It's time for a playoff in college football

By Paul Hunt

It’s time for a national championship game in college football folks. Have you ever heard a single friend, ESPN analyist, sportswriter, fellow blogger, or massively drunk fellow sports bar patron has ever speculated to you the need for a BCS style system in any other sport.? Outside of perhaps "The Onion" the idea hasn’t been floated even once. So here is the 2007 twelve-team playoff. Here is an example (NOT A PREDICTION) of how it would look if all the highest seeds won each game.

2007
First Round- Dec. 9
No. 8 Kansas vs. No. 9 West Virginia- Lawrence, Kansas
No. 7 USC vs. No. 10 Hawaii- Los Angeles, California
No. 6 Missouri vs. No. 11 Arizona State (Option A)- Columbia, Missouri
No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 12 BYU (Option B)- Athens, Georgia

Elite 8- Dec. 16
No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 Kansas- Columbus, Ohio
No. 2 LSU vs. No. 7 USC- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
No. 3 Virginia Tech vs. No. 6 Missouri- Blacksburg, Virginia
No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 5 Georgia- Orange Bowl

Semifinals- Dec. 23
No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 4 Oklahoma- Rose Bowl
No. 2 LSU vs. No. 3 Virginia Tech- Fiesta Bowl

Championship Game- Jan. 1
No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 LSU- Sugar Bowl

Seedings- Following the conclusion of the regular season and all conference championship games, the top ten teams in the BCS poll fill the top 10.

Next the option A and B teams need to be determined. Option A and B selection starts with the No. 11 team and moves down the BCS poll. Both option A&B teams must be:
1. The highest ranked independent team or
2. A Conference champion or Co-Champion or
3. The highest ranked team in it’s conference

Locations- The Sugar, Rose, Orange and Fiesta Bowls shall be locked into 4 four year cycle hosting the championship game, semi finals and the No. 4 team versus the No. 5/Option B in the first round, which respects and continues the current national championship cycle.

For example:
Sugar Bowl as National Championship in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016
Orange Bowl as National Championship in 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017
Rose Bowl as National Championship in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018
Fiesta Bowl as National Championship in 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019

The three highest ranked teams get a bye and a second round home game. No. 4 gets a bye but plays at a neutral sight, the first bowl game. The first round games would be hosted by the higher ranked teams. I originally planned to have all games at a pre-determined bowl location but it would have been a logistical nightmare especially for fans.

Advantages

1. Familiarity- A twelve team playoff with a first round bye week for the four strongest teams, would be immediately comfortable and recognizable to Pro-football fans. The national champion will always be one of the top four teams in the country or will have to get through one of the top four teams in the country.

2. Selectivity- I’ve seen other playoff proposals in the works including Dan Wetzel’s 16 team of them he feels the need to guarantee all conference winners a spot, but occasionally you get a real logjam of mediocre teams or a conference champion who slips by. Take a look at the 2005 season using this structure.

2005
1. USC, Pac-10 Champ
2. Texas, Big 12 Champ
3. Penn State, Big 10 Champ
4. Ohio St., Big 10
5. Oregon, Pac-10
6. Notre Dame, Ind.
7. Georgia, SEC Champ
8. Miami, ACC
9. Auburn, SEC
10. Virginia Tech, ACC
+
11. West Virginia, Big East Champ-Option A
14. TCU, Mountain West Champ-Option B

Under my playoff system a BCS conference champion isn’t guaranteed a spot, for example the respectable but hardly spectacular 2005 Florida State Seminoles. Even after Florida State beat No. 5 Virginia Tech 27-22 in the ACC Championship game their new No. 22 ranking and (5-3) (8-4) records still ranked no better then 4th in the ACC below No. 8 Miami (6-2) (9-2), No. 10 Virginia Tech (7-1) (10-2), No. 21 Boston College (5-3) (8-3). The new twelve team playoff would have still included the ACC through Miami and Virginia Tech. Rarely but occasionally an entire BCS conference might be shut out. Most every year the six BCS conferences are all included, a few at large teams and the only the top few non-BCS conferences.

3. New Year’s day- The National Championship game would always fall on New Years Day which would allow the entire country to watch more readily then on January 6th, 7th or 8th.

Criticisms:

1. Too many teams- It’s pretty hard to say this system allows to many teams in. Pro football has 12 of 32 teams in the playoffs. Major League Baseball has 8 of 30. The NBA and NFL both have 16 out of 30. Here only 12 out of 119 qualify.

2. A conference champion could be left out- Sometimes the system might exclude one of the six BCS Conference champions, and occasionally one of the conferences itself, but only in a year where the conference and it’s champion and it’s conference is truly mediocre.

3. A non BCS Champion- It could happen but that team would face a collosal test that would remove any doubt about their legitamacy. This year Hawaii would have travel to L.A. to play USC in the first round, then play a rested LSU team in Baton Rouge then two additional games against higher ranked teams and concluding the season at 16-0.

4. Deminishing the regular season- I don’t think any team would feel they can let up. Take the Missouri Tigers now a former No. 1 team. Under the new system instead of a first round bye and then a home game, they have to play in the first round and if they win go to Blacksburg Virginia to play a rested Virginia Tech. For many teams the final few weeks would not be a fight for a lucrative BCS bowl but a fight for the national title itself.