The way the College Football Post Season Ought to be.
It’s college football bye week, but Bowl season is only a few days away. However, as excited as we all are for college football to return on the 17th, the New Mexico Bowl matchup of Temple and Wyoming isn’t exactly lighting anyone’s hair on fire outside of Laramie. We don’t get to see a legitimately good team play until TCU plays its entirely unsatisfactory game against Louisiana Tech on the 21st.
THE PROBLEM:
The fact is, the matchups we really care about aren’t happening for weeks, and most of the ones we really want won’t happen at all. Bowls are fun for fans and players, but ultimately unsatisfying.
No one knows better how Oklahoma State will feel after blasting Stanford than those of us who were at USC during the 2003 season. Ranked #1 in both polls, we had a blast beating #3 Michigan in the Rose Bowl, but walked out of the stadium feeling strangely empty knowing that the BCS would be declaring a “Champion” without our say.
Since that New Year’s day, I’ve given lots of thought to ways that college football could declare a legitimate champion without changing the things that make it my favorite sport. And the things college football gets right should not be overlooked.
WHAT COLLEGE FOOTBALL GETS RIGHT
Fans that just want college football to go to a 64 or even 16 team playoff are forgetting how meaningless the regular season in college basketball is rendered by those sweet 3 weekends in March.
In college basketball, when Oklahoma State plays at Iowa State, only the most die-hard fans even know about the game, let alone care. In college football, when Oklahoma State plays at Iowa State, a birth in the National Championship game is on the line.
That’s important. College Football keeps us captivated from September through January and those of us who are fans feel like we can’t miss a thing. College football’s one game for all the marbles system may be frustrating, but it keeps the intensity of regular season games at a level the NFL can only dream about. For regular season drama there is NOTHING like college football.
Another major advantage to the Bowl system is how much fun it is. Think about it. Is there a worse moment in your year in sports than when you watch your favorite team lose in the NCAA tournament? Of course not. It’s crushing. And 63 of 64 fan bases have to endure it.
If you are a fan of San Diego State or TCU, or any of the other teams in an early bowls (other than Boise State), which of these two options would you prefer?
1) A week-long party in a great vacation city culminating in a game against a team that you match-up well with and a 50% chance of ending the season on a happy note?
2) A road playoff game against a high-seed like Alabama or Stanford who you know would crush you?
Obviously the bowls are more fun, and this way, 35 teams get to end the season feeling great (unless Oklahoma State wins, then probably 34).
WHAT THE IDEAL POST SEASON MUST DO
1. Determine a champion on the field with match ups between the best teams
2. Preserve the unparalleled intensity of the regular season
3. Keep the fun of the Bowl system intact
The BCS would tell us that’s not possible. I say, that’s simply not true. This proposal preserves the Bowls and creates an equitable playoff that would make the college football post-season about 500 times more entertaining. And the regular season doesn’t lose a bit of luster.
HOW IT WORKS
The day after Conference Championship weekend, an eight team playoff set up using the BCS standings. The first six seeds are the top rated conference champions in the standings and the final two are the next two highest-ranked teams, regardless of whether they are conference champions or not. (Independents finishing in the BCS top 6 will be eligible for top 6 seeding).
This keeps the regular season of tantamount importance AND stops the nonsense of locking certain conferences in and other conferences out. West Virginia will not bump TCU because of a contract based on the state of college football in 1995. A playoff is a meritocracy and it starts by stopping the segregation of Auto Qualifiers v. Non Auto Qualifiers.
The first round would be played two weeks later (to allow for final exams and game prep) and feature the top 4 Conference winners hosting home games against the bottom four seeds. This year those games would be played this weekend (the weekend of the 17th.)
The four losers of those 4 quarterfinals would then be eligible to accept bowl invitations and have the week-long “bowl experience”. The Bowls would then unfold as normal beginning on the 17th. (Some bowls would likely extend invitations open to the loser of these quarterfinal games.)
After this weekend, there would be 4 teams left, needing only three games to declare a Champion. Since the Rose Bowl is ultra-tradition oriented, we can assume it would opt-out of the playoff system and take the top Big 10 and Pac-10 team available after the 1st round of playoffs.
That leaves the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl to rotate hosting semi-finals on the following weekend (Christmas Eve this year) and the National Championship game on New Years day.
How would that look this season? Well, imagine if, rather than three games featuring the likes of Ohio, Utah State, and Louisiana-Lafayette, we had those bowl games AAAAAND the following:
(8) Stanford @ (1) LSU,
(7) Alabama @ (2) Oklahoma State,
(6) TCU @ (3) Oregon
(5) Clemson @ (4) Wisconsin
The above matchups are so awesome, it’s tough to even get your head around it. But that’s what we’d have with an 8 team playoff. It would be the greatest day of college football of all-time.
But just ‘till next year.
Then if Oregon or Wisconsin, or both lost, they’d play an amazing Rose Bowl. Or maybe they both win and we’d have to settle for Michigan State v. Stanford. Gosh. That would suck. Perhaps a few of the early bowls would duck out to avoid competition with the first round of games, but honestly 33 bowls is plenty. And just feast your eyes on the bracket below:
How does this look?
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