It wasn't nearly as tough as I thought it would be, but I didn't watch one play of the BCS Fraudulent game last night. Based on comments I've heard today and read on twitter, doesn't sound like I missed too much. Perhaps the most interesting thing this bowl season has been the decline in TV ratings and attendance. Perhaps the powers that be are finally getting the message. It looks like the plus 1 formula will be coming soon, which isn't great, but at least an improvement. But since the season has now come to a close, let's think about what could have been. I agree with the authors of Death to the BCS that a 16 team playoff, with games on home campuses until the title game, is the best method. The other levels of college football use this system and despite what critics say, it can work at the FBS level. I won't get into all the arguments here, just go read the book. The primary reason I like this method is it gives every school a chance. Each conference champion is in the playoff and joined by the top 5 teams that do not win their conference. There is no limit to the number of teams from any given conference either. If this system were in place for this season, here is what the playoff bracket would have looked like.
1)LSU
16)Arkansas State
8)Kansas State
9)Wisconsin
5)Oregon
12)Southern Mississippi
13)West Virginia
4)Stanford
3)Oklahoma State
14)Louisiana Tech
6)Arkansas
11)TCU
7)Boise State
11)Clemson
15)Northern Illinois
2)Alabama
See any interesting matchups there? I would be very excited to see Boise getting to host a team from a BCS conference in a game that really meant something along with Stanford, led by Andrew Luck, hosting WVU, where his father is the athletic director.
While this is the method I think is the most fair, I also realize it will probably never happen in my lifetime. And while I am a big fan of the traditions in college football, I no longer believe that conference alignment is one of those. With the changes that have taken place recently, it is obvious that the schools don't truly care about this either. That is why I came up with my own system of aligning teams. The basic premise of my system is that during the regular season, teams in a division play the same teams. Currently, teams competing for a division title are often not playing comparable schedules. This year, for instance, Georgia didn't play any of the top three teams from the SEC West, which were clearly superior to the other three. South Carolina, on the other hand, did have to play Arkansas, and lost. As it turns out, the Gamecocks finished one game behind the Bulldogs. Now, we never know what would have happened had both teams played the same schedule, but it hardly seems just to determine champions in such an unfair way. That being said, here is my model for the new college football.
Mid-East
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Notre Dame
Boston College
Cincinnati
Indiana
Purdue
Wisconsin
Penn State
Pittsburgh
West Virginia
Virginia Tech
Virginia
Syracuse
Connecticut
Rutgers
Navy
South
Florida State
Miami(Florida)
Florida
Tennessee
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Wake Forest
Louisville
Kentucky
Alabama
Auburn
LSU
South Carolina
Clemson
N.C. State
North Carolina
Maryland
South Florida
Mid-West
Nebraska
Arkansas
TCU
Missouri
Kansas State
Kansas
Illinois
Northwestern
Minnesota
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Vanderbilt
Baylor
West
Arizona
Arizona State
Utah
BYU
Air Force
Colorado
Iowa
Iowa State
Boise State
USC
UCLA
California
Stanford
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State
Fresno State
The idea with this system is that each team plays the other 8 within their division and they play 3 other games against teams from another conference, but not from the division within their conference. Division champs are determined by division record and the two champs meet up for the Conference championship, essentially the first round of an 8 team playoff. Yes, I realize that is only 11 games, which is really what college football should get back to. One argument against a playoff is the number of games, but college presidents had no problem adding a 12th game when it meant another home game and more money. Bowl games could still exist and be filled by all the teams eligible that don't make the final four. I also like the idea of the European soccer leagues that drop and add teams based on performance. Teams that finish last in their division drop out and the teams not included here will get a chance, based on being successful on the field. This will help eliminate schools benefiting from success decades ago and will reward schools getting it done.
So there it is, my elaborate plan for college football. Let me hear what an idiot I am.
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