Why Were Heading Closer to a Playoff In College Football
By Editorial Staff
The BCS has had tons of controversy in recent years. There is even talk that once the SEC goes to 16 teams they will use 4 separate divisions having the 4 SEC Winners play it out for the SEC Championship because it would generate more money and ratings.
Lets look at the current BCS dating back to 1998-1999 and how its worked up until today.
1998-1999 BCS looked better over the previous system as #1 Tennessee defeated #2 Florida State
1999-2000 #1Florida State faced #2 Virginia Tech. The BCS was 2 for 2.
2000-2001 Oklahoma defeated Florida State for the title game. Florida State lost to Miami FL in head to head play. Some believe could have defeated Oklahoma if the Hurricanes faced the Sooners for the Title Game. 2001-2002 was the first of many BCS seasons to come that would cause controversy
2001-2002 Miami FL was flat out the best team. One has to wonder if Colorado would have scored more than Nebraska as Colorado won the Big 12 and beat Nebraska despite not getting into the National Title Game. Colorado lost to Oregon, but you still wonder how they would have faired against Miami FL. Tennessee could have played Miami FL for the Title if they beat LSU. LSU won their bowl game so you really wonder if the BCS got it right that year.
2002-2003 The BCS got it right here. The 2 best teams played and the Ohio State VS Miami FL BCS title game may have been the best BCS Championship game of all time as #2 Ohio State beat #1 Miami FL in overtime.
2003-2004 A one loss LSU team split the title with a 1 loss USC team. Oklahoma was 11-0 and got to play for the Title despite losing to 12th ranked LSU.
2004-2005 USC was the best team in 2004. I do feel like an unbeaten Auburn team got robbed to play USC year.
2005-2006 The BCS got it right here. Another awesome title game featuring Texas and USC.
2006-2007 The BCS got it right with Florida because they ended up beating unbeaten Ohio State. One loss Michigan lost their bowl game to USC.
2007-2008 Everyone knocked each other out. Its hard to argue against the BCS that year.
2008-2009 BCS had 1 loss Florida VS 1 loss Oklahoma even though you could have made the case for Texas because the Longhorns defeated Oklahoma in head to head play. Still, the BCS got it right knowing Florida was the nations best team.
2009-2010 BCS got it right knowing Alabama was the nations best team Its hard to say who the 2nd best team was.
2010-2011 Auburn and Oregon deserved to play for the title, but one has to wonder how an unbeaten TCU with Andy Dalton would have fared against Newton considering the fact that the Bengals are 6-2 with Andy Dalton. I feel like Stanford would have had a shot to beat Auburn because the Cardinal had Andrew Luck, still you cannot say Stanford deserved to play over Oregon because Oregon beat Stanford last season.
Only 4 times in a 13 year span has their been no remote debate about who the country’s 2 best teams are.
Right now here is the top 5 round up. Unbeaten LSU is #1, Oklahoma State is #2, one loss Alabama is #3, Stanford is #4, and Boise State is #5. You have Oklahoma 6th, Arkansas 7th, and Oregon 8th. Those teams ranked 6th through 8th each have one loss.
The Cardinal are the only non SEC team with a fighting chance against LSU in the BCS Title Game. I am tired of seeing the National Title feature an SEC powerhouse and a team from a power conference who has no chance of winning against the SEC play for the Championship game. Give us an Alabama VS LSU rematch. A game between Stanford VS LSU featuring Andrew Luck against an NFL caliber secondary with LSU. I’m also okay with Boise State VS LSU because I want to see if Boise could beat LSU. Boise defeated Georgia so they should get their shot if Georgia makes it to Atlanta for the SEC title game.
I do not want an Oregon VS LSU week 1 rematch or a winner of the Oklahoma VS Oklahoma State game against LSU. I know firsthand that any of those 3 teams would fall to LSU. Knowing the BCS and their track record for the National Title were probably going to end up with one of those match ups.
It seems like in recent years we see an SEC team go up against a team with no remote chance against an SEC team rather than seeing the 2 best teams play for the Title. This is why College Football needs a playoff. Its almost like a bunch of people who sponsor these BCS bowl games are in a top secret boardroom and they ask themselves. What BCS Title game would cause the most controversy among the fans? Then we end up watching that game every year.
The SEC was the first conference to have a championship. With all the revenue they have generated over the years, the SEC will also be the first Super Conference that influences why College Football should have a playoff down the road. There was an article in the New York Times recently on how the SEC wants to use 4 separate divisions once they get to 16 teams. Below is my guess on what those 16 teams and 4 divisions look like
SEC North: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Missouri
SEC South: Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas A&M
SEC East: Louisville, Kentucky, LSU, Arkansas
SEC West: Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State
This would create the NCAA’s first Super Conference. 4 divisions with 4 teams. The SEC would have each team play 8 SEC games and 4 non conference games. The SEC could have an 8 team playoff to generate tons of revenue. There could be an SEC North, SEC South, SEC East, and SEC West Championship game to be used as a quarterfinals for the SEC Championship.
Then the 4 winners of those Championship games would be used in a semifinal system with the 2 winners playing for the SEC Title.
This system would generate huge TV ratings and money thus creating a domino effect where other conferences would be influenced by the SEC to have a conference playoff just like how the SEC influenced conferences to have a conference Championship. I see the SEC doing this as early as 2015 with other conferences following suit as early as 2016.
Over time you have the PAC 16, the Big 16 (formerly known as the Big 10, the ACC having 12 teams with some coming and going leading to a 14 team division, the Big 12 having 12 teams once again, the Big East with a bunch of wild cards who don’t play on the East Coast like Boise State, Houston, Central Florida playing for a BCS at large bid, and then you would have a 20 team Mountain West merger with the Mountain West and Conference USA teams playing against each other. If one of these 20 teams goes unbeaten they may get a BCS at large bid. These Super Conferences would have conference playoffs to dictate who plays where in the BCS Bowl games.
By 2014 all of the BCS Title Games Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose will have ran their course. I am guessing we will see the current system after 2014 for 4 more years. Then in 2018 after seeing conferences use the conference playoffs for a few years the BCS will realize how pointless their system is with fans tuning into the in conference playoff games.
This will result in the BCS having an 8 team playoff with the SEC Champion, Big 16 Champion (formerly known as the Big 10), PAC 16 Champion, ACC Champion, Big 12 Champion, Big East Champion (featuring an underdog who does not play on the East Coast like Boise State/Houston/Central Florida), a Mountain West Champion from their 20 team Super Conference, and one wild card team as voted on by the Fans request known as “The People’s Choice” playing out an 8 team playoff with seeding for the 8 teams based on BCS ranking, strength of schedule, and based on how good a teams record is during regular season play.
All 8 games would take place during a 1 week span with 1 game airing on the first Sunday in January in primetime with the rest of the games airing in primetime throughout the week leading up to the Championship game on Saturday afternoon where College Gameday would be live for the Championship Game at 10 AM on ESPN and you would see Corso recap the previous 6 playoff games with Herbstreet for the first hour while building up the hype of the Playoff Championship during the 2nd hour. Near the end of the show, Corso puts on headgear for the team he thinks wins the Championship game. Then right after the Championship game you could just flip the remote and start watching the NFL Playoffs as the wild card games kick off. How great is that?
The opening round games would take place at all the sites of BCS Bowl games with one of four opening round match ups playing on a different location. The semifinals would take place in the Cotton Bowl. Then the championship game would rotate locations each year like the current system with Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, Rose.
This new system would be a much needed upgrade over the current system and it would give the fans a good reason to watch College Football. This new playoff for College Football in the FBS would be known as January’s Journey because that is the only thing that sounds as ridiculous as March Madness.