BCS plan: Everybody’s got one
From the fax the other day came one of those college football playoff proposals that get floated around all the time. The thing I always love about them is their seriousness. How elaborate and intricate are the ideas. As if college football was wondering in the wilderness, waiting for a messiah who could bring blessed relief to a clueless sport.
The opposite is the truth. College football is playoff-less not because of a lack of a good idea, but because college football doesn’t want a playoff beyond its current two-team format. There are plenty of workable playoff ideas. Supply is not the problem. Demand is.
I don’t know why that’s so hard for everyone to accept. Bash college football if you want, but bash its motives, not its intellect. There are plenty of playoff plans on the market. We don’t need more.
The plan I received by fax shows how out of touch and irrational some fans can get on this issue. The plan, promoted by Justin Eberhart of Pittsburgh, is copyrighted, with patent pending.
Here are the elements of the plan:
1. Reduce the Division I-A teams from 120 to 80. The teams booted would go to I-AA but would not lose scholarships as a repercussion of the move.
I suppose you could work up a policy by which 40 schools could be trimmed from I-A. It would be a colossal mess that would lead to lawsuits, but let’s not sweat this one. But let 40 teams drop to I-AA while keeping 85 scholarships and competing against schools that can only give 63? The universe does not exist so that college football fans can find their way to a playoff.
2. Realign the remaining 80 schools into eight 10-team conferences. Play an 11-game regular season, including a nine-game conference schedule. The eight champions make the new BCS. All I-A schools are banned from playing I-AA schools.
OK. Tell Minnesota or Iowa, who have been in the Big Ten since the Mayflower landed, that they’re moving. Tell Virginia it’s no longer in a league with North Carolina? Tell Texas Tech it’s suddenly in the Mountain West? Who’s running college football? The Bolsheviks? This is America; this is a market economy, and just because fans are passionate about their sport, we don’t suspend the market economy.
Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd, left, and tight end Kyle Rudolph celebrates a second quarter touchdown against Nevada during an NCAA college football game in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
3. Seeding for the eight-team BCS will be based on the polls and the NCAA CPU rankings. The Fiesta, Cotton, Gator, Peach, Orange, Sugar and Rose bowls will be used for the seven games necessary to determine a champion.
I don’t have any idea what the NCAA CPU rankings are, but whatever. Who cares? But on the bowls, you’ve got a better chance of convincing the Rose Bowl to host a Communist Party convention than you do of taking part in an expanded playoff.
4. Notre Dame should be allowed to keep its television contract with NBC. However, it must join a conference under this plan.
I’m OK with that. I think that’s mandatory for any expanded playoff. Notre Dame has to join a conference to be included.
5. The NCAA should develop a system that allows all teams in Division I-AA have the opportunity to be reinstated into the new BCS system while still sending other underperforming programs in Division I-A.
What is this? Soccer. Do you understand that all those buildings, all those college campuses, actually perform functions completely unrelated to college football. Athletic departments are run on funds and budgets. You can’t go yanking schools up and down, when it will change their revenues by tens of millions of dollars.
6. The NCAA should consider taking all remaining bowl games and placing them in Division II and Division III as semifinal and championship bowl games. This way, all divisions are uniform.
Sure, Alamo Bowl. Quit hosting a Nebraska-Michigan game and start hosting North Alabama-Saginaw Valley State. It’ll be great.
Look, I know everyone wants a playoff. And I sort of like the foundation of this one that says only conference champs are allowed. I’ll vote for that. As soon as you start talking about wild cards, I lose interest quick.
But you can’t go telling schools and conferences to change their fundamental structures just to make for an orderly playoff. That’s not the way it’s going to happen if it ever does come to pass.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Here’s a simple plan…use the same format the other divisions of college football use for a playoff….DUH!!!! The truth of the matter is that recent polls indicate that almost 90% of C.F. fans are in favor of a playoff so for Tramel to indicate there isn’t a “demand” for a playoff is ludicrous. A playoff will work and it is coming. The BCS is a complete joke and year after year doesn’t give us a true national champion which is all us fans want. They can still have all those meaningless bowl games but at least the bigger bowls would actually mean something because they would be playoff sites.
Joel, there are several considerations that most people who are calling for a playoff don’t consider. First of all, who do you think is going to attend each game? If a team must win four games, for example to be a champion, how many can most of the fans afford to attend. Have you seen the attendance at the games of the divisions that do have a playoff system? I attend all of OU’s home games, the Texas game, and their bowl game. I could not afford to attend more than one or two playoff games, and I would guess that most fans are the same way. My guess is that most of the fans who call for playoffs don’t attend bowl games anyway.
Which brings me to one more point and that is the bowl games may be meaningless to fans who only sit on the sofa and enjoy football (and I do a lot of that myself), but to the teams themselves and to the fans who attend them they aren’t meaningless. I didn’t drive all the way to west Texas to see the Sun Bowl last year and not care how the game came out. All Sooner fans who were there and who watched it on TV wanted OU to win. In addition, it gave the team a boost for this coming season. No offense meant, but that is something to consider.
Every time I see a playoff scenario, they all have a determination to have a seeded bracket. This isn’t the NFL.
I too have a system which will:
1- Provides the next progressive step in determining who should play in the BCS Bowls.
2- Justify subjective rankings with more meaningful games.
3- A system where EVERYBODY WINS! Teams, Conferences, Schools, Fan[atic]s, Broadcasting Companies, Congress/Senate, etc.
4- Provides a process of elimination before the Bowl berths are filled.
5- Allows all 11 Conferences and Independents to EARN their just positions in the BCS Bowls.
6- Reduces human subjective factor out of ratings.
7- Lets the Titan battle the Titan on the field of play, by letting the teams play the game!
8- Pits top ranked teams to play opponents of perceived equal strength.
9- Leaves no room on the regular season schedule to play that “cream puff” team.
10- Gives us the games we could have never had the foresightedness to have scheduled.
11- Reduces the opinions of Coaches and Harris Pollsters with reality results.
12- Provides tie-breakers with immediate results.
13- Keeps the Bowl System in tact.
14- Keeps amount of games being played the same.
15- Meets Government passed regulations by providing one round of playoffs.
16- Insures Fair Play for all 120 teams to earn their BCS Bowl berth.
17- Provides additional profit centers for participating Teams, Conferences, and Schools.
18- Provides funds for teams to travel to these previously unscheduled games.
19- Cost effective.
20- Results effective.
I am so sure that this may be the only acceptable system, I wrote the Book, December Dream . . . Qualifying for the Final BCS Rankings http://www.bbotw.com
To put it simply, The playoff is the 12th and last game of the regular season with #1 hosting #2, #3 hosting #4, etc. all the way to #119 hosting #120, or at least as many teams as there are Bowl berths. My book has all the details.
I’m really not sure why everyone gets so worked up about a playoff system for a National Champion in College football. We live in a capitalistic economy and the plan that makes the most money will always be the plan that’s adopted. Don’t get democracy and capitalism confused. People may want a playoff because they believe that would be fair, but fair and popularity are not the concerns here, what makes the most money is.
I’m alright with that. If I were a coach or college president in one of the major conferences, my school or conference would always have a major financial windfall in January. That’s the way it is. So unless you can get a group of very wealthy investors together to lure the same program to a different system, with more prize money, we have what we have.
So sit back and enjoy the games you want to watch and don’t lose too much sleep or effort on a “Fair and Equitable” National Champion crowning.
College football is the minor leagues for the professional teams. Each professional team could sponsor a college team at each level and they would only be allowed to draft players from the colleges they sponsor.
It is after all about money and not finding out who the best team in college is.
Why drop 40 teams to make 8 10-team conferences? 10 12-team conferences (the current requirement to get a conference playoff game) makes more sense. This leaves room for 2 “wild cards” and gives the top 4 teams (based on the BCS rankings system, so nobody loses their job over this playoff system) a first round bye. Sounds just like the NFL, doesn’t it?
11 games, each getting the most popular bowl designations and keeping the current championship rotation, with the other bowl games still operating as usual and inviting the teams they choose.
This really isn’t hard, and I didn’t spend weeks on intricate plans and division re-writes. I’m pretty sure if/when the NCAA goes to a playoff system, it will look something like this and that they have the plan mostly worked out already.
You guys must be kidding…
This is big business and they aren’t going to listen to your ideas… They make their decisions and we just have to live with them…
Colleges and Universities have corrupt leadership and alumni just like Washington… They just don’t have the worries of re-election…
When Boise State or some other small town college finds the bucks to play in the big leagues, maybe, just maybe, they will get the No.1 slot… But don’t bet on it…
Playoffs will come when the money’s right and not until.
I don’t like the idea of a play-off either. Totally ruin the season and it would ruin any hype over getting into a BCS Bowl. Keep the BCS system, but change the automatic qualifying rules.
another idea to add to the many proposed:
Perhaps instead of only some conferences having automatic bids, open it up so that every conference has a possibility, perhaps not the probability, but at least the possibility of making a BCS bowl.
Simply, any conference champion ranked in the BCS top 25 at season end receives a automatic bid. Due to a number of conference champions not making the top 25, remaining seats go to at large teams. If there are more Top 25 conference champion teams than bowl positions, then the highest BCS ranked conference champions receive the BCS bids, with rest of conference champions go to other bowls
This format could potentially enforce the independents to return to conferences in order to make it into a BCS game. It would also keep the ‘playoff’ appeal during the regular season for the BCS Championship Game pure and enjoyable with.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Hey you Boise St’s and TCU’s, put your destinies in your own hands. Get your conferences to schedule an end of the year showdown between the champs of each conference. It will create a tougher road, and give the winner more credibility. In all the conferences there are weak teams. The WAC, MWC, MAC ect.. just have more. The higher ranked team you beat at the end of the season the better you look on paper. How many times has Notre Dame or USC ruined their NC chances by playing each other at the end of their seasons. That’s the risk they take. Just look what could have taken place this year–#3 vs #4 and no kiss your sister Bowl match up. BSU vs OU Fiesta, Utah vs Alabama Sugar, 2011 ?,ect..PROGRESS!!!!
So I’ve been doing a little research on this whole BCS madness – I’m giving a presentation on the absurdity of it all. What I’ve come to realize about a lot of the arguments against having some sort of play off system is that the examples used always throw the baby out with the bath water. As it stands right now, the best thing to start the ball rolling would be to do a +1. As of today that would mean 1)Oregon v. 4)Boise St. and 2)Auburn V. 3)TCU – the respective winners of each game would play for the national championship. Throw in the Cotton Bowl to the mix and have the final game 2 weeks later. People with travel given the time – Done and done. Sure #5 and #6 might cry about being left out but this is way better than the ferry dust system we have now. But in the end this won’t happen anytime soon because of the stranglehold the “top” six conferences and ESPN have on the system. Money talks and it’s too bad that the MWC and the WAC don’t have enough money… Oh and get rid of the AQ bs – the highest ranking ACC team right now is ranked #16 and the Big east is nowhere close to ranking.
I would consider a 16-team playoff. To make that happen, we first would contract the regular season to 10 games (at most one of which could be against a non-I-A team), a longstanding tradition in college football until recent decades. After those 10 games, play the bowl games during Thanksgiving week (consider the bowl period as generally 17-30 November). Conference championships (hereafter obligatory for all conferences) would take place the first Saturday of December (conveniently, always the second Saturday after Thanksgiving Day).
The 16 teams in the playoff thereafter would be:
* the 16 conference champions with the highest BCS rankings
* any undefeated team (of which there would be fewer after the bowl games in late November)
* any independent ranked in the BCS top 16
* the remaining teams with the highest BCS ranking
The BCS would seed all teams in the tournament. One might complain of the authoritarian nature of this format, but it seems analogous to the college basketball tournament. The first round or two could be played at campus stadiums with the later weeks of the tournament on neutral turf.
Consider some potential matchups from the tournament:
1 v 16) Oregon v Florida International
2 v 15) Texas Christian v Tulsa
3 v 14) Auburn v Northern Illinois
4 v 13) Stanford v West Virginia
5 v 12) Boise State v Virginia Tech
6 v 11) Ohio State v Alabama
7 v 10) Oklahoma v Missouri [rematch]
8 v 9) Arkansas v Wisconsin
To avoid that rematch, I’d switch Missouri and Wisconsin, giving:
7 v 10) Oklahoma v Wisconsin
8 v 9) Arkansas v Missouri
Granted, Oregon almost certainly would trounce Florida International, home or away or neutral or otherwise. But even the Sun Belt thence has a “chance,” and Oregon would have played two tough games in the preceding three weeks (Rose Bowl against Ohio State and conference championship against Stanford). Most of those games, however, are some compelling games, featuring the best teams around the country week after week after week, beginning with the bowl game weekends, which incidentally provide a tough non-conference game for every good-looking team–just before BCS seeding, so we know where TCU and Oregon and Auburn and all other teams really stand against tough but likely unfamiliar competition.
I hear fans often complaining about the AQ status of the ACC and Big East. VT is actually pretty good. There have been many teams in the BCS ranked below 12 throughout the years from every AQ conference. 2000 #22 Stanford, 2001 #17 Purdue, 2008 #13 Illinois, 2005 #13 Michigan, 2002 #13 LSU – wow we have to remove AQ from everyone but the Big12 since all the rest have had AQ champions ranked way down there where VT is this year – in the teens (wait for the final BCS rankings please).
This is one season. Get over it.
If you flash back to the days when the BCS was formed you will see a team called FSU playing in the first 3 championships – from the ACC. If you look at the Big East you’ll see the Miami Hurricanes, VT, the Orangemen, WVa and Pitt. Strong teams playing for and winning the NCG. These 2 conferences were better then. Things change. Aren’t you glad they do? It makes things more interesting!
As far as a playoff system – no AQ university will ever give up an automatic $20 mil just for making the BCS (winning the conference) You cannot find the $$$ you’ll need to pay every team who makes your “playoffs” that much – which you will have to in order to get anyone to even listen to you.
The only doable playoff is to match 1&4, 2&3 in BCS bowls the first week with winners facing off 2 weeks later for the NCG. That allows 4 unbeaten champs to face off – not just 2.
The ideal system would be to rearrange FBS football into 9 or 10 conferences of 12 teams each – divided into 2 divisions of 6 teams each – just like the ACC, Big12 and SEC are now. Teams compete for divisions. The division winners compete early Dec in the conference championship game. The games that decide division winners and the conference championships become the first rounds of the “playoffs” everyone wants. Then build a BCS system that pits the highest ranked 8 (or 4) champs in a playoff of bowls. The rest of the bowls remain intact. With over 100 teams we’d be losing something special to lose the bowls altogether. Expand the BCS if you wish but keep all the bowls. They bring needed $$$ to universities and communities and I love watching them – all of them.
Here’s a thought,he keeps mentioning that the colleges and bowls will not deviate just because the fans want a playoff. Well here’s my opinion: Get on board on get left behind. (Of course I want to speak in my primary tongue which may not be suitable for this forum). But seriously, we all know that the bowl committees and colleges wants to make money, but do not think they will not make money if it were to come to this. Think of the NFL and their playoffs!!!! A lot of fans could care less about football in general, or may not care about two wild cards playing, but because it is a playoff, the tv gets more ratings and the playoff is usually sold out. Come on! Be honest with yourselves. Don’t sit in your leather bound chair and tell me that a playoff system will not work because too much money will be lost. Get over yourselves and move on with the time.
Finally, I’d like to point out that not only the Bowl’s themselves need to get on-board here. Notre Dame, seriously…… Come on yeah you were good and a contender many moon’s ago, before I was born…. But your recruitment hasn’t been what it used to. get on board and make the best out of things.
Bottom Line: Your ignorant if you believe a playoff system want make more money (AS IT, APPARENTLY, SEEMS MONEY IS WHAT MAKES AMERICA SPIN)
God Speed Great College Football Fans and Happy Footballidays.
It is about money … the money College football fans don’t have to spend traveling to support “their” teams. Really, do you think most fans could take off three or four successive weekends to travel who knows how far to cheer? Nope. You’re looking at thousands of empty seats each week for anything but the “end of the season” game.
Currently, every bowl game is that … the last game of the season so making a last hurrah journey to say thanks to your team for a good year is doable. Making three or four such trips, not so much.
I don’t understand how the BCS can say that Wisconsin should go to the Rose Bowl when Michigan State cleaned their clock….doesn’t make sense to me that Wisconsin nor Ohio State should be rated above Michigan State. Granted, OSU and MSU didn’t play each other, but the writing is on the wall that MSU did kick Wisconsin’s butt…..
CWL how can you say that thousands of seats will be empty during the playoff games because fans can’t take off consecutive or don’t have the financial means. Last time I checked, CWL, the NFL has fans too that makes the trek and I don’t see seats empty.
The bowl system is antiquated and time for change. Like the original posts states, there are literally thousands of ways that the NCAA can make this work, don’t tell me that its impossible and that the BCS is all we got. Good god man!!!!
“I don’t know why that’s so hard for everyone to accept.” – Berry Tramel
It is easy to understand having a national champion without a playoff. Accept it. Every other sport in college and professional athletics are ridiculous for having playoffs. The BCS rules -even though, it is tearing apart regional conferences because you have to be in a power conference to survive in this new college landscape, but other than that it is pretty sweet.
Preach it, Berry. Preach it!
Apparently Tracy is an ignorant fool for saying that “every other sport in college and professional athletics are ridiculous for having a playoff” What do you base that comment on? The problem that I have to determine who the real champion is, is that it is left to voters and computers rather than settling it on the field. Think of gymnastics or diving competitions; It is too subjective with judges with no clear winner.
You know what, the BCS will change and it will go to a playoff system, of some sort anyways, it is just a matter of time. With all the law suits against the BCS and NCAA regarding this matter and the fact that the President of the United States wants to see a playoff, I can assure you that change will happen.
As for Tracy’s comments, stop posting and go back to watching Gilmore Girls or Mork and Mindy and leave the sports up to people who can at least articulate a sensible and educate comment.
I love how dedicated the BCS is to convincing fans about what they want. What a joke you are. Dont you think that if your BCS was so good, you would not have to constantly remind us of “how good it is”. Well, at least you guys are making money, cuz that is what sports fans are concerned with. We dont care about watching teams compete and move up. We dont care about watching some “outside team” like Boise or TCU make a great run for the NC. We are just so glad that yall are makin money. Keep reminding us of that. Oooo, look at the loss of money if we had a playoff. Look at the FCS low revenue.
Keep is as it is now, only have a repeat of the previous years bowl game in week 1. The winner of the bowl game would have the week 1 game at home. For example, week 1 in 2011 would be Oregon at Auburn. All teams must leave week 1 open but would complete their schedule for games 2-12. All teams that did not make a bowl game would schedule another team that didn’t make a bowl game for week 1. SOS solved. Could you imagine the first week of college football? Oregon at Auburn, Wisconsin at TCU, Michigan St. at Alabama, Arkansas at Ohio St., etc etc??
Drop the “double hosting” and spread the “wealth” among
other communities, just like March Madness does. No wonder the BCS bowls are spending gob$ to keep their pots of gold!
First the regular season should be shortened to 12 games the 12th being conference championships. (Every Conference should have one regardless of their size.
Then the Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar bowl commities would choose their teams and those four bowls would be round 1 of the playoffs. The Final Four would have the bowl winners against each other playing at the home of the higher ranked team. The National Championship would always take place January 1st at the Rose Bowl, the oldest and most historic stadium in college football.
We definitely need a playoff. The BCS is a joke. Alabama dropped only one spot after one loss and OU dropped five? And Boise St. being ranked as high as they are is ridiculous. The BCS obviously does take “strength of schedule” even though they say they do. Look at at Boise St.’s conference. The Mountain West? What are you kidding me? That conference is a bigger joke than the BCS. And the only non-conference game they played that’s even remotely noteworthy is Georgia. And I’m talking about the Georgia that used to be a pretty decent team. I’m talking about a Georgia that sucks! What a laugh. I’d bet almost every team in the Big 12 could beat Boise St. There’s definitely biased in all those east coast elitist voters who hate OU. That’s the way I see it… like it or not!
Insert the word “not” above:
And I’m “not” talking about the Georgia that used to be a pretty decent team.
You guys need to let posters edit their comments because of typos that can be misread.
Pretty weak arguments…..but it is the BCS site.
This should make the BCS gods happy and provide a framework for transition. Play the Rose-Orange-Fiesta-Sugar games with the top eight. The winners meet the next week at rotating sites. Then the Championship the third week. BCS sites get two games three out of four years, we get a champion.
What doesn’t make sense to me is why so few people are pushing for adjustments that work within the current system. For example: Let’s get every (relevant) conference to have at least 12 teams a championship game. That’s basically one round of a playoff, and it fits nice & neat in the existing structure of the BCS. BAM! everyone is happy.
Face it…it’s about the money and it is NOT just the money the bowl people make. The college football programs make a lot of dough and so do the conferences. It’s going to be that way forever. But I will say this…I won’t watch the BCS Championship game because 1) I already watched it a few weeks ago; 2) I’m not an Okie State fan but they beat more top 25 teams and beat more teams with winning records than Alabama…they should be in that game; 3) I don’t want to see a second SEC Championship game…I think it should be a National Championship game and to me that doesn’t mean two teams from the same conference that have already played. I think the only way to get the attention of the BCS (and ESPN…I think they have a lot of influence over this game since they televise it) is to not watch it. If you really want it effect change in the BCS system, then remember, it’s about money. If this game has the lowest ratings in BCS history, maybe they will make some changes. We have to send them a message.
I think the football teams should just separate from the colleges and become semi-pro teams.