It's time for a BCS Playoff System

Well, I don't know about you, but the excitement of last nights BCS National Championship Game kept me on the edge of my seat and chewing my fingernails. Not. It was all I could do to stay awake. Don't get me wrong - I love a good defensive football game almost as much as I love an offensive shoot-out. However, as the game progressed, all I could envision was the great debates that would start today regarding who really is the #1 team in College football and how to fix the system in order to answer that question.

For me, it's easy: Playoffs. When this is mentioned to the NCAA, the BCS Bowl Committee, or various other's in "the know" they quickly point out all of the reasons why there can't be a playoff. But I call "Shenanigans!" I spent three hours this afternoon checking out this years bowl game schedule, the top 25 college rankings as of Week 15, and the champions for each conference and I worked out a very simple playoff bracket making use of the existing bowl game schedule. And if I do say so myself, I'm freaking brilliant. (Yeah, you're smiling)

I based my system on a 16 team playoff: 12 conference champions and four at-large teams. To pick the at-large teams, I simply looked at the top 25 and chose the four highest ranked teams that were NOT their conference champion. I also set up the brackets so that the at-large teams are on the same side as their conference champion because, frankly, I never want to see two teams from the same conference in the National Championship Game ever again. Ever. I mean it. Done.

The only real drawback is that the current system has 35 games which means 70 different teams. In using the existing bowl schedule, and a 16 team playoff, I had to eliminate a few teams and cut back to just 56. But really, isn't 56 teams playing in the bowl games good enough? Is team #57 going to call me and threaten to beat me up? I don't think so.


So: Here's my playoff bowl list. Let me know what you think!

First Round - left

12/17 R&L Carriers Bowl
SEC Champ LSU
WAC Champ Louisiana Tech

12/17 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
ACC Champ Clemson
Independents BYU

Winners 12/27 Little Caesars Bowl (winner to Semi-Final)

12/21 SD County Credit Union
Mountain West Boise State
At-Large #1 Alabama

12/20 Beef O'Brady's Bowl
Conference USA Southern Miss
At-Large #3 Arkansas

Winners 12/28 Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl (winner to Semi-Final)

Semi-Final 01/02 Gator Bowl
(winner plays for National Championship)********************************************************************

First Round - right

12/17 Glidan New Mexico Bowl
Big 12 Champ Oklahoma State
Sun Bel Champ Arksansas State

12/22 Maaco Bowl
Pac-12 Champ Oregon
MAC Champ Northern Illinois

Winners 12/27 Belk Bowl(winner to Semi-Final)

12/24 Sheraton Bowl
Big 10 Champ Wisconsin
At-Large #2 Stanford

12/26 AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl
Big East Champ West Virginia
At-Large #4 Kansas State

Winners 12/28 Military Bowl (winner to Semi-Final)

Semi-Final 01/02 Rose Bowl
(and the chance for it to still be Pac12 vs B1G!)****************************************************************************

01/09 Allstate BCS National Championship Game
****************************************************************************
Maybe we take the Gator/Rose options and alternate years with Fiesta/Sugar or something. I'm flexible. My point is simply this.... If I could figure this out in one afternoon, what the heck is stopping the BCS folks from doing the same thing?

Respecfully Submitted,
Kate