Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Killing Time...Killing the System: A 16-Team Playoff

How it Would Work: Automatic bids for the champions of EVERY conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Big East, Pac Ten, SEC, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, WAC, Sun Belt) and five at-large teams would play in a 16 team tournament just like you see in Division I Football Championship Subdivision and Basketball. Games would be held at the venue of the higher seed until the Championship Game at a site of a former BCS bowl.

How it Would Play Out this Year:
16. Florida Atlantic at 1. Ohio State
15. Central Michigan at 2. LSU
14. UCF at 3. Virginia Tech
13. Brigham Young at 4. Oklahoma
12. Florida at 5. Georgia
11. Arizona State at. 6. Missouri
10. Hawai'i at 7. USC
9. West Virginia at 8. Kansas

Why it Would Work: It's December-January Madness Baby! The polls and computers would only provide a basis for at-large selection. Bowl Presidents would go homeless. Dream matchups would start in the Quarterfinals and we could all have fun speculating on that FAU-Ohio State spread. In seriousness the inclusion of the small conferences is something I really wish could be worked into any system as while it would provide for some laughers in the formative years, it could extend a parity in college football to all 119 teams and who knows we could get some REAL upsets. This is the exact formula Division I-AA has been using for years and by the way, the best team has won that tournament three years in a row (Appy State).

Why it Wouldn't Work: Some of the games, those taking place in the North could look like last Sunday in the NFL. It would be tough to fit four games in a time frame that doesn't interfere with either finals of the first semester or the beginning of the second. The players probably don't feel like playing four extra games to win a National Championship and yes, games between high seeds wouldn't be as important when you have FIVE at-large entries into the tournament. Its nice to hope the bowls could go away but they do provide a good revenue stream to the universities and to hope to see them dissolve is unrealistic where as the Plus-One and much further on down the road the 8-Team model from yesterday I could see happening in my lifetime.

With all that said, lets enjoy what we have now as it starts Thursday for if nothing else it is still college football in 32 ultimate stages with pride on the line and pageantry on display...

No comments: