Playoff Possibilities

As anyone familiar with college football, this is more than likely just a flight of fancy. The only plan outside of the current BCS arrangement that has any likelihood of success is the Plus One model, in which #1 and #2 after all the bowls meet in a final game. While the fairness of this is disputed (should a sole remaining undefeated team have to play yet another game?), it maintains the monetary benefits of the bowl system without the worries that multiple games in multiple locations will reduce revenue.

But hey, so this is all speculation. If there is a Div. 1A playoff, what should it look like? Here are the options and questions:

1. How many teams? - How big should a playoff be? Should it be a four team playoff, matching #1 and #4, #2 and #3, and then the winners of those two? Should it be an eight team playoff, following basically the same set-up, and giving the top 2 seeds the best shot of making it through? What about 16 teams? Or let's just go crazy, and slot in 32, or 64?

2. Who gets an invite? - There is a lot of dispute about this. Should a playoff be based on the BCS rankings, faulty as they are? Or how about just the human polls? How about a selection committee? Do we undermine the whole point of a conference championship if that isn't taken into account?

3. Where should a playoff be played? - The NFL playoffs, until the Super Bowl, are held at the individual team's stadiums, giving one team home field advantage every game. But if the NCAA did that, what would that do to the bowls that exist, and, most importantly, how would the revenue stream be shared?

MY PLAYOFF SUGGESTION

Answering the 3 questions, and putting together what I think is the fairest setup, here is what I would do, were I in charge. There should be a 16 team playoff. Why sixteen? It allows for all 11 conference winners, plus the next best 5 teams in addition. Does that unfairly give a free pass to North Texas, invariably the Sun Belt's champion? Sure, but how is that any different from the basketball brackets, or even any other playoff sport that takes division champions into effect? The champs should be ranked according to BCS rankings, thus keeping them involved, and the 5 at-large teams should be the highest ranking teams in the BCS outside of conference champs. Also, with 16 teams, that breaks down to 15 total games to be played, and I think those games should be played at existing bowls. In addition, this would allow the remaining bowls to be used in much the same way as they are now, or even in an NIT-like structure.

So, what would my playoff would've looked like at the end of 2004?

Here's our participants:

How would this have played out?  And where should they be played? Stay tuned for Playoff Possibilities Pt. 2?

1 USC                   1     1      2    .9770   1 Pac 10 champ 

2 Oklahoma              2     2      1    .9681   2  Big 12 champ

3 Auburn                3     3      3    .9331   3  SEC champ

4 Texas                 6     5      4    .8476   5  First at large bid

5 California            4     4      6    .8347   4  Second at large bid

6 Utah                  5     6      5    .8181   6  MWC champ

7 Georgia               8     7      8    .6966   7  Third at large bid

8 Virginia Tech         9     9      9    .6712  12  ACC champ

9 Boise State          10    10      7    .6564   8  WAC champ

10 Louisville           7     8     13    .6490   9  CUSA champ

11 LSU                 12    11      9    .6109  11  Fourth at large bid

12 Iowa                11    13     12    .5553  13  Fifth at large bid

13 Michigan            13    12     17    .5058  14  Big 10 champ

14 Pittsburgh(BCS 21)  19    20     NR    .1546  23  Big East champ

15 Toledo (No BCS)     MAC champ

16 North Texas (No BCS)     Sun Belt champ

Note: I've re-edited this as, while the list looked fine in Mozilla, it was pretty trippy in IE.