Fixing College Football

Well, everyone else is entering the fray, why can’t I?

For the past few months, I occasionally get asked my opinions on college football. I answer, with honesty, that I really don’t follow college sports, least of all college football. I watch March Madness, and I might watch the end of the College Football national Championship game, but I really can’t stand how the college football season ends, and that’s the crux of it.

In no other sport, worldwide, is the champion decided on by a vote. Except, possibly, in figure skating, and we saw how that worked out in Salt Lake City a few years back. There are several different polls and votes conducted by sports writers, coaches, some magical computer formula that rewards mysterious feats, and takes somewhat obscure factors into account. Yet, at every OTHER level of every other sport, there is a playoff. yes, this blog is about that, and presents another idea. There are 6 teams that have had truly magical seasons this year, and all deserve a fair shake. All won their conferences, and yet four of them will not have a chance to prove they are #1.

Right now, nobody who follows college football cares about anything other than Texas and Alabama. They’ve had great seasons, and deserve, as much as anybody, the right to play for the title. One of the beauties of a playoff system is that it allows for a Cinderella, like the 6th Seed Pittsburgh Steelers a few years ago, or the 13 Seeds like George Mason and Gonzaga in College Basketball to make a run, and energize their communities.

What if it worked like this: All 12 of the major conferences have a champion that is crowned by Thanksgiving (more or less). Now, rather than have 6 weeks of practice (suuurrrrrreeee they’re focusing on their Final Exams), we take those 12 conference winners, and add 4 Wild Cards, and create a 16 team field? The playoff format would become obvious, so I’ll forgo that part of the column.

Ah, I can hear the screams of the BCS people now! The millions in lost revenue! Where is our relevance? Well, the BCS still becomes a major player. See, of the 4 Wild Card teams, we would take the top 4 ranked BCS teams that did NOT win their conferences. See? Florida still makes it. Sure, there are some unhappy teams that just miss the cut, but the noise about team # 65 and 66 in the NCAA Final Four Tournament is a lot quieter than the teams at #3-6 in the BCS Rankings. The only reason we go to 16 teams instead of 8 in THIS scenario, is to reward every Division I conference champion, and then we round it out for a complete tournemanet so there are no byes.

In terms of seedings, we rank FIRST by number of losses, and then use BCS rankings to break those ties. Using this season as a model, I have put this week’s schedule at the bottom of this article, for your consideration. Somebody, please go set this up in Madden, and let me know how it comes out.

From this point, it becomes a tournament, much like the NCAA Final Four tournament. You might NOT end up with #1 playing #2, but I don’t remember hearing people complain that the two top seeds weren’t playing in the Super Bowl. Or the World Series. Sometimes, a good team needs to also be hot at the right time. Additionally, think of the advertising dollars and revenue that would be realzixed. For those afraid of the bowl system breaking down, we can use these other “bowl games” as the playoff games. The Libert Bowl and the Outback Steakhouse Bowl could be the playoff bowls, for example, with the winner going on to the Florida Citrus Bowl, which would lead to the Sugar Bowl, etc.

So, with that in mind, here are this week’s First Round NCAA College Football Playoff games. Good luck to everyone. Someday, maybe we can get a system that everyone buys off on, not just the College Football Commissioners.