I Have A Plan for a College Football Playoff!!

Well it’s December and that means its time to…debate the College Football BCS!!! I am one of the many who think the process is flawed and needs to be changed. I absolutely think there needs to be a college football playoff and I am going to lay out my plan in this blog. I have been thinking of this system for a couple of years now and think that it is a far better way to settle the championship debate. I just think the way the system is set up now doesn’t give college football fans the maximum amount of quality football. I understand that it is just easier to leave the BCS as it is and keep the status quo. With my plan there would likely be bowl committees that would be upset and schools that would feel slighted but I feel this would be the best way to crown a champion, make more money and set the stage for some really, really good college football. I welcome thoughts, disagreements, praise or hate mail!!

So here we go with The Jones Plan:

1) 8 team playoff

The 8 teams are determined by a similar ranking system to the BCS rating system. I do not feel the rankings of the teams is flawed, I think that only the top two teams playing for the title is the problem. The teams will be seeded 1 thru 8 based on ranking and the teams will play each other similar to a NBA/NHL system. 1 plays 8 and so on. This year looks like this

1 Alabama 13-0
2 Texas 13-0
3 Cincinnati 13-0
4 TCU 13-0
5 Florida 12-1
6 Boise State 12-0
7 Oregon 10-2
8 Ohio State 10-2

So we get match ups that look like this:


1 Alabama vs. 8 Ohio St.
2 Texas vs. 7 Oregon
3 Cincinnati vs. 6 Boise State
4 TCU vs. 5 Florida



2) Roll of the Bowls

I actually believe you can have a true playoff and utilize the bowl system. Instead of having 4 bowl venues that hold the 5 big games, you elevate 2 or 3 new bowl sights and make those games matter as well. Then the games rotate over the years giving them a chance to all be important. I have a feeling the folks at The Rose Bowl wouldn’t like this at all but one can only hope a time will come when the Rose Bowl looks past themselves and realizes that a plan like this is better for college football as a whole. This is not just a shot at the Rose Bowl committee, the other so called “Power Conferences” need to start looking at the big picture as well. So we have Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl. I would add The Holiday Bowl, The Capital One Bowl, and The Cotton Bowl. My reasons for picking these Bowls are first and foremost the cities they are in. It’s not a tough sell getting folks to travel to Orlando, San Diego, and Dallas to cheer on their squads. Having the new Cowboys stadium on the list of places to play a big game is never going to be a bad idea. This leaves plenty of games for 6-6 teams, 7-5 teams and the 5th and 6th place teams in the Big Ten to go play for winter vacation.

So we start with a schedule that looks like this:
‘Bama vs. Ohio St. @ Capital One Bowl
Texas vs. Oregon @ Cotton Bowl
Cincinnati vs. Boise State @ Fiesta Bowl
TCU vs. Florida @ Holiday Bowl

(Now it may be necessary to do two games a day…pretty tough to get four football games in one day with out some overlapping. I would think there is a way to fix that without much issue.)

Winning Teams:

1/8 vs. 4/5 @ Sugar Bowl
2/7 vs. 3/6 @ Orange Bowl


Championship Game @ Rose Bowl


3) Rules for Qualification

While being in the Top 8 of the ranking system will almost always get you a place in the playoff there will be, and I feel there have to be, exceptions. No more than 2 teams from a conference can be in the tournament if a conference champion with a better record is not voted in to the top 8. However a conference championship doesn’t promise you a place in the playoffs either. We will look at a couple of examples. Let’s go to 2007…your BCS standings look like this:

1 Ohio State 11-1
2 LSU 11-2
3 Virginia Tech 11-2
4 Oklahoma 11-2
5 Georgia 10-2
6 Missouri 11-2
7 USC 10-2
8 Kansas 11-1
9 West Virginia 10-2
10 Hawaii 12-0

You will notice I have included the Top 10. This is because Hawaii goes undefeated, wins the WAC and is 10th. While Kansas finishes 3rd in the Big 12 and is in 8th. With my plan Kansas is out and Hawaii moves up to 8th. This gives us standings that look like this:

1 Ohio State 11-1
2 LSU 11-2
3 Virginia Tech 11-2
4 Oklahoma 11-2
5 Georgia 10-2
6 Missouri 11-2
7 USC 10-2
8 Hawaii 12-0

If you can’t sell this slate of games, you aren’t trying very hard and I don’t think you can argue against any of these teams. Now lets look at 2006 where you had conference champion from the ACC, Wake Forrest, play in a BCS game even though they were ranked #14 and Notre Dame is granted an At Large birth at #11 in standing, and #10 Oklahoma gets a BCS game being the Big 12 Champion.

1 Ohio State 12-0
2 Florida 12-1
3 Michigan 11-1
4 LSU 10-2
5 USC 10-2
6 Louisville 11-1
7 Wisconsin 11-1
8 Boise State 12-0
9 Auburn 10-2
10 Oklahoma 11-2
11 Notre Dame 10-2
12 Arkansas 10-3
13 West Virginia 10-2
14 Wake Forrest 11-2


This is a situation where a strong debate could come up. You have Oklahoma (11-2) as the #10 team and big 12 Champion. Wisconsin (11-1) is 3rd in the Big Ten. Oklahoma lost out of conference to Oregon in September that season and also lost the Red River Shootout to Texas. Wisconsin lost just one game to Michigan who is ranked 3rd in this poll and lost the game earlier in the season as well. Thus, I think for the purpose of this argument, Oklahoma is on the outside looking in and the Big Ten gets 3 teams. So we have a playoff that looks like this:

1 Ohio State 12-0
2 Florida 12-1
3 Michigan 11-1
4 LSU 10-2
5 USC 10-2
6 Louisville 11-1
7 Wisconsin 11-1
8 Boise State 12-0

Again plenty to sell here, some great match ups. First round match-ups of Ohio State vs Boise State…two undefeated teams going at it! It seems pretty simple to me. Of course when you are talking about sports, big business and the NCAA, the simple thing rarely gets done.


4) Placement of Teams and When Games Are Played

Now generally speaking, the second week of December is when most schools start going into finals. I have heard plenty of arguments against a playoff because it takes the kids away from too much school work. Let’s just pretend that argument has merit for a moment. So after finals the kids are on break until after the first of the year correct? Okay so we have championship week that finishes up the first Saturday in December. The following week would be a bye for all teams to prepare for 1st round match-ups and complete finals during that week. So the schedule looks something like this

Dec 5th (Saturday): Championship Week concludes
Dec 6th (Sunday): Playoff Poll is finalized and teams and match ups announced
Dec 7th (MON) thru Dec 11th: College finals for students, normal game prep and practice
Dec 12th: Bowl Prep Starts
Dec 19th: First Round Playoffs @ Bowl sights 5, 6, 7, and 8
Dec 26th: Semi final Round Playoffs @ Bowl sights 3 and 4
Jan 2nd: College Football Championship Game

So, if college student being in class as much as possible is your primary concern then this plan is better. Students would be back on the 3rd instead of the 8th. Also the playoffs coincide with the end of the regular season in the NFL. There are plenty of times when the last couple NFL weeks don’t matter that much. Now we have more important games on TV and more people to watch them!


Conclusion

So that is my plan. We need a playoff. It is that simple. The NCAA needs to just get over itself and listen to the people. The BCS has been a fine system but people used to think that just a vote was good enough and that the best teams didn’t always have to play each other. That isn’t the world we live in anymore. I am sure there are logistical things that I am not thinking about that make this plan tougher than it may seem to me. I would love to hear what other people think. What can we do to make this an even better idea? This is just what I would like to see as a fan of college football!