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 13-game regular season that would span 15 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 two non-conference games. Also, I would not allow games against FCS/D-IAA teams to count toward bowl eligibility.
For 2008 the regular season would run from Saturday, Aug. 23 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
#3 Texas vs. #14 East Carolina
#6 Utah vs. #11 (really #12) Cincinnati
#7 Texas Tech vs. #10 Ohio State
#2 Florida vs. #15 Buffalo
As for the championship game, I propose it be rotated amongst the ’sudo-BCS’ sites below. The title game would rotate between the metro areas of Los Angeles (Rose Bowl), Phoenix (U. of P. Stadium), Dallas (Cowboys Stadium), New Orleans (Superdome), Jacksonville (Jacksonville Stadium), and Miami (Dolphin Stadium).
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 (Oregon) vs. Big 10 #1 (Michigan State)
Fiesta Bowl – Pac 10 #2 (Oregon State) vs. ACC #2 (Georgia Tech)
Cotton Bowl – Big 12 #2 (Missouri) vs. SEC #2 (Mississippi)
Sugar Bowl – SEC #1 (Georgia) vs. Big East #1 (Pittsburgh)
Orange Bowl – Big 12 #1 (Oklahoma State) vs. ACC #1 (Boston College)
Gator – Big 10 #2 (Northwestern) vs. Big East #2 (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.
