First, my assumptions…
There will be an eight-team playoff, with the six BCS-conference champs getting an automatic bid. If a conference champ has three or more losses on the season, they give up their automatic bid and it becomes an at-large bid.
Seeds and at-large bids are distributed based on the current BCS standings. Certainly, these standings can be tweaked, but they are fine for now. If an at-large team has a better BCS ranking than a conference champion, they will get a higher seed.
There will be three rounds of playoffs. The first round will be held at the home stadium of the higher-seeded team. The semifinals and the finals will rotate amongst the four BCS cities (Miami, Pasadena, Tempe and New Orleans).
And off we go…
#8 Cincinnati @ #1 Alabama
#5 Oklahoma @ #4 Florida
#7 Penn State @ #2 Texas Tech
#6 USC @ #3 Texas
Unfortunately, #7-ranked Utah wouldn’t make the cut because #19 Cincinnati finished with just two losses (assuming they win out, of course) and #8 Penn State won the Big Ten with just one loss. The Utes would have a shot to move up with a win over BYU along with a loss by one or more of the teams ahead of them.
There were three at-large bids (since the ACC winner had at least three losses) and those bids went to Texas, Florida and Oklahoma.
Of course, as the season winds down, the BCS rankings will stay fluid, so we’ll re-visit this potential playoff schedule once the regular season is over.
So how does it look?
