How would YOU fix the CFB championship picture?

[PhilaYank36]

This week (especially today, for some reason) has been open season on the BCS and how it determines a college football "champion." I think many fans & reporters, maybe even most of the lot, agree that it's time to blow the whole thing up & install a playoff system. The big questions are these: how many teams go in and what to do with the bowls?

Having four teams would be too few, but 16 would be too many. Eight sounds like a good number, but that leaves only two at-large bids. IMO, 12 would a good number. Allow me to explain my own crack-pot theory.

First off, the regular season is reduced to 11 games. If a conference is so big that it needs a title game, then have it played in the final week. Why cut the season down a game? To accommodate a four-tiered, NFL-styled playoff system. The top four seeds (determined by the BCS, so the reg. season still is important) would get byes and a guaranteed home game.

• 9 @ 5, winner @ 1
• 11 @ 7, winner @ 3
• 10 @ 6, winner @ 2
• 12 @ 8, winner @ 4

After those two rounds, the games move into the traditional bowls (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta), rotating on a four-year basis, with a third-place game behind held the afternoon before the Championship game. The teams ranked 13-24 should meet in the more traditional bowls, while all the others can campaign for the remaining lesser bowls.

I fully expect some resistance to having byes, but I feel that it provides some added motivation during the regular season: having that extra week off so some of those bumps, bruises and cuts can heal a little more. No more of these nearly two-month layoffs until the championship picture and none of the major bowls can complain about diminished prestige.

Well, what do you have to say?

 

[hockeybeat]

A. ****ing. Playoff.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

16 would not be too many. Works for all the lower divisions of football, will work just fine for the top division.

 

[poindexter]

Mine would have nothing to do with the bowls.

Nothing.

The bowls would be dead and buried. Dead. Goodbye to bad rubbish.
Buh-bye

8 team playoff starting the first of December. Finish it up New Years or around there. 6 BCS and two at large. Or 8 chosen by a small committee with no axes to grind.

If you want to expand it to 16, I wouldn't get into a Texas Deathmatch over it.

 

[Chi City 81]

I think SCOTUS should decide. It worked for the presidency, and by-God, it would work for college football!

 

[HandsomeHarley]

For this year, since not every conference has championship games, I would ignore the results of the ones that did.

Therefore, No. 1 West Vorginia would meet No. 2 Missouri for the national championship. /fanboy looser

After this year, I would have a playoff. Problem with that is, biased assholes still vote the polls, so undeserving teams who haven't beat anyone worth a damn would still be ranked higher than they should.

 

[John]

16 would not be too many. Works for all the lower divisions of football, will work just fine for the top division.

Exactly. The I-AA playoffs have been great this year. Only one of the four seeded teams reached the semis, with a bunch of tight games.

 

[Barsuk]

Sixteen is fine, in my opinion, but I could live with 12 and giving the top four seeds byes. I would prefer 16 teams and give auto bids to all 11 conference champions.

PhilaYank, why on earth do you pair the 5-12 seeds the way you do in the first round? It should be 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, 8 vs. 9. Pairing 5 vs. 9 makes no sense.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

Assuming that the potential for bias always exists with voting and there's no easy solution, then the first thing that needs to be done is every college needs to be placed in a conference, with each conference having the same amount of teams.

Then you can take the conference champions and enough at-large teams for a 16-team tournament.

I say split each conference into two divisions. That way, stacking your nonconference schedule with pussies won't guarantee you a conference title in a weak conference. Two division winners play each other for the conference title.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

Exactly. The I-AA playoffs have been great this year. Only one of the four seeded teams reached the semis, with a bunch of tight games.

That's because the seeded teams didn't have Omar Cuff.

 

[Hammer Pants]

16 teams ... and back to 11-game regular seasons with two open dates ...

1. SEC champ
2. Big Ten champ
3. Big 12 champ
4. PAC 10 champ
5. ACC champ
6. Big East champ

- Any undefeated I-A team
- Any Mountain West, WAC, or CUSA school unbeaten in conference play and no more than one overall loss.
- Any team in BCS top 12

Then at-larges...
- No at-larges with four losses
- No at-larges with three conference losses (excluding conference champ game)

NO SPECIAL RULES FOR NOTRE DAME!!!!!! The Irish are in if they're undefeated or top 12, and if not, they have to be voted in at-large. Join a conference if you don't like it, or take your ball and go home. You are not what you were, and while you might get better, you will never be that important again.

Playoffs start with eight on-campus games on Christmas eve. Seed teams 1-16 based on BCS standings, top eight play home games.
Jan. 1 — Four quarterfinal games on New Year's Day ... The Rose Bowl, The Orange Bowl, The Fiesta Bowl, The Sugar Bowl...
Jan. 8 — Two semifinals
Jan. 15 — National championship game

Move national signing day back one month.

 

[DanOregon]

Keep traditional bowl alliances: Rose: Big 10 v. Pac 10; Sugar: SEC v. at large; Fiesta: open v. open Orange: Big 12 v. ACC

winners are seeded and play semi a week later and regionally convenient location (preferably a college stadium), national title a week later at one of the four big bowl sites.

 

[Barsuk]

I could easily be convinced to espouse Hammer Pants' playoff system. Looks pretty good to me.

 

[IU90]

8 team playoff; winners of 6 BCS conferences get automatic bids and 2 at large bids; keep the BCS bowls as the sites of the playoff games rotating each year which one gets to host the championship game; all the other piddling ass bowls can continue to exist for the same basic purpose they do now.

 

[playthrough]

No special treatment for Notre Dame, second that. I read somewhere that they still get a HUGE check this year despite not making the BCS (or any other bowl for that matter). There's some clause is in the fine print of all the BCS bullcrap that says ND gets taken care of financially no matter what.

 

[Football_Bat]

I too want a playoff, but one intermediate step to get there would be the plus-one system.

Play the four BCS bowls, then take the top 2 remaining teams and play the national championship game one week later. (Or keep 10 BCS teams and make he Cotton Bowl a BCS bowl again.)

This year, all 4 bowls would have had a possible impact on No. 1 or No. 2 depending on the outcomes.

 

[fishwrapper]

+2

 

[Point of Order]

I'll just sit and about ***** whatever system we have. Seems easier.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

- Any undefeated I-A team

Notre Dame stays independent and schedules all the patsies in the nation, riding to an 11-0 record, despite not winning any game by more than 4 points.

And in your scenario, gets in.

 

[statrat]

Top 12 BCS teams go. No conference championship games and season ends last week of November. Playoffs start next week. Top four get first round byes.