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

2002


Actual BCS Bowls (w/ Final BCS rankings)
Rose Bowl: #7 Oklahoma 34, #6 Washington State 14
Sugar Bowl: #3 Georgia 26, #14 Florida State 13
Orange Bowl: #4 USC 38, #5 Iowa 17
Fiesta Bowl (National Championship): #2 Ohio State 31, #1 Miami (FL) 24 (2 OT)

The 2002 season was a good year for the BCS proponents. Two undefeated teams were slotted #1 & #2 in Miami (FL) and Ohio State -- and the national championship game was a double-overtime thriller that fans will remember for years. There was some grumbling about the Rose Bowl not having a marquee matchup, and the Rose Bowl did fail to sell out for the first time in 58 years.

My proposed bracket is a bit interesting, though, as it does pair the actual Orange Bowl parcipants USC and Iowa against each other in the first round. That's probably the only thing that the BCS and I will ever agree on.
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