That’s right, Jim Mora fans. Playoffs. Many a college football junkie (see Williams, David A.) has wondered what might happen if the powers that be sacked up and instituted what everyone has been yearning for for years: a playoff.
But how many teams? How would they be selected? When would it happen? What would the games be called? How in the name of Doak Walker could the NCAA figure out a way to make this happen without pissing anyone off?
Truth be told, there’s probably no way to make it happen without issues, because somewhere, someone is going to be unhappy. That aside, I am taking the liberty of crafting the first college football playoff system, to be instituted in roughly 2041. I will take any and all criticism of this system, but I warn you ahead of time that it is the most perfectly refined concept in the history of sport. Go ahead, try to argue.
The selection process
Eight teams will be chosen to compete in this glorious event. Six seeds will be given to the winners of each of the BCS conferences: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC. The last two seeds will be given to the highest-ranked teams remaining. The teams decide (in order of ranking) where they would like to play. For example, #1 Ohio State would get first choice of where it wishes to play, #2 Florida would go second, and so on through #8 Wake Forest. The only restriction is that no first round game would be allowed to have two top-4 teams, because that would defeat the purpose of the playoff system: having the two best teams playing in the national championship.
The Scheduling
Enough of this waiting for four months before a decent bowl game garbage. The first round of games – yep, all four of ‘em – would be on the Saturday one weekend before New Year’s Day; this year it would be December 23. The second round would then be on New Year’s Day, when bowl games oughta be, and the National Championship would be one Saturday after New Year’s; this year it would be January 13. The TV networks probably wouldn’t go for it, but this is my playoff and I’ll cry if I want to.
The Venues
Instead of creating some new fangled sponsor-ridden bowl games (MPC Computers Bowl, anyone?), the games will be played at the oldest, most prestigious existing bowl sites. This means first rounders at the Fiesta, Cotton, Gator and Sun Bowls, and as was alluded to earlier, the top-ranked teams get to choose their venue. The second rounders would be played at the Sugar and Orange Bowls, with the championship being at the Rose. The big four bowls – the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose – would rotate as they do now, so each could host a first rounder and a championship within a four year span.
Playoffs are the most exciting events in sports. College basketball's March Madness dominates an entire month. The NFL Playoffs are the most exciting sequence of games in football, and ends with the greatest production in all of sport, the Super Bowl. Baseball's regular season may drag on for months and months, but once the World Series begins, it's a whole new ballgame. Every great sport has great playoffs. Why should college football be any different? Make the postseason as great as all of these other sports, and settle things on the field instead of in a computer.
And make Jim Mora happy.
2 comments:
Will not only is your system flawed, its not even realistic. Instead of 8 teams it should be the Top 10 teams in the nation with the #1 and #2 seeds getting bye's. Who you play is determined by your seed. One could not get rid of the rest of the bowls, because the reason we get to watch is because of money. take away the money you lose the sport. The lesser bowls should take place during the playoff rounds as they do now, such as atleast one everyday after Dec 19th. The only thing you seem to have gotten right was the rotation of bowls during the playoffs. That DOES make sense. As for the rest to say it was the best possible senerio, well then I'd say sir maybe its time this blog found a new researcher.
Lil rose sir,
I didn't mean to say that ALL of the lesser bowls would be exterminated, merely that there would be less openings for the WAC and MAC teams of the world. While I didn't explicitly mention it, I suppose I'm for the remaining bowls to continue their existence, though I am most definitely NOT for the addition of more bowls. And if you think that this is not the best possible scenario...well I'll have to taken care of when I'm elected president.
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