Playoffs

[LNCBorn]

I am for the 16 team playoff system. No automatic seeds via conference championships. Each team has eleven regular season games. I am not for conference championship games unless all conferences are dictated to have one and minimum 12 teams each( ideally all with 16 ). TOP 16 get in via BSC Point System. Bowls will be tied in with playoff. With rotation of Championship game to the same bowls currently hosting. All other games will be determined by next highest paying bowl. There will be bowls left and they can continue there tradition on there own by inviting teams that did not make playoffs.

 

A lot of comments about teams that "deserve to be in there". The only system in sports that really screws a team that might deserve to be there is the BCS. TCU for instance. People can haggle all they want about strength of schedule, blah, blah, simple fact is they have won every game, UNDEFEATED! I don't care if they played the worst 11 teams in the country, they do deserve to be there! Yes the regular season is suppose to be a playoff, SO, TCU is undefeated in there portion of these "playoffs" and still cannot win the National Championship? In my opinion that is criminal to punish these kids because of a schedule they had no control over, and they did beat every team they played in there playoffs. So those who say the regular season is there playoffs can eat me. If you win everygame in the playoffs then u must have won the championship! But no! Its no playoffs then!

 

Is a pipe dream but all other options have to many huge risks at leaving highly ranked or undefeated teams out of the picture. Lets atleast include all deserving teams plus a few more for cushion and let them be able to decide it on the field.

[Big Red 40]

I think the best way would be:

 

Keep existing bowls

lessen the time between season and bowl games.

top records and rank go to bowl games no matter the conference

at the end of the bowls 1 more game, take the winners of the 2 top bowls and there you go.

Agree on all points. Good post

[Big Red 40]

I think we have the 2 best teams in the Championship game this year. If TCU can handle Wisconsin (Dont think so), then they have a beef. I dont think they would be either Oregon or Auburn anyway. In the current system winning EVERY game is important. Playoff system, as long as you have enough wins to get in you could take a few games off at the end of the year, making for unwatchable games at the end of the year like the NFL. There is waaay to much time between the regular season and the bowls, and they drag them out far too long also. Should be done New years Day.

[Landlord]

What do you guys think about this system? Starts after the end of all regular season games.

 

* At the end of the regular season, all "secondary" bowl games will be played and completed by December 21st. Secondary bowl games are as follows (might have missed some):

 

Poinsettia Bowl

Las Vegas Bowl

New Orleans Bowl

Papajohns.com Bowl

New Mexico Bowl

Armed Forces Bowl

Hawaiʻi Bowl

Motor City Bowl

Emerald Bowl

Independence Bowl

Texas Bowl

Music City Bowl

Sun Bowl

Liberty Bowl

Insight Bowl

Champs Sports Bowl

Meineke Car Care Bowl

Alamo Bowl

MPC Computers Bowl

International Bowl

GMAC Bowl

Chick-Fil-A Bowl

Gator Bowl

Holiday Bowl

 

* Also included in this timeframe are the Cotton Bowl, Capital One Bowl and Outback Bowl. The difference between these bowls and the secondary bowls is that the participants of these bowls are fighting for a playoff berth.

* Starting December 27th, a 14 team playoff will begin.

* The winners of each of the six automatic-qualifying conference will be guaranteed spots in the tournament. The #1 and #2 BCS ranked teams are also guaranteed spots, if they were hypothetically not conference champions. Assuming both teams are champions of their respective conferences, their extra qualifying spots (having been conference champions and ranked in the top 2 nationally) will be filled by "wild card" teams.

* The remaining 8 or 10 spots will be determined by, in order:

 

a) The winners of the Cotton, Capital One and Outback Bowl games.

B) The next five highest BCS ranked teams, that don't already meet a previously established qualification, in a final poll formulated after the first phase of bowl games.

 

* The #1 and #2 ranked teams in the BCS rankings will experience a bye week for the first round of the playoff.

* During the second round, the four remaining games will take place at/as the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowls, respectively.

* The third round and championship game will take place at a cycling location designated as the host stadium for the National Championship game (had a bit of difficulty with this one, I really think the current BCS bowls need to be involved in some way but it seems unrealistic to expect teams to be traveling this much for three different rounds of a playoff, any alternative suggestions?)

* The winner of the final championship game will be crowned National Champions of college football.

 

 

 

 

The reason I like this system is that it gives a lot of balance to the different claims of "a right to be there". the two highest ranked teams get a deserved break, the bcs champions have their spots secured, but there are still a higher amount of teams that make it that aren't guaranteed any spots, they have the chance to earn them.

 

Just something I thought of, I have no idea if it's legitimate or not, it might be total trash.

[Overland Park Husker]

Just go back to the old bowl system. These same arguments are what made the BCS in the first place.

[bigg10]

First, get rid of nonconference. Then the champion of each conference plays a champ of each other conference. Maybe you would only need to cut one or two noncon games idk

This gets my vote as well, I have been saying for along time to put your #1 up against anothers #1, #2 agaisnt #2 and #3 against #3. 3 games conference against conference. Kinda takes the guess work out of "whos who". Rotate conferences, I am betting some of the little guys would decline that offer.

[Ty08husker]

Well when looking at getting a playoff in college football. It all starts with the beginning. Meaning right now there are 120 teams in Division I college football (I dont believe in the FBS and FCS crap). With that many teams it would extremely easy to make 12 conferences with 10 teams each. You begin the season with 3 non-conference games against a defferent conference each week. Then year to year you rotate what conferences play each other. The matchups between the conferences are decided between the conferences but the conferences dont decide when they play what conference. The NCAA decides that. So if the conferences want 1v1 fine. But here you really dont know who 1v1 will be because the schedules are made years in advance. Then you get the conference games and with 10 teams you have 9 conferences games. Everyone plays everyone. Winner decided with most wins (no conference championship in any conference). That brings the total games to 12. If there is a tie well the NCAA can decide if there is a uniform tiebreaker among conferences or let the conference decide how they will determine the champion (except playing another game of course). Then after conference play you have 12 champions for a playoff. Seeding is determined by a poll either AP or you can use the BCS standings but call it something other than BCS. Teams seeded 1-4 get a bye. Team 5-12 play first round with higher seed getting game on their university site. Second round then is played with Teams 1-4 getting homefield advantage. Then the last 2 rounds (semifinals and finals) are played on neutral sites that the NCAA determines before the season starts. There are details that I am missing but this is the jist of it. I know some people will hate it. But the biggest arguement for the BCS is that the regular season is the playoff. But it complete bullsh#t to think that you can have 12-13 games to figure out what the top 2 teams are. Its insanity. The regular season here is a playoff but decides what 12 teams not 2 get a chance for the National Championship. I just graduated from UNL in 2008 and i cant wait until my generation become the ones that decide this crap in 30 to 40 years. Maybe then if the world is still around we will have that playoff in the best sport in the USA - college football.

[huskerscott]

To me we could do something like this 24 team playoff with top 4 seeds get a bye. You can still have all the regular season games, you just move up the start of season 1 week, thus the conference champion games would move up to turkey day weekend. The schools that wouldnt qualify for the playoffs would go into the bowls which would be about 46 teams roughly with a winning record. The top teams in the BCS would qualify plus conference championship winners. The more teams that win CCGs without being the BCS rankings the less at large teams would qualify.

 

Round 1 would be the first week after turkey day.

 

24 teams 12 games 12 team advance.

 

Round 2 the next week.

 

16 teams including the 4 that had byes. 8 games 8 teams advance

 

Round 3 would be after a week off for finals and a few days before christmas if not the weekend before depends on how the calendar falls.

 

8 teams, 4 teams advance.

 

Round 4 you could have these at neutral sites, depending on geographical location. Dallas, Atlanta, New York, LA, Phoenix.

 

4 teams, 2 advance.

 

Round 5 at a site already determined but not from the ones mentioned above for the Championship

 

This way the season would end on about the same time as the BCS national championship games is. Im sure it will never work, though. This was kinda quick thinking thing. Im sure logistics of it would be an issue and the fact that we would have 12 less bowls, but I guess you could throw those into playoffs for sites.

 

The most games a team would play is 18 if didnt have a bye, 17 if they did. That really isnt too much more than the 13 or 14 that the teams will play this year. Plus the farther you get in the playoffs the more money is paid out to the schools.

[Lil' Red]

I'm all for any sort of playoff since anything would be better than the BCS. My two preferences would probably be an 8 team playoff that takes the top 8 teams or a 16 team playoff that takes the 11 conference champions and 5 at large teams.

[Redmusky]

You are not going to eliminate the championship games Big ten will make 23 million per game starting next year

Make each BCS conference have at least 12 teams that's 6 champions.

One team from non BCS schools and one wild card team from the 6 BCS conference schools which has the best record

That's four games, The four top champions have home field (BCS conference)

After week one your left with 4 teams and 2 games.For the finalist they play only two additional games in the season.

This would end the rankings, it would be settle on the field. The bowls would be left in place but would not mean as much.

The only thing which would be sold is the TV rights except for the final game that would be a bowl site.

[Malth]

I'd like to see some sort of playoff system, but I really think it should be minimized as much as possible. 16 teams is too many, and adds too many games to the schedule. It also removes a bit of emphasis from the regular season games.

 

I'd be in favor of something like a 6 team playoff, where the top 2 seeds get a 1st round bye.

[corncraze]

I'd like to see some sort of playoff system, but I really think it should be minimized as much as possible. 16 teams is too many, and adds too many games to the schedule. It also removes a bit of emphasis from the regular season games.

 

I'd be in favor of something like a 6 team playoff, where the top 2 seeds get a 1st round bye.

Hey that was my theory! Haha

[Hujan]

I have two ideas for playoffs:

 

An 8-team playoff, the top 8 teams decided by the BCS the same as it is now.

 

Lose a non-conference game from the beginning of the year, and slide the conference championship games back a week.

 

The first playoff game is held on the first weekend of December, with higher-seeded teams getting home field advantage (this ensures a sold-out stadium for every playoff game).

 

The final four takes place on the second weekend of December, again with home field advantage for higher seeds.

 

Then the entire bowl system remains as it is now - a consolation prize for teams that didn't make it all the way to the championship game (even the teams that made the playoffs but lost). However, the national champion is decided on the field between the two survivors of the playoff in the national championship game in early January.

 

OR

 

A 12-team playoff, where there is a slot for the champion of each conference (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, C-USA, MAC, MWC, PAC-10, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC, and Independents).

 

For the independents, the highest ranked team would be considered the conference champion.

 

In the playoff, the top 4 seeds would receive a bye in the first week.

 

The seeds would be determined by the BCS, and home field advantage would be given to the higher seeds.

 

You'd need to lose at least one non-conference game and slide the conference championship game back at least a week.

 

After the playoff, the bowl system remains as a consolation prize, and it includes the national championship game, like it does now.

 

I actually prefer this scenario... The downside is you let in some silly matchups between Ohio State and Florida Atlantic or something. The upside is that all conference championships are basically settled on the field, with a rare controversial tiebreaker, and this means that there's very little controversy surrounding who makes it into the playoff. It also makes conference races that much more important.

 

The upside to the downside (Ohio St. vs. Florida Atlantic), is that every year during these playoffs, you have a massive underdog in the fight. And on the occasion where Troy gets an upset in the first round, all hell breaks loose in in the sports world. It would be amazing.

 

Some excellent ideas here. Let me toss out a couple more to iron things out:

 

1) No independents. You impose a rule that in order to be eligible for a playoff spot, a team must be a member of a conference.

 

2) Eight 12-team conferences. Force teams into eight, 12-team conferences with two 6-team divisions and require a championship game. (In my scenario, Notre Dame slides into the B1G TEN and Penn State, Army, and Navy slide into the Big East, etc.)

 

3) No cupcakes. You impose a rule that any team who plays a 1-AA team in the regular season is ineligible for a playoff spot. Enough dragging 1-AA teams into your stadium in order to a get a 55-point win. (Or, occasionally, a 17-3 win.)

 

4) Inter-conference matchups. Toy with the idea of having conference mashup weeks. With eight, 12-team conferences, I think it would be cool if two weeks of the non-conference schedule were devoted to conference mashups where all 12 teams from one conference would play all 12 teams from another conference on the same weekend. So Week X, all 12 teams from the Big Ten play all 12 teams from the Pac-12. Then on Week X+1, all 12 teams from the Big Ten play all 12 teams from the SEC, while the 12 teams from the Pac-12 play all 12 teams from the ACC.

 

The games could be determined based on the prior year's conference rankings so you have the best teams from one conference matching up with the best from another, or it could be done randomly. In any event, I think this would go a long way towards identifying which conferences truly are the power conferences. I got this idea from the Big 10-ACC tournament in basketball.

[Hujan]

I'd like to see some sort of playoff system, but I really think it should be minimized as much as possible. 16 teams is too many, and adds too many games to the schedule. It also removes a bit of emphasis from the regular season games.

 

I'd be in favor of something like a 6 team playoff, where the top 2 seeds get a 1st round bye.

 

Nebraska only lost two regular season games and would have missed an 8-team playoff drawn from a BCS-type ranking. Two losses by a combined 10 points. Trust me, the regular season would still be very, very exciting and important. Imagine how that A&M game would have felt knowing that our playoff birth was on the line?

[Hercules]

Here's why I like the idea of using conference champions to form a playoff structure, and dislike the idea of using the polls.

 

Let's say that this year, there was a 16-team playoff structure in place, using the top 16 in the BCS. Well, before the Big 12 championship game, Nebraska would have been part of that playoff, along with Oklahoma. After the Big 12 championship game, Nebraska would have been knocked out, while Missouri and Oklahoma State made the playoff. Nebraska beat both of those teams head-to-head, and the only reason Nebraska has a different record is because it had to play an extra game.

 

If you want a championship to be decided on the field, you have to minimize the impact of the polls. Let BCS decide seeds, and nothing else.