Division I College Football Playoffs
Division I College Football must implement a playoff system. It makes no sense not to have one. The money-hungry and tradition-loving people in charge seem to think the system works the way it is, but the truth is that it doesn't. There is so much less parity among the top teams in college sports today than there ever used to be, and this is becoming evident in the increasing wackiness of college football upsets and crazy rankings. The current system bases the whole system of determining a national champion on the ability to determine the two best teams in the country, then letting them battle it out for the trophy. In the past, it was done with all human rankings, but more recently computers have also been used to make the process more credible, or something. However, in this 2007 season more than ever, it is obvious that there are no clear top 2 teams that should be playing for the national title. A playoff system would allow a somewhat larger (but still very small) group of top-10 teams to play in the National Championship mini-Playoff. It would not be like the NFL playoffs, and would not add to the length of the season. Below, I will outline my ideas for how such a system would work.
Plain and simple, it would be an 8-team playoff system. The teams are seeded 1-8 and play (1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5) the first round of games some time before New Years. This leaves ample off-time for all teams to get ready. The second round, in which the winners play the winners (1/8-4/5, 2/7-3/6), would take place a week later, on or right after New Years. The two winners of those games would then meet in the National Championship game, which would take place 1 week later. This would be no more than 2 weeks after New Years, and therefore would lengthen the season by no more than 1 week, while keeping excitement for college football up more than with the current long wait between the end of the season and the bowls. The BCS ranking scheme could still be used to seed the teams. It does a good job of taking the poll voters' rankings and tweaking them based on strength-of-schedule, etc. However, an advantage of having an 8-team playoff is that you can't make the case that a team ranked 9th deserves to be playing for the National Championship, so the system only needs to effectively rank which teams are in the top 8, and not necessarily the order of the top 2 or 3 teams, which has been problematic at times.
Which teams should be the top 8? The winners of the 6 major conferences (SEC, Big 12, Big 10, Big East, ACC, Pac-10) and two at-large teams from any conference. However, in order for this to be effective, all 6 conferences would need to have a Championship Game. Several of them already do, but the others would need to add a championship game so that there will be an outright champion in each conference. The two at-large teams would be chosen by the two highest-ranked teams in the BCS that didn't win their conference championship or are not from a major conference. I think this would sufficiently allow for all the eligible and worthy teams to be playing in the Tournament.
Another issue that's been brought up is the issue of locations and what will happen to the old BCS bowls. These bowls can still exist...the 4 BCS bowls will be the first round of the Playoffs. The second round games will occur at two of the same sites, but could simply be titled Semifinal Games (or something of that nature) and the National Championship game would occur at one of the 4 sites, just as it is now. This reduces travelling and logistical problems, retains the old bowl games, etc.
In addition, all the other bowls could and should still happen, as they are a significant source of revenue and tradition and fun. Adding the National Championship Playoff Tournament on top of that would make College Football Bowl season more exciting than it already is.
I think those are all the main points of my proposed system. I don't see anything majorly wrong with it, and I think it is definitely an improvement on the current system.
Plain and simple, it would be an 8-team playoff system. The teams are seeded 1-8 and play (1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5) the first round of games some time before New Years. This leaves ample off-time for all teams to get ready. The second round, in which the winners play the winners (1/8-4/5, 2/7-3/6), would take place a week later, on or right after New Years. The two winners of those games would then meet in the National Championship game, which would take place 1 week later. This would be no more than 2 weeks after New Years, and therefore would lengthen the season by no more than 1 week, while keeping excitement for college football up more than with the current long wait between the end of the season and the bowls. The BCS ranking scheme could still be used to seed the teams. It does a good job of taking the poll voters' rankings and tweaking them based on strength-of-schedule, etc. However, an advantage of having an 8-team playoff is that you can't make the case that a team ranked 9th deserves to be playing for the National Championship, so the system only needs to effectively rank which teams are in the top 8, and not necessarily the order of the top 2 or 3 teams, which has been problematic at times.
Which teams should be the top 8? The winners of the 6 major conferences (SEC, Big 12, Big 10, Big East, ACC, Pac-10) and two at-large teams from any conference. However, in order for this to be effective, all 6 conferences would need to have a Championship Game. Several of them already do, but the others would need to add a championship game so that there will be an outright champion in each conference. The two at-large teams would be chosen by the two highest-ranked teams in the BCS that didn't win their conference championship or are not from a major conference. I think this would sufficiently allow for all the eligible and worthy teams to be playing in the Tournament.
Another issue that's been brought up is the issue of locations and what will happen to the old BCS bowls. These bowls can still exist...the 4 BCS bowls will be the first round of the Playoffs. The second round games will occur at two of the same sites, but could simply be titled Semifinal Games (or something of that nature) and the National Championship game would occur at one of the 4 sites, just as it is now. This reduces travelling and logistical problems, retains the old bowl games, etc.
In addition, all the other bowls could and should still happen, as they are a significant source of revenue and tradition and fun. Adding the National Championship Playoff Tournament on top of that would make College Football Bowl season more exciting than it already is.
I think those are all the main points of my proposed system. I don't see anything majorly wrong with it, and I think it is definitely an improvement on the current system.