Saturday spoke volumes to why we don’t need a playoff system in college football. Missouri, the best team in the country according to the BCS, got steamrolled by Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship. West Virginia, the second best team in the country according to the BCS, lost quarterback Pat White for most of the game due to a finger injury and was defeated by Pittsburgh at home.
So it’s clear who the two best teams are, right? Ohio State, Kansas, Georgia, LSU, Virginia Tech, USC, Oklahoma and yes, Hawaii all have an argument to play in the title game. Why use a playoff system to figure out which program is the best? Na – let’s just leave this decision up to a computer. That makes perfect sense.
For those in favor of the current college football system, Saturday was a disaster for you. The only thing that would have been worse for your cause would have been if Missouri and West Virginia both won, because most college football fans would be outraged if that matchup was for a national title.
If ever there was a year that screamed playoff, this is it. Ohio State will be a phony number 1 and there’s a possibility that Georgia (who isn’t even the best team in their conference) could play in the title game. Then again, LSU may leapfrog Georgia into the title game which isn’t fair to Georgia because they didn’t do anything that should cause themselves to drop, especially if Ohio State moves up to 1. Please…create a 12 team playoff system and stop trying to scam the fans by crowning a fake national champion. The regular season means everything if there are only 12 chances to get to the dance.
Untrue. The factors decidinig # 2 are unbalanced and unfair. I don’t care if it’s the doing of the BCS, the Conferences, the NCAA, or Sportswriters… It is overly subjective and unbalanced. This should be settled on the field more that it is.
My Idea: ( sent to the NCAA and BCS)
Why hasn’t a website/ movement been started to build a national movement for a Div I College Football Playoff?
Here is my idea: I sent it to the BCS, NCAA, ESPN, Fox Sports, Larry King, David Letterman, and some newspapers.
Can you comment on the top 8 teams in the BCS rankings and if you would have a problem with an 8 team, 3 round playoff with those teams. I think they should rotate the big 4 bowls annually through the first round. One year Orange, then Rose, etc… as to who has the first, second, etc. pick of the playoff match ups. Then add a semifinal round and keep the BCS Championship game
You could even give the Rose and the Sugar preference for a traditional team if they are going to be hardline about that. But must keep 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc. set up. So they will have to comprimise and often just get one traditional conference team.
Less controversy, #8 vs 9 compared to #2 vs 3 rankings.
Sincerely
David Hurtado, MD
U of Penn Football Player
1989-1992
David – I hope you know that I was being sarcastic in the title of this post. A playoff is very much needed and I like your ideas.
AS
I still think we need an “AND ONE” game set up. Lets say Ohio State beats LSU. Hawaii beats Georgia. They would both be chirrping they are number one. I say let them meet in the College Super Bowl to decide.
An “And One” setup further complicates the process. Who is to decide whether or not an additional game is necessary? Isn’t that the type of subjectivity that has gotten us into this mess in the first place?
I don’t care – a four-, six-, eight- or twelve-team playoff is fine by me. It would turn the college football postseason into December Madness (though they’d need to find a better name for it).
The reason I say ” And One ” John is because one more game is doable. To get schools to play several games in a playoff tournament won’t be accepted. The schools,students,fans,won’t be able to travel to two or three road Bowl games. There are no home games. It sounds great – to me too. But I don’t think the NCAA would be able to swing it. March Madness works because you have 6 games in the same arena in a couple of days within a region.
Lets take an example: The U of Florida plays one week in New Orleans, wins advances to the next week in California, wins and plays the Championship in Phoenix …….. I don’t see how students, fans etc – can travel to all three places in three weeks. WE would love it for tv – but it’s probably asking for too much of the NCAA. Just my opinion.
To answer your question about what team would play in the “And One” type Tournament, it would be obviously the winner of the No 1 BCS Bowl vs the winner of the Number 3 and 4 BCS game. Or, like this year – Hawaii ,being undefeated, were to win.
You are always going to have a hard time deciding on who to put in. In any situation – because the last team on the bubble can complain. Just like in the Final 65 in Hoops …. Number 66 is unhappy.
The problem is, and-one doesn’t really resolve anything other than who the best team is out of the top4 rankings. They can do a real tournament with no problem using the existing bowl game sites which will resolve their lame excuse that hotels would be a problem. They just need to stop whining about it and go do it and stop cheating the fans.
Bay24 brings up a great point about the venue comparisons of basketball v. football. He’s right – it’s unrealistic to think that students and fans are going to follow a team all over the country for consecutive weeks. However, I still think an anwser is out there and the NCAA needs to find one.
This year was just ridiculous.
Students and fans for NCAA basketball are doing the exact same thing and you stay at the designated city for 3 days if your team continues to advance. You would only need to be at a designated site for 2 days for football. Twelve teams would take 4 weeks to complete the football tournament and the NCAA basketball tournament takes 3. The only issue should be exams in December but they could schedule around that as well.
What makes NO sense at all is a team having 6-8 weeks off before playing in the championship game. Having a tournament would improve the quality of play as well. The push-back has to be coming from the bowl committees and the conference presidents. It can’t be from TV because a football tournament would make the bowl ratings skyrocket.
TRUE -
Lots of options out there – but the NCAA has the last call – and they need to do something fast ! This is a mess, and it leaves us wanting more.