So you want to have a playoff.
The answer is a 16 team tournament that focuses on conferences, conference champions, regional influences, traditional bowl games, and holidays. It eliminates polls and opinions as factors and completely eliminates the need for embarrassing cream puff non conference games. It gives every team in Division IA an opportunity to win. It seeds conferences, not teams. It is consistent year to year and allows schools and fans to plan accordingly.
The first tournament round is held in the second week in December and has four “Eastern” games and four “Western” games.
In the East, the current conference championship games for the SEC and ACC are two of the tourney games.
The third game in the East is the Conference USA champ against the Big East champ in Memphis' Liberty Bowl. The fourth game is the Big 12 champ against the Sunbelt winner in the Alamo Bowl.
In the West, the PAC-12 championship is played at San Diego's Holiday Bowl.
The Big Ten championship is at Detroit's Motor City Bowl.
The Mountain West will play the MAC champ in Boise's Humanitarian Bowl.
There will be one consensus at-large team in the West.
It could be Notre Dame or other independent or more likely, a first place finisher who lost their conference or divisional title on tie-breaker rules.
This gives the Big 12 an opportunity to send more than one team.
It also addresses situations like the Big 10 logjam in 2010.
The at-large team will play the WAC champion at El Paso's Sun Bowl.
The quarterfinals are held Christmas week in holiday/vacation locations. The games will be played at four of the oldest most revered bowls.
In the East the Gator will match the ACC and SEC championship game winners and the Cotton will match the Alamo and Liberty Bowl winners.
In the West, the Capital One (old Tangerine) will host the Big 10 and Humanitarian Bowl winners in Orlando.
The last quarterfinal will have the Pac 12 winner play the Sun Bowl winner. This game will be hosted alternate years by either the Fiesta or Sugar bowls.
The semi finals are on New Year's Day in the most traditional of New Year's Day games.
The West semi will be in the Rose Bowl and the East semi will be in the Orange bowl.
If conference seedings hold up, the Rose will be PAC-10/Big Ten and the Orange will be Big 12/SEC. If not, so much the better.
The BIG GAME is two weeks later, either in the Fiesta or Sugar bowl, whichever didn't host a quarterfinal game. These cities have proven in the past to be great championship hosts and great wintertime vacation destinations.
There are some minor details.
The twelfth regular season scheduled game could be eliminated. For tournament participants it would be replaced by the quarterfinal, which is an “extra” game. Traditional “non-tournament” teams could keep the twelfth game if they wanted for revenue but the twelfth game never seemed to be a great concept for fans, anyhow.
Conference USA and MAC will probably each still schedule their own conference championship “play-in” game prior to the tournament because of their large conference size and the requirement that they send only one representative to the “sweet sixteen”.
There will be no need to schedule so many unbalanced non-conference games. Real non conference competition won't hurt a team's chance to be in the tournament. Some great inter-sectional games might develop, and season ticket holders won't be insulted by the likes of Florida vs the Citadel or Virginia Tech vs William and Mary.
As for extending the season; for the finalists, there will be +1 game. For the balance of the Division I-A teams there will be one fewer or the same number of games they play now.
The balance of the regular bowl games will still be played but they should be more competitive and interesting for television and fans because they will be match-ups of second and third place teams instead of fifth and six place teams.
Every BCS+ tourney game will be IMPORTANT; all 15 of them. The TV money for the networks and conferences should be higher than it is now and the ratings for all of the tournament games should be unprecedented.
One of the benefits of this system is that it can be implemented immediately without changing schedules or realigning conferences. The BCS and ESPN can still control the whole thing. ESPN controls all but three of the bowl games, already.
Some years the semi finals might outshine the finals, but that happens frequently in basketball and the NFL and doesn't seem to do any harm.
The quality of competition and fairness of the qualifying process will be outstanding. Superfans can plan their bowl trips years in advance. Everybody wins. Even Obama, Les Miles and Patterson Peterson will support this plan.
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Here's how this year would have looked. Play along
New BCS
Game count comparison
Round 1-conference title games already exist for most conferences.
Round 2-quarterfinal replaces 12th regular season game.
Round 3-semi-final is equivalent to the current bowl game trip.
Round 4-championship is an extra game for only two teams.
Round 1 losers could even accept a "real" bowl game invitation for six weeks later just like they do now.
One of the great things about this system for fans, airlines and hotels is that the "Road to the Championship" is determined years in advance because of the conference seedings. Texas fans know that they go to San Antonio, Dallas and Miami. USC fans know that they go to San Diego Orlando and Pasadena. Hokie fans know that they go home to Blacksburg after the first game. :-)
They don't have to go to all of the games, but at least they can plan for one.
Another great thing about this system is that the "mid-majors" aren't excluded, but everyone knows that they aren't going to advance beyond round one. But what if they did? Wouldn't Troy vs LSU semi final create as much national interest as George Mason or Butler did in Basketball?
Attendance at most bowl games is pathetic, but these 15 games would be sellouts as anyone who has attended a NCAA basketball regional can attest. Even fans of other teams and non-fans will travel and pay to see these (events)games.
The greatest thing about this system is the focus on conference. Don't win your conference, don't go to the show. No whining. Conference rivalries and conference traditions are some of the great things about college football. This system elevates the conferences. There is something wrong when a million West Virginia fans spend all week hoping that Oklahoma will lose only so that the Mountaineers poll position will be improved by one or two slots.
Ok, the elephant in the corner of the room is this. You're so smart Mr. Feast....What if a 9-4 Michigan, on a roll, beats an undefeated Florida in the Championship Game. That is, a Florida that went undefeated in the SEC, beat LSU in round one, Florida State in round 2, Texas in round 3 and loses to Michigan who lost to Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Iowa and Michigan State. To that I say, "oh well" we'll wait to see when that happens. If so, it will forever be heralded in the annals of college football as "it ain't over 'til it's over"
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