Adidas410s
12-06-2006, 01:46 PM
Every year this topic comes up...and it's getting even louder this year. I've had a few thoughts on potential problems that would arise from the commonly suggested 8-team playoff.
1. Do you give a bid to the Top 8 teams as determined by the BCS computer...or do you give an automatic bid to each conference winn and then include 2 at-large teams? Consider these scenarios...
Top 8 BCS teams
#1 Ohio State vs #8 Boise State
#2 Florida vs #7 Wisconsin
#3 Michigan vs #6 Louisville
#4 LSU vs #5 USC
This breaks down into 3 Big 10, 2 SEC, and 1 school from the Pac-10, Big East, and the WAC. Obviously, the Big 12 and ACC would never go for such a system.
Now, let's try it with the conference champs + 2 at large teams:
Automatic Bid system
#1 Ohio State vs #4 LSU (8 seed)
#2 Florida vs #3 Michigan (7 seed)
#5 USC (3 seed) vs #14 Wake Forest (6 seed)
#6 Louisville (4 seed) vs #10 Oklahoma (5 seed)
Because of the automatic bids...you would now be leaving out Top 9 ranked teams like #7 Wisconsin, #8 Boise State, and #9 Auburn...all of which are ranked ahead of two of the conference champs. This leads to the 2nd problem:
2. Conference commissioners will not agree to a system that takes away the guaranteed $13+ million payday from their conference. They will insist on on having the automatic bids. However, anytime a situation like this occurs where a team ranked outside of the top 8 (think 2004 Boston College at #23 as the Big East Champ) gets into the playoff...then numerous schools will cry foul and say that they're getting screwed.
3. What about Notre Dame??? They still refuse to join a conference in football. They still have the largest fan base in the country (and the largest anti-fan base too) and some sort of exemption has to be established for them. Do you give ND an automatic bid into the playoffs if they finish in the Top 8, Top 10, or Top 12??? Say they had finished #8 this year instead of Boise State. Then they would've gotten into the playoffs at 10-2 (with 2 BAD, BAD, BAD losses to USC and Michigan) while a #4 LSU and #7 Wisconsin would end up being left out of the playoff. So would we really be better off???
4. What about the non-major conferences?? Even the 8-team playoff that this year would've gotten Boise State in at #8 would still be complained about by these conferences. They already feel that they are at a disadvantage because of public perception and the fact that every year they will start much lower in the polls and their good wins will not move them up the polls and they will often find themselves jumped by a major school that may have 2 losses but goes out and gets a good win. This issue would still continue.
Solution
Obviously there is no perfect solution. However, I don't think that the 8 team playoff is the answer. I would propose taking on a system similar to that of Div 2 and Div 3. All 11 major conference champions get an automatic bid. You play a 10 + 1 season...with the +1 being aconference championship or a traditional non-conference rivalry games such as USC/ND, Army/Navy, etc If Notre Dame (or any other independent) finishes in the Top 16 in the BCS rankings...then they are given a bid. That now gets us to 12 teams. We then take the 12 highest ranked schools in the BCS rankings that do not have guaranteed bids...and they too are into the playoffs. We then break things down into the 4 region (as much as is possible) system that the lower conferences use. One "clause" is that two teams from the same conference CANNOT play each other in the 1st round of games. The top 2 teams in each bracket are given a bye into the 2nd round and they will host their 2nd round playoff games. The first 2 rounds of games are held at the home site of the higher seeded team. The 4 quarterfinal games are held at the premier Tier 2 bowls (Peach, Cotton, Holiday, and probably the Gator) The semifinal games are played at two of the 4 major bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, Rose) and then a championship AND third place game are played at the other two locations.
Under my system, this year's bracket would look something like this: http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/1527/playoffbracketbw4.jpg
I did move a few teams around for travel purposes and tried to fit the 4 quarterfinal bowls as best as I could. The regions went as followed
Ohio State Bracket
1 - Ohio State
2 - Louisville
3 - Arkansas
4 - Rutgers
5 - BYU
6 - Troy St
LSU Bracket
1 - LSU
2 - USC
3 - Auburn
4 - West Virginia
5 - California
6 - Texas A&M
Florida Bracket
1 - Florida
2 - Wisconsin
3 - Notre Dame
4 - Wake Forest
5 - Texas
6 - Houston
Michigan Bracket
1 - Michigan
2 - Boise State
3 - Oklahoma
4 - Virginia Tech
5 - Tennessee
6 - Ohio
1. Do you give a bid to the Top 8 teams as determined by the BCS computer...or do you give an automatic bid to each conference winn and then include 2 at-large teams? Consider these scenarios...
Top 8 BCS teams
#1 Ohio State vs #8 Boise State
#2 Florida vs #7 Wisconsin
#3 Michigan vs #6 Louisville
#4 LSU vs #5 USC
This breaks down into 3 Big 10, 2 SEC, and 1 school from the Pac-10, Big East, and the WAC. Obviously, the Big 12 and ACC would never go for such a system.
Now, let's try it with the conference champs + 2 at large teams:
Automatic Bid system
#1 Ohio State vs #4 LSU (8 seed)
#2 Florida vs #3 Michigan (7 seed)
#5 USC (3 seed) vs #14 Wake Forest (6 seed)
#6 Louisville (4 seed) vs #10 Oklahoma (5 seed)
Because of the automatic bids...you would now be leaving out Top 9 ranked teams like #7 Wisconsin, #8 Boise State, and #9 Auburn...all of which are ranked ahead of two of the conference champs. This leads to the 2nd problem:
2. Conference commissioners will not agree to a system that takes away the guaranteed $13+ million payday from their conference. They will insist on on having the automatic bids. However, anytime a situation like this occurs where a team ranked outside of the top 8 (think 2004 Boston College at #23 as the Big East Champ) gets into the playoff...then numerous schools will cry foul and say that they're getting screwed.
3. What about Notre Dame??? They still refuse to join a conference in football. They still have the largest fan base in the country (and the largest anti-fan base too) and some sort of exemption has to be established for them. Do you give ND an automatic bid into the playoffs if they finish in the Top 8, Top 10, or Top 12??? Say they had finished #8 this year instead of Boise State. Then they would've gotten into the playoffs at 10-2 (with 2 BAD, BAD, BAD losses to USC and Michigan) while a #4 LSU and #7 Wisconsin would end up being left out of the playoff. So would we really be better off???
4. What about the non-major conferences?? Even the 8-team playoff that this year would've gotten Boise State in at #8 would still be complained about by these conferences. They already feel that they are at a disadvantage because of public perception and the fact that every year they will start much lower in the polls and their good wins will not move them up the polls and they will often find themselves jumped by a major school that may have 2 losses but goes out and gets a good win. This issue would still continue.
Solution
Obviously there is no perfect solution. However, I don't think that the 8 team playoff is the answer. I would propose taking on a system similar to that of Div 2 and Div 3. All 11 major conference champions get an automatic bid. You play a 10 + 1 season...with the +1 being aconference championship or a traditional non-conference rivalry games such as USC/ND, Army/Navy, etc If Notre Dame (or any other independent) finishes in the Top 16 in the BCS rankings...then they are given a bid. That now gets us to 12 teams. We then take the 12 highest ranked schools in the BCS rankings that do not have guaranteed bids...and they too are into the playoffs. We then break things down into the 4 region (as much as is possible) system that the lower conferences use. One "clause" is that two teams from the same conference CANNOT play each other in the 1st round of games. The top 2 teams in each bracket are given a bye into the 2nd round and they will host their 2nd round playoff games. The first 2 rounds of games are held at the home site of the higher seeded team. The 4 quarterfinal games are held at the premier Tier 2 bowls (Peach, Cotton, Holiday, and probably the Gator) The semifinal games are played at two of the 4 major bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, Rose) and then a championship AND third place game are played at the other two locations.
Under my system, this year's bracket would look something like this: http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/1527/playoffbracketbw4.jpg
I did move a few teams around for travel purposes and tried to fit the 4 quarterfinal bowls as best as I could. The regions went as followed
Ohio State Bracket
1 - Ohio State
2 - Louisville
3 - Arkansas
4 - Rutgers
5 - BYU
6 - Troy St
LSU Bracket
1 - LSU
2 - USC
3 - Auburn
4 - West Virginia
5 - California
6 - Texas A&M
Florida Bracket
1 - Florida
2 - Wisconsin
3 - Notre Dame
4 - Wake Forest
5 - Texas
6 - Houston
Michigan Bracket
1 - Michigan
2 - Boise State
3 - Oklahoma
4 - Virginia Tech
5 - Tennessee
6 - Ohio