T1B

After yesterday's exciting conclusion to the regular season and conference championships, we all sit around until 7 p.m. between the late afternoon NFL games and Sunday Night Football to get the announcement of the 16 team field in this year's Division IA football playoff. 11 teams already know their fate by the virtue of winning their regular season conference championship or winning their conference championship game. 5 at-larges are up for grabs with as many as a dozen teams making a legitimate claim for one of those highly coveted invites to the national championship playoff that would start next Saturday in 8 cities around the country.

The 11 teams who had won their conference titles knew they would be playing on but wondered where they would play next Saturday and against whom...

Wake Forest (11-2).....ACC champ
Oklahoma (11-2).....Big XII champ
Louisville (11-1).....Big East champ
Ohio State (12-0).....Big Ten champ
Houston (10-3).....Conference USA champ
Central Michigan (9-4).....MAC champ
BYU (10-2).....Mountain West champ
USC (10-2).....Pac-10 champ
Florida (12-1).....SEC champ
Troy (7-5).....Sun Belt champ
Boise State (12-0).....WAC champ

Teams like Michigan, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, West Virginia, Rutgers and California waited to see if their name would appear in the playoff bracket or if their season would not go any further.

The moment had arrived and the field was announced...

#1 Ohio State hosts #16 Troy
#2 Florida hosts #15 Central Michigan
#3 Michigan hosts #14 Houston
#4 Oklahoma hosts #13 BYU
#5 Louisville hosts #12 Notre Dame
#6 USC hosts #11 Wisconsin
#7 Boise State hosts #10 Arkansas
#8 Wake Forest hosts #9 LSU

For the second round in two weeks...
Winners of Ohio State-Troy and Wake Forest-LSU would play at Ford Field in Detroit
Winners of Florida-Central Michigan and Boise State-Arkansas would play at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta
Winners of Michigan-Houston and USC-Wisconsin would play at the TWA Dome in St. Louis
Winners of Oklahoma-BYU and Louisville-Notre Dame would play at Reliant Stadium in Houston

In three weeks, the winners from the Detroit and Houston games would face off in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl and the winners of the Atlanta and St. Louis games would meet at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Four weeks from now on December 30 in primetime, the two teams that advanced from the semifinals would face off in Glendale for the National Championship.

Damn! Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Oh well...enjoy that BCmesS selection show tonight to find out which two hand-picked teams will play for the national title and which 8 teams will be given a false sense of accomplishment and a big novelty check for millions of dollars. Yeah, that's what college football is all about.

I think just the top 4 will do. OSU vs Troy is a waste of time.

4 Team playoff is all you need.

8 teams would suffice.

Cicero wrote:4 Team playoff is all you need.

Until we have a season with 5 teams with the same record out of major conferences. 4 teams is a convenient idea because as of yesterday, there were 4 teams fighting for 2 spots in Glendale. We'll have a season where 3 teams are worthy and there would be 5 or 6 teams having a claim for the #4 spot.

Include all conference champions...major and mid-major and take as much of the decision-making by pollsters and computers out of play. Look at that field...9 of 11 conference champs have 10 wins or more at all 5 of the all-larges I used in my example have 10 wins or more. I wouldn't be content with just a system that only includes the major conferences and leaves the MAC, Conference USA, Sun Belt, Mountain West and WAC to sit at the little kids' table while the major conference getting the only chance to win it all.

Neck--You say Ohio State-Troy is a waste of time...then why don't we just get rid of the first round of the basketball tournament while we're at it. Let the Troys and Houstons and Central Michigans have a chance. If not, let's kick them out of Division IA and let them compete in IAA. The point is to determine the champion of Division IA...not just of the major conferences.

Shoalzie wrote:Neck--You say Ohio State-Troy is a waste of time...then why don't we just get rid of the first round of the basketball tournament while we're at it. Let the Troys and Houstons and Central Michigans have a chance. If not, let's kick them out of Division IA and let them compete in IAA. The point is to determine the champion of Division IA...not just of the major conferences.

Please dont compare basketball to football. The midmajors are very competitive in basketball. But I would somewhat agree that we could get rid of the #1 seed vs the play in team game.

Mid-majors compete in hoops because they're given a chance. Why would want to go Troy right now when you're not going to get to play on TV or compete for a national title? Gonzaga is a big name in hoops basically because of their success in the tournament and being given the opportunity to play. If you give the smaller D-IA schools something to play for, they'll have more to offer in recruiting. Instead of going to some third or fourth rate bowl game in mid-December...you can play Ohio State or Florida in the national playoffs. It's all about opportunity and giving them something to shoot for. When these small schools know from the very beginning that they can't play for anything more than a berth to an obscure bowl game...these schools won't be able to lure any quality players out of high school. Instead, in Division IA football, the major conferences have all of the power and the teams in the MAC, Conference USA, Sun Belt, WAC and Mountain West are left with the scraps. Instead of a Michigan being 3 or 4 deep at every position...these 2nd, 3rd and 4th string players could opt to go to Troy or Houston or Boise State instead and have the chance play and compete for a national title if all conferences are included in the mix. However, these teams will continue to be irrelevant until they are included in the pool of teams competing for the national championship. That evolution of the smaller conferences won't start until they are a part of the big picture.

Even in basketball the midmajors still don't win the title. Your two biggest Cinderellas, N.C. State and Villanova, came out of the ACC and Big East, two of the strongest conferences in hoops during those seasons.

Mississippi Neck is right. Ohio St-Troy is a complete waste of time. No way in hell has a team like Troy earned a chance at winning the title plus the first crack at knocking off #1. For that matter, no way in hell has a team like USC earned a crack at playing for the title. Houston? Central Michigan? BYU? Complete waste of time. None of these teams even managed to keep it down to only one loss even despite their creampuff schedules.

Four teams is all we need. Plus One. The argument as to who deserves to play in the title game has never run deeper than four teams. With USC having now gone down even this season sees only three teams having a legitimate claim, same as in '03 and '04. In order to even stretch it to four teams you have to try to build an argument for teams like Boise St and Utah, teams whose arguments are wafer thin at best...

Under CousinLust's system, I'd find something better to do with my saturdays.


That's one of the dumbest ideas I've heard yet.

Dinsdale wrote:Under CousinLust's system, I'd find something better to do with my saturdays.


That's one of the dumbest ideas I've heard yet.

I'll laugh at that because you aren't like m2 and saying it was my sister...if you're gonna mock me, at least get the story right.

My system is damn near perfect...the NFL can stick to Sunday games and the college playoff would be done before January and when the NFL playoffs start. Plus, we don't have to wait several weeks between the end of the college season and the playing of the major games around the holidays. You don't lose the momentum from the end of the season. The Buckeyes getting nearly 50 days off before the game in Glendale is a complete joke.

By the way, no one is holding a gun to your head to watch said games...you can still go out, drink and chase skirts. I do think your idea of fun is a much better alternative to watching the 31 meaningless bowl games we have now. Just give me the game in Glendale and you can keep the rest.

I have to agree with Mississippi Neck also. While I appreciate what shoalzie is trying to do with his playoff format, a team from the Sun Belt shouldn't be in the playoff scenario. It's not a fair comparison to use the NCAA Men's Basketball selection of conference champions. If you're only going to use 16 teams (which I agree with in terms of number), then having a team who finishes 7-5 defeats the purpose of other teams who would be more deserving (say Virginia Tech, West Virginia for starters).

MuchoBulls wrote:I have to agree with Mississippi Neck also. While I appreciate what shoalzie is trying to do with his playoff format, a team from the Sun Belt shouldn't be in the playoff scenario. It's not a fair comparison to use the NCAA Men's Basketball selection of conference champions. If you're only going to use 16 teams (which I agree with in terms of number), then having a team who finishes 7-5 defeats the purpose of other teams who would be more deserving (say Virginia Tech, West Virginia for starters).

I get that a 7-5 team doesn't sound like a team that should play for the national title but let's say Troy went 9-3 or 10-2...would you still feel the same way? I did make them a #16 seed for a reason. Not every year will the Sun Belt or the MAC champ have fewer than 10 wins. It just shakes out that way. I made the choice to included ALL conference champions and still allow some at large teams to get in. I'll say it once and I'll say it again...this is Division IA playoff, so include everyone in Division IA and not just the teams we want to see on TV. These small conferences will continue to be considered meaningless and insignificant until you let them into the party. In all systems prior...no team from a small conference would ever get a chance at the national title. Just ask Utah a few years ago and Boise State this year. If you can go undefeated after a college football season and not get to play for the whole ball of wax...you've got a problem. While including the winners from the MAC and Sun Belt this year doesn't sound like a good idea this year...there will be years where they will have better records than 7-5 and 9-4. The idea is to come up with a system that doesn't always have to be re-adjusted every year because someone got screwed or someone didn't belong. If you want to make the two worst teams play-in...that's an idea. The point is to give one spot at the party to each conference and still allow extra teams who had quality seasons to get in if they didn't win their conference.

I get that a 7-5 team doesn't sound like a team that should play for the national title but let's say Troy went 9-3 or 10-2...would you still feel the same way?

Uhhh...

Yeah, I think we would. In fact, I think we need to find a new catch phrase for something with this level of obviousness.

-M.A.

Pretty easy solution to use 2 of the 4 major bowls as "Semifinal" games (rotate them every year) then Play the "BCS Championship" game the following week.

The problem is the colleges, for whatever reason, don't want the extra game.

Go Figure