College Playoff

Oh8ch · #1 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 12:57 PM

Noticed that one of the other threads was turning into a discussion of that ever popular message board topic - a playoff for CFB. I thought this board should have a thread dedicated to the topic, so here goes -

I have very strong feelings on the issue. I think anything more than a four team playoff has the same effect it has had in every other major sport - it diminishes the importance of the regular season. CFB is the ONLY major sport where every game every week is important. A playoff system would change that. I honestly do not understand what folks think we are getting in return. Certinaly playoffs are exciting. If you want to ignore CFB until the end of December and then watch a 'tournament' a playoff is perfect.

I like watching the entire season knowing that the Miami-West Virginia, USC-California, and OSU-SDSU games held the NC in the balance.

How can you improve on a 16 week playoff system that starts the end of August and includes hundreds of games?

Hubbard · #2 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 01:09 PM

I would hate to see playoffs!!! That is part of the fun of D1 College football watchign the other teams to see if they lose. If the games didn't mean anything I wouldn't look forward to Saturdays in the fall as much.

daddyphatsacs · #3 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 02:25 PM

I'm for a 14 team playoff system. You still keep the BCS formula that is around today. Here goes.....

All major conference champs get an automatic birth into the playoffs. The conferences that particpate would be Big 10, Big 12, Big East, ACC, MAC, Conf. USA, Pac 10, SEC, WAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt. That would leave 3 at large bids available, those would go to the highest BCS ranked teams. Also it would eliminate the bitching of those small schools who feel like they get shafted.

The 1 and 2 ranked BCS teams get an automatic bye week one. The seeding would comprise of the final BCS standings. The first week would be played on the home turf of the higher seeded team. Week two would be played on the higher seeded team's home turf. Week 3 would be played at neutral sites, I'm thinking of a rotating BCS stadium scenario. The same thing would apply for the national championship game, for example this years title game would be played at the Sugar Bowl.

You still could play the conference championships and start the playoffs around the week of the 13th of December (in this year's case).

Any teams that are left out of the playoff scenario would still be eligible for any bowl games. This is a radical idea that would totally overhaul the college bowl system. How fun would it be to watch this all unfold? The only problem is that any bowl tradition would be thrown out the window for the most part.

Money would not be an issue because these guys would pack the fans in.

LightningRod · #4 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 02:41 PM

A major issue that needs addressed is what the universities will do with the length of the regular season schedule. Div 1-AA teams play a 10 game max regular season schedule. Will the Div 1 schools likewise reduce their regular season schedules to a max of 10? 11? A reduction in the number of games would most likely come from the OOC schedule. And for most of the larger Div 1 programs, OOC games tend to be home games. The end result is a great deal of lost revenue for the schools that at least do not make the playoffs. Given the fact that in a great number of cases football revenues support the remainder of a university's athletic programs, there will be quite a bit of resistance by many universities to reduce the number of regular season games.

It would be easy to say the Div 1 schools could keep th eregular season as it is with a chance of some teams playing up to 16 games when factoring in playoff games. That is going to be a hard sell to the administrators.

diehardbuckeye · #5 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 03:20 PM

sacs- The problem with making so many of the games on home turf is that you will run into "blizzard" like games. Part of the reason that so many fans travel to bowl games is the fact that most of them are in sunny Flordia or Arizona. Most fans don't want to sit out in that kind of cold in the begining of December and you know all of the southern and cali schools would complain of the weather and travel across the nation in just a week. The "midwest" is about half way any which way you look at. Domes make it nice and comfy. Let me put a disclaimer here, FOOTBALL WAS MEANT TO BE PLAYED OUTSIDE IN THE ELEMENTS. But you know that TV, and some conferences are going to gripe about having to be outside in that.
My thoughts on the smaller conferences, play better competion if you don't want to get left out. It happened to Miami a couple of years ago for scheduling McNesse St instead of a decent school. That is also going to mean that you are most likely going to have to trade a 2 for 1 but look how much better that turned out for SDSU, they made money as do tOSU. I am not even suggesting scheduling tOSU or even the "big dogs" but would people have felt worse for TCU this year if say they had even a MSU, or OkSU on their schedule beat them and then lost in their conference. The approach that I like best is to be the best you have to play the best.
The problem though that I have seen in my plan in the prior thread that this is talked about in is cutting the season. The AD and admins don't want to give up that $$$ that they get guarnteed to get with a home game say at the Shoe or even the Swamp.

daddyphatsacs · #6 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 03:31 PM

diehardbuckeye,

You bring up some great points. I just kind of cooked up a system that I had sitting in the back of my head for a while. There are many, many flaws with my scenario. The December thing is an excellent point. In fact, Bowling Green and Miami, OH will be finding out first hand what its like to play football in Ohio in the month of Decmber tomorrow night.

It all comes down to money in the end.

gbearbuck · #7 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 04:03 PM

I vote for playoffs (wen it matters what my vote is, send me my ballet and I'll vote for playoffs

)

In the short term, I think putting the #4 and #1 BcS team into one bowl game and having the #2 and #3 into another bowl game, and have a final bowl two weeks after the new year that matches the two winners...

that would at least be a start... and we might actually see that come to fruitation in a few years... think baby steps...

MililaniBuckeye · #8 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 04:13 PM

LR: Div I-AA are not limited to a 10-game regular season. YSU just played a 12-games season (5-7), as did Illinois State (and that's just in the Gateway Conference...I didn't check other I-AA teams). YSU played 15-game seasons (including playoffs) six times in nine years and they fared OK.

I think the playoffs should be a 16-team format just like I-AA, II, and III. If they start in the middle of December, they could use some of the lower/mid tier bowl games as venues for the first rounds (I'm sure that the Music City Bowl and Poulan Weedeater Bowl would prefer to have #1 vs #16 or #8 vs #9 rather than two unranked 7-4 or 6-5 teams). Second-round (quarter-final) games would be played in the higher-tiered bowls at least a week before New Year's Day. The semi-finals would be played on New Year's Day at two of the four current BCS bowls, while the other two get "consolation games" (losers of the quarter-finals). The title game would be played at a rotating venue (like the Super Bowl). I originally thought out about having one of the four BCS bowls host the title game, but they most likely would not want to move their bowl to the second week of January.