My college football playoff system

I know it's not the hottest thing to talk about right now in the world of college football but I created a playoff system that I think would compliment the current BCS system while adding the much needed playoff. There are many coaches, university presidents and conference committee members that disagree with the playoff system. Among other concerns, it possibly takes money away from the 'Big Six' conferences and lengthens the season. While both are true, finding the true national champ and giving the fans the extra games they desire should make the change worth the wait. While it is the university’s priority for the student athletes to complete their degrees along with allowing them time to do so; a few extra games for those who make the playoffs shouldn't be a major concern. College basketball is much more time consuming than football could ever be. Another concern is the 30-something active bowls losing purpose and therefore money. If you think about though, the bowl games are already pointless. For the teams that qualify the season leads to nothing other than one more game. The purpose of the existing bowls is to allow the athletes and fans to enjoy one more game in a new place and against an opponent they wouldn't usually meet. Those same qualities can stay intact for bowl eligible teams while adding a playoff.

How it works: The playoff is similar to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but there are only 8 seeds. To enter the playoff you must first of all be the champion of your conference and merit 9 wins. The conference champs of the BCS conferences are automatically seeded into the playoff (assuming that their conference champs will have at least 9 wins). The two other available seeds will be given to the best of the 5 other conferences with the 8^th and 9^th seeds playing for the 8^th spot. This system makes for a 15 game season unless the 8 or 9 seeds go all the way, then its 16 games. Like the NCAA tourney the high seeds will be paired with the low seeds. The games will be played at the current BCS bowls, namely: Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange. Since the playoff is a 7 game system the bowl picked to host the national championship that year will have three games. The playoffs will generically look like this.

The national championship game will rotate through the current BCS bowls as it does now. The high seeds are always given the advantage with a steady bowl location, if they win of course, as shown above. The bowl that host the #1 seed will always have 3 games which includes the national championship, the bowl that host the #2 seed will have 2 games, and the other 2 bowls will have 1 game. After a full rotation (4 years) each bowl will have hosted 7 games, currently they host 5. With so many games available during the playoffs hopefully the interest level increases revenues making it possible for cheaper tickets and a wider range of audience.

Rankings are still very important with this playoff system as it will determine the seeding. Last year (2007) there were 9 conference champions that had at least 9 wins to qualify for the playoffs. The conference champions, their seeding, and rankings at the end of the regular season respectively, proceed as follows; Big 10- Ohio State #1 (1), SEC- LSU #2 (2), ACC- VT #3 (3), Big 12- Oklahoma #4 (4), PAC 10- USC #5 (7), Big East- WV #6 (9), WAC- Hawaii #7 (10), MWC- BYU #8 (17), CUSA- CFU #9 (NR). Last year’s playoff and national champion race might have looked like this.

I think this system would work great; the competition and possible upsets would be far more exciting than the current BCS bowls (excluding Boise State vs. Oklahoma in 2006 which was the most exciting game played in a BCS bowl). The key is to win your conference though. Many think Georgia was playing the best ball in the country at the end of the season and under this system they are completely left out and have to play in the cotton bowl or something. Well tough luck, to be a part of the playoffs you have to win your conference. I believe this system would make conference play much more competitive and exciting. Over time I also believe that the conferences would become much more equal in competition because of top recruits going to the mid-major conferences for a better shot at a national title due to ‘easier’ conference play.