My title plan (2009 edition)

With the D-IA college football regular season over and the final BCS standings released it is time for the run-down of what would be my national championship plan for college football.

I first posted this proposal last year and got good feedback, so below are the 2009 scenarios.  For a complete description of what’s going on here see below for the post from last year.

Before getting to the match-ups, here are a few notes on how the schedule would play out this year.  The 12-game regular season spanning 14 weeks would begin Aug. 29 and end Nov. 28.  The national bye week would be Dec. 5.  The round of 16 would be played Dec. 12, the round of 8 on Dec. 19, the semifinals on Dec. 26, and the title game would be on Jan. 2, 2010.

The Tournament

Here are the qualifying teams for the tournament:

ACC – Georgia Tech                                                       Big East – Cincinnati

Big 10 – Ohio State                                                         Big 12 – Texas

CUSA - East Carolina                                                    MWC - TCU

MAC – Central Michigan                                             Pac 10 – Oregon

SEC – Alabama                                                                Sun Belt – Troy

WAC – Boise State

The at-large picks are:

Florida, Iowa, Virginia Tech, LSU, and Penn State

The Bracket

#1 Alabama vs. #16 Troy

#8 Ohio State vs. #9 Georgia Tech

#5 Florida vs. #12 (really #13) Penn State

#4 TCU vs. #13 (really #12) LSU

#6 Boise State vs. #11 Virginia Tech

#3 Cincinnati vs. #14 East Carolina

#7 Oregon vs. #10 Iowa

#2 Texas vs. #15 Central Michigan

The Bowls

Here are the ’sudo-BCS’ match-ups:

Rose Bowl – Oregon State vs. Wisconsin

Fiesta Bowl – Arizona vs. Miami

Cotton Bowl - Oklahoma State vs. Tennessee

Sugar Bowl – Mississippi vs. West Virginia

Orange Bowl – Nebraska vs. Clemson

Gator Bowl – Northwestern vs. Pittsburgh

And the bowls that would accept the first round playoff losers:

Insight Bowl – Texas Tech vs. Georgia Tech

Sun Bowl – Rutgers vs. Iowa

Alamo Bowl – Michigan State vs. Virginia Tech

Independence Bowl – BYU vs. LSU

Liberty Bowl – Nevada vs. Penn State

Chick-Fil-A Bowl – Georgia vs. East Carolina

Capital One Bowl – Boston College vs. Central Michigan

Holiday Bowl – Stanford vs. Troy

My title plan

With the FBS/D-IA college football regular season over, I have taken it upon myself to solve that national championship problem.  As the only NCAA division without a playoff and also a tradition-laden system of bowls that isn’t going away, below is my ‘hybrid’ plan for a new D-IA post-season.

The Regular Season

Before writing about altering the post-season, I believe the regular season needs some standardization.  Since, under my plan, all conference title games would be abolished I propose a standard 12-game regular season that would span 14 weeks.  That would provide for two ‘open dates’ over the course of the season.  Also, should 12-team leagues desire, they could play a full 11-game conference schedule and still have one non-conference game.  Also, I would not allow games against FCS/D-IAA teams to count toward bowl eligibility.

The 2008 regular season would run from Saturday, Aug. 30 to Sat, Nov. 29.  Those dates are determined by…….

The Tournament

I propose a 16-team post-season tournament that would span four weekends.  The championship game would be played the first Saturday after Jan. 1.  If Jan. 1 falls on a Saturday, then that would be the day of the title game.  For the 2008 season, the title game would be played on Jan. 3, 2009. 

After a national bye week Sat., Dec. 6, the tournament would begin with a round of 16 on Sat., Dec. 13.  The round of eight would be played Sat., Dec. 20, the round of four on Sat., Dec. 27.

All FBS/D-IA conferences would be represented in the tournament with an automatic bid for the champion.  For 2008 those would be:

ACC – Virginia Tech                                    Big East – Cinicinnati

Big 10 – Penn State                                      Big 12 – Oklahoma

CUSA – East Carolina                                  MWC – Utah

MAC – Buffalo                                                Pac 10 – USC

SEC – Florida                                                  Sun Belt – Troy

WAC – Boise State

With 11 automatic bids, that leaves five at-large spots.  Those would be selected using the current BCS standings.  So the at-large spots go to:

Texas, Alabama, Texas Tech, Ohio State, and TCU.

The seeding would also be done using the current BCS standings with the caveat that teams from the same conference could not meet in the first round.  That would impact this season’s field because Utah and TCU would play in the first round if the seedings were strictly followed.  However, since that match-up would not be allowed TCU is dropped one seed (to #12) and Cincinnati is moved up one seed (to #11). 

 The top seeded team in each match-up would host.  That would be true of the first three rounds.  Only the championship game would be played at a neutral site.  So….

#1 Oklahoma vs. #16 Troy

#8 Penn State vs. #9 Boise State

#5 USC vs. #12 (really #11) TCU

#4 Alabama vs. #13 Virginia Tech

#6 Utah vs. #11 (really #12) Cincinnati

#3 Texas vs. #14 East Carolina

#7 Texas Tech vs. #10 Ohio State

#2 Florida vs. #15 Buffalo

As for the championship game, I propose it be played at a neutral site and bid for in the same fashion as the Final Four.

Let the playoff begin!  Don’t think, however, that this 16-team playoff would be the extent of the postseason.  Far from it.  There are still……..

The Bowls

While I believe that all conferences that play FBS/D-IA football should have the opportunity to play for a championship, I also believe that it is naive to think that the level of play of most non-BCS schools is anywhere near that of the majority of the BCS programs. 

With that bias in mind, I propose a ’sudo-BCS’ that would see quality match-ups from current BCS conference teams that DO NOT make the 16-team playoff.  The ’sudo-BCS’ games would be the Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, Sugar, Orange, and Gator Bowls.  The four current BCS games are kept and the Cotton and Gator area added because of their historical significance.  The match-ups for these games would not change from year to year.  Here are the match-ups I propose and the teams that would fill the slots this season:

Rose Bowl – Pac 10 #1 available (Oregon) vs. Big 10 #1 available (Michigan State)

Fiesta Bowl – Pac 10 #2 available (Oregon State) vs. ACC #2 available (Georgia Tech)

Cotton Bowl – Big 12 #2 available (Missouri) vs. SEC #2 available (Mississippi)

Sugar Bowl – SEC #1 available (Georgia) vs. Big East #1 available (Pittsburgh)

Orange Bowl – Big 12 #1 available (Oklahoma State) vs. ACC #1 available (Boston College)

Gator Bowl - Big 10 #2 available (Northwestern) vs. Big East #2 available (West Virginia)

After this first tier of bowl games, I propose a second tier of eight games that would select only half their participants prior to the start of the 16-team playoff.  The other half would be the teams that lost in the first round of the playoff.  This is done to ensure that the teams that lose in the first round still get to practice and play late into December, just as is the case for the rest of the playoff teams and the rest of the bowl teams. 

So, let’s say the seeds hold and Troy, Boise State, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, East Carolina, TCU, Ohio State, and Buffalo lose.  They would then go to some combination of the below games (I have not selected these bowls for any particular reason.  They’re just eight that span the breadth of the country.)  Also, these bowls would rotate the first through eighth picks each year.  So, the bowl with the first pick this season would get the eighth pick next year, the seventh the year after, and so on and so forth.  I have made the selections based on the highest seeds in the playoff getting picked first (i.e. #9 Boise St. is the first pick while #16 Troy is the last pick).  I have also projected the preplayoff selection the bowl would make:

Holiday Bowl - Cal (top available Pac 10) vs. Boise State

Insight Bowl – Nebraska (top available Big 12) vs. Ohio State

Sun Bowl - Rutgers (top available Big East) vs. TCU 

Alamo Bowl - Iowa (top available Big 10) vs. Cincinnati

Independence Bowl - BYU (top available MWC) vs. Virginia Tech

Liberty Bowl - Louisiana Tech (top available WAC) vs. East Carolina

Chick-Fil-A Bowl - LSU (top available SEC) vs. Buffalo

Capital One Bowl - Florida State (top available ACC) vs. Troy

As for all the other bowls… keep them.   Let teams that are eligible experience the postseason even if they are not part of a playoff.