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My Playoff Plan

By David Snipes

As the college season enters the heart of its schedule, we have the same problem we do every year: Over a hundred schools are all fighting to get to the championship game. But remember, they are jockeying for position to compete in a championship game that is not recognized by the governing body of its sport. Do you realize that if fans all banded together, made a national championship trophy and presented it to, say, Louisiana Tech, it would be just as valid in the eyes of the NCAA as the BCS Championship?

      The BCS system is set up so that, at the beginning of the season, we see four types of teams playing every fall: 

1. Teams that must go undefeated to do anything to get to the big payday. These are the traditional powerhouse teams like USC, Miami, Virginia Tech and other major schools from the power conferences. The twist is that these are schools that don't have very good schedules to prop them up. These schools, if they get one loss, more than likely will never recover from that loss without major luck and help which can only come from other schools losing. Should they incur two losses, no matter what, they have next to no chance to play in the title game. 

2. Teams that have pretty much no chance of going undefeated because of their schedule or the conference in which they play. Due to various factors they are in play for a championship because they are in such a power conference that one loss is almost forgivable and thus, unless we have two major-conference teams run the table to go undefeated, they almost are assured a spot. These are teams like LSU, Florida, Texas.  There are also schools with such clout and name recognition that they can become overrated and get invited into a bowl they don’t really deserve, but the only people that will get upset is the schools they jumped. The bowl will be happy to take them, the conference they play will be happy to play them, the network will be happy to see them pull ratings, and so on. This team can make the national championship if they win the games they should, and don't get dropped more than once, as they normally do play a tough schedule. 

3. Teams outside that are looking to break into the big games... but need heaven and earth and the Nile River to help them. Were there still ties, even a tie would knock them out. These are the Boise States, the BYUs, the Utahs and Fresno States of college football. As much fun as Boise State proved to be against Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, these are the teams about which few save their fans care about their fate. 

4. The other eighty-five or so teams. These teams have their paydays already -- they come when they go play USC in Los Angeles, LSU in Baton Rouge, Michigan in Ann Arbor... well, maybe not that last one, but you get the picture. These teams go play to get a check and then later look for a lower-tier bowl to offer a reward and a vacation. Every now and again one of these schools may rise up to knock off a big boy or get fame for hanging with the powerhouse (such as the Louisiana Tech-Nebraska game that found Troy Edwards getting signed by Pittsburgh). The great unwashed know what they are, and even though they may complain when Tulane goes undefeated, their bids for glory are rarely legitimate -- except to the coaching staff, who are looking for a bigger check, and the alumni, looking for any excuse to write that bigger check. 

So how does one organize all these teams into a playoff? There are as many ways out there as there are college football fans... but here’s a playoff system which offers both protection to the current BCS conferences and also allows non-BCS teams to have their rightful place at the table. First, we would take the four big bowl games -- sorry, Cotton Bowl, you get left out -- and return to the days where a conference tie-in meant something: 
 

Rose: Big 10 v. Pac 10

Orange: Big East

Sugar: SEC

Fiesta: None 
 

Then to fill the gaps, we slot in the natural regional rivalries: 

Rose: Big 10 v. Pac 10

Orange: Big East v. ACC

Sugar: SEC

Fiesta: Big 12 
 

These locations are where the conference champions all go for first-round games. This makes both the conference championship game (for conferences with such games) and the regular season become meaningful again. Next we fill the two open spots with the two best at-large teams -- those teams from the WAC or Mountain West and independents like Notre Dame if they qualify. The easternmost team of the two at-large squads goes to the Sugar; the other team heads to the Fiesta.

      This allows both conferences and fans to have a guaranteed place where they will be going, instead of what amounts to the whims of voters in what amounts to some farcical draft. The minor conferences are guaranteed at least one spot in the playoffs -- two if the Fighting Irish are not good enough that year. If Notre Dame is good in a given season, this will serve as a ratings boon for networks covering their contest..

      Two weeks later they play the semifinal games -- one on the west coast  and one on the east coast, to be rotated from site to site every year just as the NCAA Basketball tournament. Two weeks following the semifinals, on the off week before the Super Bowl, the championship will be played in a stadium with a minimum 100,000 seating capacity.  

This would solve the bulk of the problems evident in the current system: 

1. Minor bowls still get match-ups that matter. In fact, this system affords the opportunity for other bowls to spread their games out as well. Extending a playoff over several weeks allows lower-tier bowls to pin their games on as a prelude to the main event -- for instance, the Independence Bowl in Louisiana can set their date and time as the matinee before the Sugar Bowl; the Holiday Bowl could have their game before a western semifinal; and so on. 

2. The mid-majors of college football get their chance. If Boise State can beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, then under this system they are still alive to advance to the national championship. If Notre Dame is really good one year, then they can prove it by beating LSU to advance to the semifinals. Every team has a legitimate and concretely-defined chance at the title when a new season begins.  

One wrinkle to also consider is this: If a conference champ has more than two losses, the bowl can change them out for another team. It is likely that a bowl never exercise such a right -- bowls are not going to tick off that conference unless they have a desire to be replaced by the Cotton Bowl when renewal time comes up -- but it is nice to throw the idea in as an additional reward/incentive for success.  

The only real problems that this system has is that only one minor-conference team gets a shot if Notre Dame is any good. But this is hardly different from the system as it currently exists. Sorry, those are the breaks... but if they stay good for years one of the major conferences will no doubt take them in. In twenty years the Big East may have thirty teams.

      It may not be fair for teams that keep having to travel to another team’s home region -- for instance, a mid-major having to play LSU at the Sugar Bowl. Ultimately, though, a chance a the title is a chance at the title, something sorely lacking from the current system.

      After all, when that check comes in, I'm sure they'd play in my backyard next year if I ask. Just stay out of my garden and watch the soft spot by the phone pole on those crossing routes...

Submitted 2008 

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