The mythical college football championship game is set. And lots of people are not happy.
Me? I don’t have a dog in the hunt. Or Dawg, to be specific.
Still, there are some unhappy campers. And I’m in that group. Despite my not having a team of interest in the mix … or close to the mix … I’m in the unhappy group because … well, let’s face it: I have strong opinions.
But I do more than just whine about something I don’t like; I have a solution.
Check that.
I have THE solution: A 16-team playoff that uses the BCS for seeding.
Automatic Bids
There are 11 conferences. The 11 conference champions get an automatic spot. The remaining 5 spots … call them “wild card” spots … would be taken up by the top teams in the BCS standings that don’t get an automatic berth.
Here are the 11 conference champions, listed alphabetically by conference:
| Conference | Champion | |
|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Coat | Virginia Tech | |
| Big East | Cincinnati | |
| Big Ten | Penn State | |
| Big 12 | Oklahoma | |
| Conference USA | East Carolina | |
| Mid-America | Buffalo | |
| Mountain West | Utah | |
| Pacific 10 | Southern California | |
| Southeastern | Florida | |
| Sun Belt | Troy | |
| Western Athletic | Boise State |
Wild Card Teams
Here are the top five teams (according to the BCS) that did not win their conference.
| Rank | Team |
|---|---|
| 3. | Texas |
| 4. | Alabama |
| 7. | Texas Tech |
| 10. | Ohio State |
| 11. | Texas Christian |
There are two ways of doing the seeding.
One is using the BCS to rank them, plain and simple.
But that’s too plain and simple for me. I actually like the way the NFL does it. In the NFL, the division champs get the top seeds, and the wild cards get the leftover slots, regardless of record.
For instance, in 2007, Tampa Bay was the #4 seed in the NFC, winning the South with a 9-7 record, while the Giants were the #5 seed, despite having 10-6 record. Likewise, Pittsburgh took the AFC North with a 10-6 record, and were seeded 4th, while Jacksonville, sporting a better record (11-5), was 5th seed, since they didn’t win their division.
Seeding
Using that as a model, here’s the 2008 NCAA Division I-A (using the older name) playoff seeding:
| Seed | Team | Conference | Record | BCS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Oklahoma | Big 12 | 12-1 | 1 |
| 2. | Florida | Southeast | 12-1 | 2 |
| 3. | Southern California | Pacific 10 | 11-1 | 5 |
| 4. | Utah | Mountain West | 12-0 | 6 |
| 5. | Penn State | Big Ten | 11-1 | 8 |
| 6. | Boise State | Western Athletic | 12-0 | 9 |
| 7. | Cincinnati | Big East | 11-2 | 12 |
| 8. | Virginia Tech | Atlantic Coast | 9-4 | 19 |
| 9. | East Carolina | Conference USA | 9-4 | none |
| 10. | Troy | Sun Belt | 8-4 | none |
| 11. | Buffalo | Mid-America | 8-5 | none |
| 12. | Texas | Wild card | 11-1 | 3 |
| 13. | Alabama | Wild card | 12-1 | 4 |
| 14. | Texas Tech | Wild card | 11-1 | 7 |
| 15. | Ohio State | Wild card | 10-2 | 10 |
| 16. | Texas Christian | Wild card | 10-2 | 11 |
Matchups
This will set up some interesting matchups:
- (16) Texas Christian at (1) Oklahoma
- (15) Ohio State at (2) Florida
- (14) Texas Tech at (3) Southern California
- (13) Alabama at (4) Utah
- (12) Texas at (5) Penn State
- (11) Buffalo at (6) Boise State
- (10) Troy at (7) Cincinnati
- (9) East Carolina at (8) Virginia Tech
The 8 winners would play the following week, with the top 4 remaining seeds hosting the bottom 4 remaining seeds. The 8 first-round losers and the 4 second-round losers would get bowl invitations. And pretty good bowl invitations, in all likelihood.
The final four would play as part of the January 1st bowl games. The final two would play a week later for the real … not mythical … championship.
Problem solved.
I always liked the idea of a playoff system.
But now, Kentucky gets to play East Carolina… who’s going to murder Kentucky.
Why couldn’t we play Clemson or NC State or something?
[The conference tie-ins cause some match-ups that aren’t the best. In the old days, before those automatic bowl berths, they did have some cool match-ups. – B]
Ah, don’t fret yourself, Basil. The One’s gonna take care of this. Just wait and see.
[Silly me. I forgot that he was going to pay my mortgage, put gas in my car, etc… – B]
A tour de
forcefootball, Basil. I like it.[Thanks. – B]
In a decision hailed by one observer as “leg-tingling”, President-Elect Barack Obama declared today that he plans on crowning the University of North Texas Mean Green as national champions of NCAA FBS College Football. Obama explained that the Mean Green, dead last in scoring defense, “Spread the wealth around in a beautiful and courageous manner. There can be no argument that they deserve to be ranked No. 1.” However, the No. 1 ranking may not last long for the Mean Green. Obama advisor Rahm Emmanuel said in a statement yesterday that the President-Elect plans on changing the ranking system, so that no one team is ranked higher than another. Obama was unable to elaborate further to IMAO News, due to a bucket attaching itself to Obama’s head.
Reporting from Washington for IMAO News, I’m MarkoMancuso.
That was really long, and complicated, and uninteresting.
How about a post on alpha amylase vs beta amylase and which one makes a better beer?
[This post as the set-up. The punch line was the next post. Pay attention. – B]
I come here for raunchy political discussion, not sports. I could care less about football stats.
[You don’t understand. College football isn’t life and death; it’s much more important than that. – B]
Ah, excellent. Yet another competely unsolicited personal opinion about a college playoff system that is only remotely interesting to the person who posted it.
[You realize now that I’m going to camp out in your front yard, playing Van Halen music and reading the post over and over through a loud-speaker system until you agree to take up the cause, right? – B]
Anonymous B, as soon as you can say “I couldn’t care less” like a proper free-ice-cream-demander, we might take you seriously. But for now you’re just saying that you could care less, which means you care. Thanks for caring!
Basil, this list is much less stupid and much more acceptable. I approve.
[Much less stupid still means stupid, just not as much. But I’m okay with that. That’s what I was going after. Thanks! – B]
Well, you have BSU playing Buffalo. Meh.
[BSU had a good season. They deserved a bye. So a game against Buffalo fills the bill. – B]
I like it, except there should be a rule forever banning USC from ever participating in any playoff situation on account that they are a bunch of sissies.
Dang. And let the NCAA run the dang championship? Dang, no way. Dang.
[Oh, no. Tell the NCAA to take a flying leap and just play the games. Like Tommy Chong said, “What are they going to do? Put me in jail?” – B]