board" with the system, and give Ohio State and LSU (in this case) an additional reward for being ranked 1 and 2... though of course upsets can happen! That's what makes playoffs exciting, after all... Look forward to the update!

Posted by: Jimmer Location: Colorado
Genius idea! I saw it on ESPN too. I hope it happens. It better happen. If it doesn't happen, then I will never... EVER watch college sports again. Not just football, but anything college! I'm done with it! Through! Finished! its over! ... until we have a playoff.

Posted by: ADogg Location: Van down by the river
EazyE, aren't you dead? Wait a minute, You can't be the real EazyE cause he was comin straight outta Compton and you hail from...G-town? Is that Gunnison? Georgetown? Grand Junction? yeah I'm chillin here down by the river, watchin all the sports I want on my wireless laptop, and that medal plate in my head, just enhances the reception I get here. Yeah It's all about corporate sponsorship, but there are ways to get your sponsorship and have a bracket. Let's take all the games from the bracket, give them each a sponsor name, and everyone is happy! Colleges get theirs booty, corporations get their names out there, we have an undisputed champion cause they played their way to the championship game. People want an undisputed champion instead of all this contention that the BCS brings. Let it be settled on the field through a bracket like college basketball. EazyE, go back to where you hail from, Gunnison, Georgetown, Gutterville or where ever and I'll be chillin in my van!

Posted by: EazyE Location: G-Town
Adogg! Do you even get reception in that van down by the river? Probably channel 0 right? And that's only when you're touching the antenna with a clothes hanger. Or do you pick up signals with that metal plate in your head? WAKE UP! It's not about the game it's about the $$. Sure we would all like to see a playoff bracket, but it's not going to happen with all of the corporate sponsorship involved in the bowl games and BCS. So come out of the van Adogg and get you some cable. Maybe satellite... oh wait, satellite... metal plate..., better just stick with the cable bro.

Posted by: Rick Location: Orem, Utah
Now that I look at this and think aboput it, I think it is an excellent idea and would work. Now, how do we get other media centers and the movers and shakers of the NCAA and BCS to start looking at it. I think you should spread this idea around. Great idea. (And yes, you do have viewers (on the internet) in Utah.--Rick

Posted by: Jason Location: Honolulu
Mr. Farnsworth, the Golden Boy, you hit the nail right on the head. Down with the current BCS system! Hooray playoffs! And while we're ranting here, we need to do something with the Heisman voting. I'm tired of everyone jumping on Tebow's bandwagon just because ESPN endorsed him. If Colt Brennan beats up on Georgia, he should win it because everyone said his draw back was Hawaii's strength of schedule. You should write a blog about that. Aloha and Mahalo.

Posted by: Adogg Location: Van down by the River
I 100% agree with you Mr. Farnsworth. the BCS is just not workin here for college Football. Do an elimination bracket and let the good times roll! Oh and I love your commercial "Oh there you are!"

Posted by: Stanley Hammer Location: Colorado
My first round predictions would be Ohio St., West Virginia, Georgia, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Hawaii, and LSU would all win first round games. I think Georgia or Missouri would win it all!!!

Posted by: Go Buffs! Location: Grand Junction
It's about time someone comes up with an idea that makes sense. I would pay money to watch a college football playoff like this any day over some BCS game with two teams I really don't care to watch. Watch out next year though... the Buffs are for real and are on their way back to the national spotlight.