College Football Needs A Playoff

The purpose of this blog is to consider what could've been as it pertains to an eight team playoff in Division I-A (also called Bowl Championship) college football.

Since 1998, college football fans have been forced to accept the Bowl Championship Series' selection of #1 & #2 teams and their selection to take part in the National Championship game. The winner is crowned the "BCS National Champion" and is heralded as the champion of college football. However, this process is not without much controversy, and there will continue to be controversy as long as the teams are not allowed to decide who is the best team in college football utilizing the tried and true method that we call a tournament.

My proposal: College football should continue to use the BCS formula for ranking the top 25 teams, and use those rankings to identify the top 8 teams and enter them into a playoff. The three week playoff would start immediately after "Championship Week", and could conclude by the end of December, but would probably include a bye week so that the championship game could be played on or after New Year's Day. Every team not selected to the playoff could go play in the many Bowl Games (also known as "exhibition games") that exist currently.

Monday, December 7, 2009

1998 - The first BCS season


Actual BCS Bowls (w/ final BCS rankings):
Rose Bowl: #9 Wisconsin 38, #5 UCLA 31
Sugar Bowl: #4 Ohio State 24, #6 Texas A&M 14
Orange: #8 Florida 31, #15 Syracuse 10
Fiesta (National Championship): #1 Tennessee 23, #2 Florida State 16

The first year of the BCS was not without controversy. 3rd ranked Kansas State was passed over for two BCS bowls and was forced to play in the non-BCS Alamo Bowl. Also, Tulane finished the regular season 11-0 with a C-USA title, but was only ranked 10th in the final BCS rankings. They were selected to play in the Liberty Bowl against BYU, which they won to end their season 12-0.

The playoff scenario I've suggested here would allow Kansas State to participate as the #3 seed, playing Texas A&M in the first round. SEC rivals Tennesse and Florida would square off in the first round, and a Rose Bowl worthy UCLA vs. Ohio State matchup would also be featured in the top half of the bracket.
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