I posted this last year, and now that all the games are done, I'm also posting how my playoff system would work this year. My idea, which draws on a lot of other playoff proposals, is a 16 team playoff, utilizing the current bowl system as sites for the playoff games, with the national semi-finals and final rotating between Rose, Sugar, and Orange. The 16 team field is made up of 12 automatic bids, given to the 11 conference champions and the best independent, plus four wild cards, determined by a power rating system, like the BCS formula. I would prefer to use last year's BCS formula, since that system gave far more weight to computer polls and strength of schedule, but I'll use this year's formula to keep my representation simple. The power rating system would also be used to seed the bracket 1-16. My 12 auto bids this year would go to the following champions... ACC- Virginia Tech Big East- Pittsburgh Big Ten- Michigan Big 12- Oklahoma C-USA- Louisville Indy- Notre Dame MAC- Toledo Mtn. West- Utah Pac 10- Southern California SEC- Auburn Sun Belt- North Texas WAC- Boise State My four at large teams, using the current BCS formula... Texas California Georgia LSU (We would be the last team to get in under my system :grin: ) The bowl sites for the first round Regional Playoff would be minor bowls, and the sites would be neutral but the site would be slanted more in favor of the higher seed (ie., #1 seed USC gets to play their first round game at a bowl within reasonable distance of Los Angeles, and so on). Here's how my seeding would look... Pacific Life Holiday Bowl (San Diego) 1 Southern California (12-0) 16 North Texas (7-4) Continental Tire Bowl (Charlotte, NC) 8 Virginia Tech (10-2) 9 Boise State (11-0) Emerald Bowl (San Francisco) 5 California (10-1) 12 Michigan (9-2) EV1.net Houston Bowl (Houston) 4 Texas (10-1) 13 Pittsburgh (8-3) GMAC Bowl (Mobile, AL) 3 Auburn (12-0) 14 Notre Dame (6-5) MPC Computers Bowl (Boise, ID) 6 Utah (11-0) 11 LSU (9-2) Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl (Atlanta) 7 Georgia (9-2) 10 Louisville (10-1) Independence Bowl (Shreveport, LA) 2 Oklahoma (12-0) 15 Toledo (9-3) My 2nd round bowls... Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Tempe AZ (1-16 winner vs. 8-9 winner) SBC Cotton Bowl, Dallas TX (5-12 winner vs. 4-13 winner) Capitol One Bowl, Orlando, FL (3-14 winner vs. 6-11 winner) AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Memphis, TN (2-15 winner vs. 7-10 winner) National Semi-finals Nokia Sugar Bowl, New Orleans Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA National Championship Game- Orange Bowl One little amendment; someone suggested earlier that they didn't like the idea of giving the best independent an automatic bid. I can understand that, I just did that because I think 12 and 4 are such nice, round, even numbers that work better than 11 and 5. 10 and 6 would be better, if we could get the WAC and MWC to re-merge, but that's not happening anytime soon. If you like five wild cards, just throw out Notre Dame and plug in Iowa. Your opinions please. I think it would be an awesome system, one that would give us some amazing games, make everyone some nice money, give a whole lot of schools some great national exposure, and give us a real undisputed national champion.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ lost LOSERS are ... 28 current bowls played in 26 cities Your idea ... fails to allow play of an adequate number of games ... and the networks lose $$$$$$$$$$$ 24 or 32 team playoff may be the way to go to keep everyone in a Win Win
I've thought about that. I have a solution, an imperfect solution though, but it's better than nothing. In basketball, what do you do if you fail to make the Big Dance? You go to the NIT. If this system were in place, there would also be a lot of good football teams, like 8-3 Florida State, who aren't going to the playoffs. Also, the same bowls cannot be used year after year; as different teams in different parts of the country make the playoffs year after year, we are going to need other bowls to accomodate them. My solution; keep the other bowls around, and rotate the 1st and 2nd round bowls in and out. In off years when said bowl (say, for example, the Outback Bowl) is not being used as a playoff site, it can serve the same function for football that the NIT serves for basketball; a reward destination for a team that had a good season but didn't quite make it to the playoffs. You could have Florida State and Wisconsin, for example, play in the Outback Bowl this year. Next year, the Outback Bowl can be the site of a National Playoff or National Quarterfinal game. Will these games be pretty much meaningless, just like the NIT? Yes, but no more meaningless than the very minor pre-Christmas bowls. They will come as small consolation to most non-playoff teams. And no bowl will lose that much money; they will get to host a playoff game, and all the big revenue and TV attention that will come with it, at least once every few years.
Utah is no cake-walk, especially in frigid weather. Although I think our team speed on turf gives us quite an edge, even if it is the frozen blue turf of Boise.
There's something wrong with your system if Notre Dame got in before LSU, or that ND even got in at all.
Do you think the Bowls would ever consider such a proposal? I dunno... That would have two teams playing in four different Bowls, four teams playing in at least three different Bowls, and eight teams playing in at least two different Bowls. My opinion is that the Bowls would not go for it due to concerns that the fans will not come to all of the games in large enough numbers, thereby resulting in decreases on amounts spent in their cities on tickets, hotels, restaurants, rental cars, etc... I think the only way a playoff could be done with 16 teams would be to have most of the playoff games played outside of the Bowl system. It could go something like this: #16 plays at the #1 team's home stadium, #15 plays at #2, etc. The eight winners (the "Elite Eight") would play in the four "BCS" bowls on January 1 (or they could be split up over a couple of days, if necessary, to satisfy the television networks). The "Final Four" would play on (or about) January 8, and the Championship game would be played on (or about) January 15. Both semi-final games would be played in the same city. The semi-finals and final would rotate around among cities that bid and win, as is currently done for basketball.
