Dear Mr. Obama, Dan Patrick, Bill King, whoever will listen;
After Colt McCoy star Texas QB was injured early in the first quarter of the National Championship Game last night between Alabama and Texas. The game was all but over. So between beers, my good friend Watson and I tried to solve the BCS playoff problem.
Our Proposal:
All BCS leagues go to 16 teams. Two divisions of 8 with mandatory championship games.
We propose an 11 game season, 9 conference games with 2 non conference slates. Conference games will include all division members, plus 2 intersection games, along with 2 non conference match ups. We would be open to discussion about 1 intersectional game and 3 non conference games, but we believe only 2 non conference match ups, would make teams schedule tougher opponents to boost strength of schedule points needed for at large teams to get in. We believe this format will keep in place the every game is a playoff mentality that is what makes College Football so exciting, while continuing the tradition that is so revered.
Playoff: all six division champs plus two at large. Division champ decided by conference championship game. The at large teams will be selected by a BCS type system. One for which voting doesn’t start until after the 4th game of the season, and one that all voting participants ballots are completely transparent. (insert Obama joke here)
Playoff:
Round One: 4 major bowls starting around Christmas. (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta)
Seeding teams would probably be the fairest way to determine the games. But we understand the bowl tie-ins may need to be the way to go forward with this.
Final Four: at a singular site decided by a bid process. both games will be played on the same day, at the same location (what a freaken weekend this would be) to be scheduled sometime around New Years. Can you imagine a semi final at the new Cowboy Stadium? We were thinking game times around 1 o’clock and an 8 o’clock, giving the victors time to savor their victory, while giving the location time to prepare for the next game.
Championship game would revolve between the four major bowl sites (just like now) somewhere around the week after New Years. (just like now) this only adds one more game to the schedule, example (Boise went 14-0 this year) this format would be a 15 game max.
New Leagues (subject to change)
SEC:
UT, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, USC, Clemson, Louisville, Vandy
Arkansas, Ole Miss, MSU, LSU, Auburn, Alabama, Memphis, S. Miss
Big Ten:
Michigan, ND, Boston College, MSU, Wisconsin, Minn, Indy, Purdue
OSU, Penn State, Pitt, Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, ILL, Northwestern
Big 12:
Nebraska, KSU, Colo, Kansas, Colo State, OSU, Air force, OU
Texas, A&M, Tech, Baylor, Houston, TCU, SMU, Tulsa,
PAC 10:
Oregon, OSU, Wash, WSU, Boise, BYU, Utah, Cal
Arizona, ASU, USC, UCLA, Fresno, Stanford, Nevada, UNLV
Big East:
Syracuse, Buffalo, Uconn, CMU, WMU, Toledo, BGSU, WV
Cincy, Rutgers, Marshall, Ohio, Army, Temple, Miami OH.
ACC:
FSU, Wake, NC Sate, NC, Maryland, East Carolina, C. Fla, Navy
GT, VT, UVA, Duke, Miami, South Florida, UAB, Troy
I know the Big East is a much weaker league but the market would dictate something similar to this if any playoff system was implemented. Universities would be scrambling to get the best deal for their institution, which already happened with ACC expansion, and is anticipated to happen with upcoming Big Ten expansion. The simple fact is the Big East is not a huge revenue generator like other conferences, but instead of dissolving their interests, melding the conference with the others, The Big East will still represent that part of the country, even though it is not as respected nationally, in terms of football. They will constantly be providing the David, to the David and Goliath match-up tourney goers love. A matchup that has worked for the Big East in the past. i.e. WV v. Georgia and WV v. Oklahoma in recent history, instead of counting them out, we should let the league evolve. Which I think will happen.
There is approximately 120 college bowl subdivision teams in 2009. Our system would include 96 of those in the major BCS conferences while the remaining 24 teams could still compete as mid-majors, this would provide an interesting chance for a number of Division 1A teams to join the ranks of the mid-majors with a legitimate chance to succeed. The current bowl system would still be intact, it should be easy to schedule around the playoff format. I mean look, CMU and Troy played the day before the National Championship Game. And by the way it was a much better game. Instead of hanging our College Football hat on one game, let’s provide a system of increased value for viewers and institutions alike.
Can you imagine the money and success of this format?
