With the BCS about to go to a playoff, they need to find a format that will make everyone happy. With some conferences asking that conference champions hold an edge over non-champions while others want a selection committee to pick the top 8 teams. I am a proponent of the conference champions argument because of two reasons. I feel that the regular season should hold great value and that means that if you can't win your conference championship then you don't deserve to compete for a national championship. Also, it allows teams to schedule tougher non-conference games because they will not have as much of an effect on their national championship hopes which means that we will get to see better football. I prefer an 8 team playoff over a 4 team playoff because there are currently 6 BCS conferences and I feel that you should not leave one of them out. It also means more football games and schools cannot argue that players will miss classes because they will be on winter break. Under my system conferences will be divided into 3 tiers. Tier I will consist of the top 5 conferences according to the ESPN Stats & Info Conference Power Rankings. Tier II will consist of the middle 3 and Tier III will consist of the 3 worst conferences. Conferences Now that that is handled I will now present my playoff system.
1. All playoff teams must be in the BCS top 25
My system will continue the use of the current BCS system to decide who the best teams in the country are. This rule is to prevent teams that would qualify through the following routes but are below playoff standard from lessening the quality of playoff football. If less than 8 teams qualify for playoffs because of the top 25 requirement, at large bids will be offered to teams that won their conference but did not qualify for playoffs; if no such team exists the bid would be offered to the highest ranked BCS non-qualifier. If for some reason a Tier I conference champion is not in the top 25 their spot would be handed to the highest BCS ranked team from their conference.
2. Tier I conferences have automatic qualifiers for their champion
Starting in 2013 the Tier 1 conferences will be the Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-12, Southeastern Conference, and the Mountain West Conference. The ACC and Big East were demoted from the AQs because of recent poor performance and because of the exceptional play of the Mountain West. the MWC will likely drop to Tier II after a few years because their top teams are leaving the conference.
3. 2 teams will make the playoffs from Tier II conferencs
Tier II will consist of the ACC, Big East, and Conference-USA as well as the independents. Keep in mind that the rules only guarantee 2 teams but there is a good chance that each conference will be represented because of the "Top 25" rule. Independents will qualify if they have a higher BCS ranking than 2 of the conference champions.
4. 1 team will have a semi-guaranteed playoff spot from Tier III conferences
Tier III teams will be Western Athletic Conference, Middle American Conference, and the Sun Belt. Since these are lower level conferences it is not very likely that they will send a team to playoffs.
5. How will games be played?
What is unique about my system is that the current bowl system will be kept in use. Even current bowl contracts will be respected. This could mean that #1 could meet #2 in the first round of playoffs but that shouldn't be a problem. The 4 current BCS bowls will be used for the quarter finals so the Big Ten's champion will always meet the Pac-12 champion in the Rose Bowl. The Semi Finals will be known as the BCS semifinals which will be followed by the BCS final. The quarter finals will take place over December 31st and January 1st. One game played on December 31st will be at 6pm (all times are Eastern) while January 1st would have games at noon, 3pm, and 6pm. Fitting in the semi-finals will be difficult because an attempt should be made to have the games on the weekend. Semi-finals must be a minimum of 5 days after the quarter-finals and will be held on a Friday and Saturday. The Friday game will be at 7pm and the Saturday game would be at 3 pm. There would not be a direct bracket to link teams from quarter-finals to semis but the 4 teams who survived the quarters would be paired by geographical closeness. The championship game will be held on a Saturday at 6:30 PM. With this schedule the student-athletes will be able to return to their classes because their season would be done by the end of winter break.
6. Where will games be played?
The quarter-finals will be held at BCS bowl sites because of that tie in. The Semi-Finals would be held in one stadium out of a pool of stadiums that are reserved for Semi Final play. This is to ensure that fans will be able to get to games. The reason for teams being paired by geographical closeness is so that the stadiums will be filled on game day. The Final will be held at a rotating site consisting of some of the most storied college football stadiums in America.
With this system I believe that everyone could be made happy. Fans can get to games, athletes will be back before winter break ends, conference champions will have playoff preference, and there will be a true National Champion.
No comments:
Post a Comment