Playoff System

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1865Jacket

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This subject just started on the hive also but I just joined both here and there and since I'm at work I can't get to my home email to join the hive chat....so anyway.

This has always been my feeling if they ever decide to use a playoff system. A playoff system is highly unlikely because of the money from the bowls. So my thought is to keep all other bowls except the ones to be used in a playoff system.

Take the top 8 teams using the regular BCS ratings(I know that the cutoff with the top eight may stir controversy if a team were left out but at least a consensus top 5 would be playing in it). Put these teams in let's say:

Gator
Peach
Cotton
Orange

1 playing 8, 2 playing 7, and so on. The winners would play in 2 of the 3 bowls which would switch off for the NC game. One year it would be

Sugar
Rose

and NC would be Fiesta and then keep switching the three so that the Sugar, Rose, and Fiesta would have NC games every 3rd year.

Anyway, keep all other bowls and let them choose teams as they always have and have them play in mid Dec. (2nd and 3rd weeks). Then have the playoff every Saturday for three weeks and be done by early-mid January.

Any opinions or other takes on it?
 
IMO, I think the easiest way to add a playoff system and keep the current bowls(so no loss of revenue) would be to let the BCS bowls matchup the top 8 teams in the BCS rankings. Then add 2 additional bowls that matched up the winners of those 4 bowls, and finally have a championship bowl matching up those 2 winners. This would add a total of 3 bowls and only require 1 addditionl game for 2 teams and 2 addditional games for 2 teams.

This is very similar to what you suggested, the difference is adding 3 new bowls. Therefore, the fans would get the playoff system and everyone else would see additional revenue.
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IMO, I think the easiest way to add a playoff system and keep the current bowls(so no loss of revenue) would be to let the BCS bowls matchup the top 8 teams in the BCS rankings. Then add 2 additional bowls that matched up the winners of those 4 bowls, and finally have a championship bowl matching up those 2 winners. This would add a total of 3 bowls and only require 1 addditionl game for 2 teams and 2 addditional games for 2 teams.

This is very similar to what you suggested, the difference is adding 3 new bowls. Therefore, the fans would get the playoff system and everyone else would see additional revenue.
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Since the controversy surrounding the nat'l title game rarely extends beyond 4 teams, e.g. Miami, Oregon, Nebraska, Colorado last year, another alternative would be to have the top four teams play in two of the major bowls (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3), let's say Sugar and Orange, and the winners play in the nat'l title game in the Rose Bowl, and then the following year a different bowl gets the champ game. That way only two teams would have an additional game. To keep the 4th major bowl happy, you would have to rotate the bowls each year so that a different bowl would miss out on the three big games each year.
 
IMO, bowls and a playoff system are never going to coexist together because of attendance concerns. Take your example with let's say Nebraska (or us, or UGA even). In consecutive weeks, they may have to travel to Jacksonville (Gator), Pasedena (Rose), and Arizona (Fiesta) if they get to the title game. The average fan is not going to be able to commit the time and money to travel to thse 3 games. For an example, look at the poor attendance at NCAA basketball regional games.

To solve, and to add more teams, the playoffs could be expanded (16 teams?) with home games for the higher seeded teams. Then have the championship game (and maybe the semis?) at a neutral site. Of course then the bowls go away or become consolation games for the teams that do not make the playoffs. IMO it would be quite a fight to put the bowls in that position, and personally I'm not optimistic about a playoff.
 
Well I'd rather give one of the suggestions above a try than give up on playoff altogether. Sounds reasonable to me. I like the 8 team variety.

Hey Dore, lose some weight or get on the porch!!
 
It will never happen, but I'd like to see a 16 team tourney. This is what they do in I-AA. Just like basketball, I'd like to see all the conference champs (11) plus 5 at large bids. Or just take the top 5 from the BCS rankings that didn't get automatic bids.

Play the tourney in the last 3 weeks of December and the first week of January. Continue to allow the other bowls to exist, I can't imagine that attendence would be any worse. The end result is more games, and more money (I would think...)

Did you know... Division 1A Football is the only NCAA sport in which the National Champion is not decided by a tournament.
 
Here is my post from yesterday on the Hive. I've yet to see a playoff scenario that wouldn't screw the fans:

I'm still literally amazed at how many fans think a playoff would be good for 1-A football? The chase for the almighty dollar is going to destroy a great sport that many of us enjoy each Fall...

Forgetting all the extra games, time away from school for players, etc arguements: We, the fans, would get royalled screwed!! Fast forward to 2007: After season ending wins over Clemson and Georgia, Georgia Tech has just completed a 12-game regular season and earned a slot in the 16-team playoff bracket. We sit back and wait for the ESPN 1-A playoff selection show to see where we are headed just like basketball. Our first round game is at Oklahoma. Great you say? A trip to Norman, Oklahoma against at Big 12 powerhouse. Win that, and one week later we get to battle the Colorado/Michigan winner in Chicago at Soldier Field. (Man this is funny, but awful expensive.) Win that... Yippee we make the final four of 1-A football: A semifinal date in Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl. Win that and we make the promised land: A national championship date in New Orleans at the Superdome.

How many alumni, fans, family of current players/coaches, would be able to afford to travel to all of these games after a 12-game season? No thanks. It's a nice little Jim Rome-ish sound bite to say we want a playoff in 1-A because all other sports' champions are determined this way. Call me an young old fart, but I'm like to think that 1-A football is different from all other sports. I will prefer to keep my one single bowl game date to a warm weather locale. Spice up the bowl league affliations/cities & more folks would be excited about the non-BCS bowl games.
 
Not having a playoff to determine a true champion in college football is totally ridiculous.
Some day, probably many years from now, they will look back at this silly system we have now and wonder who in the heck came up with this system and why the heck did the fans put up with it?
A 16 team college football playoff would be the most exciting sporting event in the world...and make all the games meaningful.
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I think everyone knows that a playoff system is the only answer to the NC problems. However there is just too much money with the bowls and conference tie-ins. I don't forsee it happening, as much as I want it to.

I say an 8-team playoff would be plenty, starting 2 weeks before New Years. 7 bowls would be included over 3 weekends, culminating on New Years weekend. Other bowls would still have their tie-ins, and could be held on whatever days they want.
 
There needs to be some kind of playoff vs. the current BCS baloney. I'm not in favor of the 16 team playoff at the expense of the bowl "system" (although I wouldn't bitch too long about it
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I'd rather see keeping the traditional rewarding of teams with good records/seasons with post season trips/play and a modification of the
present arrangement to allow for the 4 or 8 team playoffs as described above. Now as far as MONEY vs. GAG ME W/FOOTBALL is concerned I could do without 2 or 3 of the present bowls altogether. An overhaul of the entire system to include comprehensive post season play, a traditional bowl palate and a playoff of the top teams for the NC would work. That way N. Texas State, for example, w/ a 5-6 record doesn't wind up in a "bowl" game and the "Montana Bowl" doesn't wind up frantically searching for a team amongst programs that need to give it a rest while schools that do well have a bowl possibility to look forward to and we can answer with some certainty who was the better team
in the country.
 
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