With the BCS Championship just having been decided in a one game, winner takes all, match up between OSU and Florida it seems like a great time to pick up the axe of a playoffs and grind it just a bit. There were some really great schools, that due to one loss (or none at all) were denied the chance to even play for the championship while a one-loss Florida was able to compete for, and claim, the title. The current system just doesn't make a lot of sense. It fails the teams and players who had great seasons, it fails the schools who want as much money and exposure as possible, and it fails the top tier bowl games by not fully showcasing the best college teams in the country.
Fortunately, there is actually a solution that will keep bowl fans happy, bowl sponsers giddy, bowl teams excited, big schools rich, and will give small schools a chance. It's a playoff but not a normal run of the mill one. It is a playoff that will steal some parts of the BCS and incorporate them so as to provide a platform for one team to proudly, and without question, claim they are number one in the land!
Clearly, there needs to be a cutoff point on the number of teams that can be let into this playoff and I have chosen the number 8. Eight works very well with the current bowl game schedule and allows the teams that played superbly over the season to have their shot; thus preserving the feel of do-or-die during the regular season - this means we will need 7 bowl games reserved for the playoff teams. Sure this pulls three of the current bowl games away from other teams - but really there are so many already we could probably afford to do away with the "International Bowl". Plus they have already created this new "BCS Championship Game" which isn't played in place of any of the Bowls.
The seven bowl games that would be used are, BCS Championship, Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar, Cotton, and Capital One. These are the seven largest payout bowl games ranging from three to seventeen million dollars! The Cotton and Capital One bowls would need to raise their payouts to be more inline with the other five games.
Based on this years end of year BCS standings (prior to bowl games) the top eight teams were: Ohio State, Florida, Michigan, LSU, Louisvile, Wisconsin, USC, Oklahoma, and USC. Hindsight being what it is we know there were some flaws in the end of season rankings. So there would have to be some kind of "board" (much like the NCAA basketball tournament) that determined which of the top 10 teams would play in the playoffs. This would give teams, like Boise State who finished 9th, a chance to play based on their undefeated regular season schedule. In fact I would think that would be an automatic qualifier - finish undefeated and in the top ten and you are in the playoffs.
After the "board" made their decision the (based on my hindsight) the 8 teams in the playoffs this yaer would have been: Ohio State, Florida, Michigan, LSU, Louisville, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Boise State. Boise State would have vaulted past USC due to their undefeated season. Teams would have been seeded in that order. This means OSU would have played Boise State in their first match up.
Round 1:
- Boise State -vs- Ohio State (Sugar Bowl)
- Oklahoma -vs- Florida (Orange Bowl)
- Wisconsin -vs- Michigan (Capital One Bowl)
- Louisville -vs- LSU (Cotton Bowl)
Assuming the Capital One Bowl and the Cotton Bowl didn't raise their payouts the Orange, Sugar, Rose, and Fiesta bowls would rotate in and out between the quarterfinals and the semifinals.
Round 2:
- Cotton Winner -vs- Sugar Winner (Rose Bowl)
- Capital One Winner -vs- Orange Winner (Fiesta)
Finally the two winners of those games would meet in the Championship Game one week later.
The regular season, typically ends for players in November. The quarterfinals game would take place between the 15-20th of December. The Semifinals would take place on New Years day, and the Championship would take place one week later - Jan 8th.
What flaws exist in this plan? A few. First off the scheduling around peoples different ethnic and religious holidays. Secondly, the Rose Bowl is always on Jan 1st so they wouldn't want to rotate into the quarter finals - ever. Third, the Capital One and Cotton bowls payout is substantially less (> 12million) than the other bowl games and that would have to be rectified.
I'm not really sure when the last regular season (or conference championship game) is played. However, If it is before thanksgiving then this gives teams a couple weeks to prepare for their first round game. They then get two more weeks to prepare for their semi-final game. I think it is safe to assume teams in the big bowl games already prepare over the holiday's so accpeting this plan would just bring that out into the open instead of it being a little secret. Florida admitted to as much last night when their prep schedule was announced; Practice/prepare/study all week, take "game day" off - repeat. Since teams already practice around the holiday's this isn't really an issue after all.
The Cotton Bowl is going to be moving to the new Dallas Cowboy facility once it is built and the payout will undoubtedly jump up. If the Capital One bowl can't increase it's payout then perhaps the Outback bowl would prefer the shot to be part of the championship playoffs? Another option would be to take the payout for the four quarter final games and split it evenly among the eight teams. The Bowls aren't losing any prestige but all eight universities are getting nice paychecks - made even bigger if they win and advance.
Finally, and most daunting, is the Rose Bowl. They will not reschedule we know this without a doubt. The Rose Bowl is the granddaddy of Bowl games and is part of their whole "Tournament of Roses" celebration on New Years. Therefore the Rose Bowl would have to be a permanant Semi-Final match up. This would gall the other bowl organizers a bit so perhaps the Rose Bowl organizers should foot some of the payout for the other four games (maybe a million per) that aren't in the quarterfinals to help soothe their bruised egos. The Rose Bowl would get to be a perpetual semi-final game (maybe even get to pick the two winners they want from the semis) for the added expense of $4million per year.
At this point the championship teams have two more games to play in and a potential of $17million more in payouts (8.5 per game) plus another 8.5 coming for their championship game. The losing teams would have, at most, one extra bowl game so it wouldn't really extend anyones season all that much. The playoffs would be done in the same amount of time as the bowl season is already and the early bowl season would be more interesting due to the quarterfinals.
One compliant I hear about a playoff but keeping other bowl games is that it would turn the other bowl games into exhibition matches. But, guess what, they already are just exhibition games. They are meaningless to everyone except the teams playing in them. They are fun to watch, they generate revenue for their host cities, and they provide a diversion - but they don't count for anything more than they would under a playoff system. So I say keep all the other bowl games - let them play on whatever day they want to just like they currently do. Those people who are interested would keep watching them and the rest would keep ignoring them. There would be no change in how every other team approached bowl season.
However, for those lucky eight, there would be greater glory, much larger purses, and an undisputed National Championship Crown. Football fans would get to watch the same number of exciting bowl games but those games would take on even greater meaning, universities involved would get even more money, and fans of those schools would get to follow their teams for up to 2 more games.
The current poll system would stay in place to get teams into the top ten at the end of the season, losing one game could still spell your doom (on the outside looking in) come the end of the year, and the big schools would still benefit from their history/pollster bias. Yet, at the same time the small schools that are just being given a big game would be given the dream opportunity to compete for the championship - all they have to do is keep winning. Who knows, maybe Boise State would have won it all - had they been given the chance? With this playoff system everyone wins. The schools, the fans, the sponsors, the old boy networks, the small schools, everyone.