Okay, so everyone has heard about the BCS vs. Playoff debate in college football. I’m not going to sit here and tell you why I think a playoff is better. Instead, I’m going to give you an in depth analysis. Everyone knows how a BCS System works, but no one can actually map out what a playoff would look like. Here are my ideas on a College Football Playoff:
*(I have based everything for this analysis off of facts, figures, and circumstances that presented themselves during the 2008 College Football Season, and Bowl Season that ran from December 20, 2008-January 8, 2009.)
Layout:
There would be an 8-team playoff. The top eight teams as ranked by the BCS, AP, ESPN, etc. would be invited to play in the playoffs regardless of conference. If the conference champion is located outside of the top 8 they will not be invited to the playoffs and will be sent to their respective bowls. Their specified bowls are listed in the bowl section.
The 8 teams selected would have been #1 Oklahoma, #2 Florida, #3 Texas, #4 Alabama, #5 USC, #6 Utah, #7 Texas Tech, and #8 Penn State. Instead of writing out how each of these would match up see the bracket below.
Conference Champions:
Now, while it may seem like the Conference Championships don’t mean anything; that is simply not true. Championship Games will be added to conferences that currently don’t have them. Games listed in italics are games that I have added. It gives each team a chance for that last push to make it into the playoffs. Listed below are the game match ups, locations, and dates.
ACC: Boston College vs. Virginia Tech
#1 Coastal vs. #1 Atlantic
Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida)
Saturday December 6, 2008
Big 12: Missouri vs. Oklahoma
#1 North vs. #1 South
Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City, Missouri)
Saturday December 6, 2008
Big East: Cincinnati vs. West Virginia
#1 vs. #2
Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Friday December 5, 2008
Big Ten: Penn State vs. Ohio State
#1 vs. #2
Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Saturday December 6, 2008
Conference USA: East Carolina vs. Tulsa
#1 East vs. #1 West
War Memorial Stadium (Little Rock, Arkansas) [will move from home sites to Little Rock]
Thursday December 4, 2008
Mid-American: Buffalo vs. Ball State
#1 East vs. #1 West
Ford Field (Detroit, Michigan)
Friday December 5, 2008
Mountain West: Utah vs. TCU
#1 vs. #2
University of Phoenix Stadium (Phoenix, Arizona)
Friday December 5, 2008
Pac-10: USC vs. Oregon
#1 vs. #2
Candlestick Park (San Francisco, California)
Friday December 5, 2008
Sun Belt: Troy vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
#1 vs. #2
Superdome (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Thursday December 4, 2008
SEC: Florida vs. Alabama
#1 East vs. #1 West
Georgia Dome (Atlanta, Georgia)
Saturday December 6, 2008
Western Athletic: Boise State vs. Nevada
#1 vs. #2
INVESCO Field (Denver, Colorado)
Thursday December 4, 2008
Independents
No conference championship, each team will move in weekly polls accordingly.
Locations:
The Locations for the playoff games would be set up along the same lines as the NCAA Basketball Tournament locations are set up. The games would be played in the new Playoff Bowls, which are located at the following sites: Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California), Fiesta Bowl (Tempe, Arizona), Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, Louisiana), Orange Bowl (Miami, Florida), and the Cotton Bowl (Cowboys Stadium-Arlington, Texas). The National Quarter Finals would be played at four of these five sites, while the semifinals would be played at the last site, for example:
Round 1 (National Quarterfinals):
#1 vs. #8- Cotton Bowl
#2 vs. #7- Sugar Bowl
#3 vs. #6- Fiesta Bowl
#4 vs. #5- Orange Bowl
Round 2 (National Semifinals):
Sugar Bowl Winner vs. Fiesta Bowl Winner- Rose Bowl
Cotton Bowl Winner vs. Orange Bowl Winner- Rose Bowl
Round 3 (Championship)
National Championship Game- Rose Bowl
Now, these sites would alternate just as they do now. In future years the Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, and Sugar Bowls, would each have their turns to hold the National Semifinal and National Championship Games.
Dates:
- The playoffs would start on December 19th; about two weeks after the last Conference Championship Games are played.
- The four regions: Fiesta, Orange, Cotton, and Sugar would each have their own specific dates.
- The right side of the bracket (Fiesta and Sugar) would be played on December 19th at 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm Eastern
- The left side of the bracket (Orange & Cotton) would be played on December 20th at 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm Eastern
- The Two National Semifinal Games would take place on Saturday December 27th at 3:30 pm and 8:30 pm Eastern.
- The National Title Game would take place on Thursday January 8, 2009 at 8:00 pm.
- As far as the non playoff bowl games are concerned; they would follow a schedule close to what they have now. The only difference is they would not play any games on dates where there are playoff games occurring.
- The non playoff bowls would start on Wednesday December 19, 2008 and end on Saturday January 3, 2009. The games would run in order of prestige and start with the Chili Bowl and end with the Capitol One Bowl.
Bowls:
The college bowl season would be set up a lot like it is now. Right now there are 34 bowls. With the addition of the playoff there will be 30 bowl games (the current 29 bowls left plus the inaugural Chili Bowl to be played at Reliant Stadium in Houston Texas). After the conference championship games, the highest ranked conference champions, not invited to the playoffs would play in the most prestigious bowls left. So for Example the Bowl Season would have featured the following matchups:
Capital One Bowl: Boise State vs. Cincinnati
Konica Minolta Gator Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Ohio State
Outback Bowl: Buffalo vs. TCU
Chick-Fil-A Bowl: Troy vs. Tulsa
Alamo Bowl: Oregon vs. Michigan State vs. Oklahoma State
Meinike Car Care Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Pittsburgh
Champ Sports Bowl: Georgia vs. BYU
GMAC Bowl: FSU vs. Oregon
Insight Bowl: Ole Miss vs. West Virginia
AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Boston College vs. West Virginia
Brut Sun Bowl: Oregon State vs. LSU
Gaylord Hotel Music City Bowl: Vanderbilt vs. UNC
Pacific Holiday Bowl: Cal vs. Iowa
Texas Bowl: Ball State vs. Maryland
Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl: South Carolina vs. Rutgers
PetroSun Independence Bowl: Kentucky vs. Arizona
Emerald Bowl: Missouri vs. Northwestern
Motor City Bowl: Louisiana Tech vs. Southern Mississippi
Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl: Hawaii vs. Notre Dame
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: Wake Forest vs. Air Force
Papajohns.com Bowl: Miami vs. South Florida
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Clemson vs. Minnesota
Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl: NC State vs. Connecticut
Poinsettia Bowl: Rice vs. Central Michigan
International Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Nevada
Magic Jack St. Petersburg Bowl: Memphis vs. Fresno State
Eagle Bank Bowl: Navy vs. Houston
*Chili Bowl: Colorado State vs. Northern Illinois
The new, “Chili Bowl” would be added to compensate for the loss of the Cotton Bowl to the playoff.
Payout:
Bowl payouts explain the amount of money that is paid to each team participating in that particular bowl. The money is paid to the team and then split up between all the teams in that conference. So, back in 2003 when USC played Oklahoma for the BCS Championship game the Pac-10 and Big 12 each received $17 million which was then evenly split between all teams in each conference.
Under the new playoff system, the amount of money paid out will be the same as it is now. Bowl payouts currently range from $300,000 (Papajohns.com Bowl) to $4,250,000 (Capitol One Bowl) and will remain that way.
The actual playoff payouts will have the following figures attached to them.
- Round 1 participants: $7.5 million per team
- Round 2 participants: $12 million per team
- National Title Game participants: $17 million per team
So, if one were to win all three games they would receive $36.5 million to be split up between that teams conference. So in this example the SEC would have just received $36.5 million from Florida while the Pac-10 would have received $19.5 million from USC.
While this may seem like a lot of money to just be creating I assure you it’s not. These payouts make their money from television contracts and ticket sales. With college football there will always be a high demand for football games, especially when you have colossal match ups like you will have every year of this playoff.
Pros & Cons
Cons:
• There would be two added weeks to the season for those teams that are invited to the playoffs.
• These two weeks would cause added school to be missed by football players, band members/cheerleaders, and traveling fans alike.
• In some years, depending on rotation the #1 team may have to travel a long way to play their first round game. For example if #1 West Virginia plays #8 USC in the Rose Bowl, USC actually has the advantage.
• Some conferences won’t have a representative in the playoff such as the ACC and Big East in 2008.
Pros:
• This would finally stop the controversy because there will be eight teams included in the national championship conversation.
• There would still be 60 other teams competing at the end of the season thus keeping the bowl season intact.
• This will be fair to Non-BCS teams competing, and should actually rid college football of BCS vs. Non-BCS conferences.
• Each conference will have a conference championship game making it fair to decide the actual champion of each conference.
All in all I feel as though this system would be not only a lot more fair to each team, but also a lot more fun for fans. It would require more analysis from the likes of Fox Sports, ESPN, and ABC. Also it would enhance the game of college football. It would add a playoff to one of the most popular sports in the country and begin to draw an even larger audience because of it. I think that if a playoff system were to be added to college football, this is what it would look like.
You say every conference plays a championship game, so what if Ohio State beats Penn State in the Big Ten championship, does Penn State still advance to the playoff?? And if Penn State were to still go to the playoff then I don’t see the point in conference championship. How can you not win your conference and still make the playoff? I see what your point is and everything, but I just don’t think the BCS is going anywhere anytime soon.
I agree with eric on that one. Also i would like to add the fact that sponsors for these bowl games pay a lot of money to advertise and will not get to attract a lot of viewers as they would like, and on top of that just regular viewers in general not dealing with the advertisements. For example, with the playoff system being played at the same time as the less prestigious bowl games. I mean which would you rather watch, the playoff games that actually contribute to a title game or a bowl game like the motor city bowl or another bowl game of that nature??? You would think they would want to create a system that would satisfy more people than not but logically i really don’t think this will happen. I personally like the BCS. Its college football and if these other teams can’t make it to the title game than play a real schedule or try to play in a real confrence. The BCS isn’t going anywhere.
I didn’t want to say it first, but I like the BCS too. I’ve never complained about the two team fighting for the nation championship. I think they get it right every year.
Personally I like this idea of the playoff, because the BCS does have its Flaws. Now this will probably never happen but, it would be nice if they tried something out like this one year just to see how it turned out and give it a chance. It would be fair to give the top 8 teams a legit chance to play for the national championship. What makes Florida and Oklahoma better than USC or Texas, doesnt Texas or USC deserve a shot. Texas Beat Oklahoma too. They played just as tough schedules as Florida or Oklahoma and had i dentical records for the most part. I like this idea of the playoff, I think its a good way to see who plays for the national championship instead of just picking or deciding what teams to play. Let the teams choose who plays for the national championship, let them battle it out. It seems like the right way to do it
But why would the third best team in the Big 12 get the right over the ACC or Big East champ?! That isn’t fair at all.
Good point E, even tho the ACC and Big East are weak, they need to have at least one of their teams in there. They should cap it at 2 teams per conference and shouldn’t allow more than 2 conferences to have multiple participants so the non-BCS schools (Utah, Boise State, BYU, etc.) have a chance.
Exactly. I mean in basketball if you win the Atlantic 10 you’re in before the second best team in the Big East. I mean if your win you conference shouldn’t you get a shot too?
well that would even be retarded due to the fact that a team with 3 or 4 loses can still get into the playoffs by wining there “weak” confrence when you would have a team in the sec for example with one or two loses that play in by far the toughest confrence in football.. Use last year for example if every confrence should have a team or whatever, VA tech (who was 10-4) would have gotten in over TTU (11-2), UT (12-2), or Alabama (12-2) who were all ranked top 8 and didnt win there conference. That would kinda be retarded. Either way, a playoff system will never work because it would not satisfy the problem and there will be teams, confrences, and fans complaining either way. Or if there was it sure as hell wont be 8 teams deep, might have to look at 16 teams or even 14 teams with two bye weeks for number 1 and 2 ranked teams.
only undefeated non-BCS schools get consideration
Its the top 8 teams in the country ranked in the BCS/AP/ESPN polls at the time. they dont have to be undefeated. Its not every conference gets a team in from what I understand, which I probably read wrong. This way gives the best 8 teams in the country a shot at the national championship which I mean is a pretty fair way to do things. Cause Like i said Texas had 2 loses but they beat oklahoma so why werent they given a shot to play for the national championship wouldnt that make them better then oklahoma?
Not technically becasue Texas lost to Texas Tech who lost to Oklahoma.
i like the idea a lot, but there are too many conflicting interests in college footballto make this happen soon. the best part about this would being able to see USC up against a legit team. i mean USC vs. Bama!!!! saban would have his boys ready to play in that game. and i would have liked to see a UF shut-out against TT’s Graham Harrel and Crab. A little SEC bias i know but those would be some great matchups. In all, it equals great competitive football, but still needs to make the conferences a little more important, its still a little wishy-washy there.
ps: did you all here about how congress had a session about the fairness of the BCS… we have a lot more important problems in the US right now than college football… (on second thought, not really).
TRUE STORY !!! I just don’t think this playoff system will not happen for a very long time.
All I’m saying is look at the matchups that would take place.
i love the idea but theres never gonna be a playoff…… no matte how expanded it is , theres always gonna be gripes about teams getting snubbed…. theres 64 teams in the NCAA basketball tournament, and every year theres 5-6 teams that complain they dont make the field, youre gonna have the same problem with a playoff for football. The teams ranked 9, 10, 11, and 12 are going to feel they deserve to be in that field. In a perfect world theres a legitimate playoff, but will it ever happen? doubt it
Set-up, close. Make it the 6 major conf. champions and the two highest ranking conf. champs to fill in the other two. Also, Have the quarter finals New Years Day. Go from there.