College Football Playoff Overhaul

Blues1's thread reminded me of this. Since I haven't been distracted by OU football this year, I've been able to dedicate my thoughts to more important things, like restructuring college football. So here it is...my plan for making a playoff system work in college football.

I think the most important part of the playoff system is that conference winners are automatically qualified, so the first step is restructuring the conferences to be more level and keep the number of automatic qualifiers down. There are currently 120 FBS teams. We add 6 more and create 7 conferences of 18 teams each. Each conference is split into two divisions with 9 teams each and you play every team in your division to decide which representative from each division goes on to the conference championship game...the winner being the automatic qualifier.

This keeps the conference schedule roughly the same length that it is now. With automatic qualification, there is really no incentive for playing patsies in the non-conference schedule...a non-conference loss isn't going to hurt you and the competition against better teams will better prepare you for conference play.

So now for the fun part...the conference realignment. The 7 conferences would be based off of the 6 BCS conferences. Each BCS conference would take on some additional members (mostly the weaker members of non-BCS conferences) with a new conference being formed made up of some of the stronger non-BCS conference teams and others. This works out geographically because many of the best non-BCS teams are in the Rocky Mountain area or Texas. The only BCS conference teams that would be displaced from their current conference would be Colorado and Iowa...so hardly anybody would notice.

Atlantic Coastal Conference
(Base BCS Conference: ACC)
ACC North
Boston College
Duke
Maryland
NC State
North Carolina
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
FCS Team (UMass)

ACC South
Clemson
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Miami, FL
East Carolina (C-USA)
Florida Atlantic (Sun Belt)
Florida International (Sun Belt)
UCF (C-USA)
FCS Team

Great Plains Conference
(Base BCS Conference: Big XII)
Great Plains North
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Nebraska
Iowa (Big Ten)
Northern Illinois (MAC)
Ball State (MAC)
FCS Team

Great Plains South
Baylor
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
North Texas (Sun Belt)
Tulsa (C-USA)
FCS Team

Southeastern Conference
(Base BCS Conference: SEC)
SEC West
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Arkansas State (Sun Belt)
UAB (C-USA)
FCS Team

SEC East
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Western Kentucky (SB)
Memphis (C-USA)
FCS Team

Great Lakes Conference
(Base BCS Conference: Big Ten)
Great Lakes West
Illinois
Indiana
Minnesota
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin
Bowling Green (MAC)
Toledo (MAC)
Notre Dame (Ind.)

Great Lakes East
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Central Michigan (MAC)
Eastern Michigan (MAC)
Western Michigan (MAC)
Ohio (MAC)
Akron (MAC)

Pacific Conference
(Base BCS Conference: Pac-10)
Pacific North
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State
Idaho (WAC)
Boise State (WAC)
UNLV (Mountain West)
Fresno State (WAC)
Nevada (WAC)

Pacific South
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Stanford
UCLA
USC
San Diego State (Mountain West)
San Jose State (WAC)
Hawaii (WAC)

Conference USA
C-USA Mountain
Air Force (Mountain West)
Brigham Young (Mountain West)
Colorado (Big XII)
Colorado State (Mountain West)
New Mexico (Mountain West)
New Mexico State (WAC)
Utah (Mountain West)
Utah State (WAC)
Wyoming (Mountain West)

C-USA South
Houston (C-USA)
Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt)
Louisiana-Monroe (Sun Belt)
Louisiana Tech (WAC)
Rice (C-USA)
Southern Methodist (C-USA)
TCU (Mountain West)
Tulane (C-USA)
UTEP (C-USA)

Appalachian Conference
(Base BCS Conference: Big East)
Appalachian New England
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Buffalo (MAC)
Army (Ind.)
Navy (Ind.)
Temple (MAC)

Appalachian South
Louisville
South Florida
West Virginia
Middle Tennessee State (Sun Belt)
Kent State (MAC)
Miami, OH (MAC)
Troy (Sun Belt)
Southern Miss (C-USA)
Marshall (C-USA)

The only geographically awkward teams are Kent State and Miami, OH in the Appalachian South division. That could be fixed simply by changing the FCS teams selected and where they end up.

The Appalachian (Big East) Conference is still probably the weakest of the existing BCS conferences. The Great Lakes (Big Ten) Conference gets a little boost of offense with Central Michigan and Notre Dame. The Pacific (Pac-10) Conference becomes tougher with Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada added to the mix. And Conference USA has some legit teams in it...based on performance the past 5 years or so, Colorado is probably the 5th best school behind BYU, Utah, Houston and TCU.

So how does the playoff work with 7 teams? The winner of each conference goes to the playoffs. I'm not sure which I like better: taking the top-rated non automatic bid (so the best team that didn't win their conference) to make it an 8-team playoff or taking the top 5 such teams to make it a 12-team playoff. If it's a 12-team playoff, the top 4 teams (based on ranking or something else) get 1st-round byes.

I know there are other things to consider. Leroy Lizard is going to bring up the scheduling problems with finals and stuff. I think that's a manageable obstacle. And this is really only looking at football, not basketball or any other sport that might be negatively impacted by this. My answer to that: so what? This isn't likely to happen anyway...but it's fun to talk about. I wish EA Sports would let you align the conferences and post-season however you wanted...this is how I'd do it.

 

And Iowa is sending a big middle finger in your general direction! LOL

 

I just don't think its fair what you've done to Western Kentucky.....

 

Yeah, Ark St and WKU need out of the SEC. Add Tulane and So. Miss instead.

 

Now all you need to do it convince The Big XII, The SEC, The Big 10 and the Pac 10 that they'll make just as much or more money by doing this.

Right now they probably like the odds of having a Team in the MNC every year. Especially the Big XII and the SEC.

Maybe PBHO will back it up with some Government dough....lol

 

What? Given them a chance to make it to the national title game?

 

We can switch Tulane and Arkansas State...no problem with that...but what's so bad about WKU?

They've got a chance to beat the FCS team and Memphis in their division and it won't be long before they could be competitive with Vandy and Kentucky.

 

They will make more money. And while those 43 teams might be opposed to it, the other 83 might be all for it. Yeah, I know, I know...there would be a lot of convincing to do. And I know those 4 conferences have all the power. But although I realize it's not a realistic scenario right now, I tried to keep those BCS conferences as intact as possible to make it something they might actually consider.

 

Then Notre Dame says "nyet."

 

Notre Dame can go start their own division. I'm sure another FCS team will be happy to step in to take their place.

 

Will the FCS teams that join the SEC ever win a game?

 

If Appalachian State can beat Michigan, Richmond can beat Duke, Villanova can beat Temple, and William and Mary can beat Virginia, then an FCS team can beat Vandy, Arkansas State/Tulane, UAB, WKU or Memphis.

Plus, they've got the non-conference schedule. That's a chance to pick up a couple more W's.

 

When Appalachian State beat Michigan, it was considered a miracle. And that was one of the best FCS teams in the country, if not THE best.

 

The presidents will not vote for the NCAA to control this. They know they will be screwed.

 

"So here it is...my plan for making a playoff system work in college football."

Umm, what about this grandiose plan is workable? The only thing that's going to work in college football reform is evolutionary steps.

I will take one other shot at your plan. You arbitrarily choose 18 team conferences, with two nine team divisions -- and you play only the 8 division rivals. Then the two division champs play each other.

You realize that this isn't really a conference? It's two separate conferences. And this fact badly undermines your efforts to keep a semblance of the traditional conferences in place.

Just to take Oklahoma as an example -- our historic rivalries with the schools of the old Big 6 and 7 would evaporate. We've played those schools annually or at least regularly (thank you big 12) since the 20s.

And that would be replicated at dozens of schools across the country.

College ball is not the NFL. It moves slowly and reforms itself through conservative, self-interested decision making.

Or it doesn't change at all.

 

But... but... we need radical changes because I can't live any longer without having a true champion crowned.

 

Okay, here is your chance to make a difference

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

 

I'm glad I'm not the only person who wasted time on this topic.

All of this grandiose plan is workable. Likely? Not at all...but I freely admitted that.

If you don't want to call those things conferences, you don't have to. Fine with me. If you'd prefer to look at it as 14 nine-team conferences and add another round to the playoffs, fine by me. But it IS a conference if it's called a conference and acts as a conference and in this system, both apply. It's a conference because the winners of the same divisions play each other every year without exception. If you want to turn that into bowl-game tie-ins that serve as a first round to the playoff, I can live with that.

The regular rivalries have already evaporated. I'm not glad they have, but let's not pretend they still exist. If playing Nebraska twice every 4 years is a tradition worth keeping, we can still play them in games that don't count toward the conference standings. It makes as much sense as saying that Texas, at 7-1 in conference play, deserves to represent the south because even though they lost to OU, they beat a 2-10 Iowa State, a 2-10 Colorado and a 1-11 Kansas State while OU, at 6-2 in conference play, lost to a 12-0 Nebraska and a 11-1 Missouri. Shouldn't the division winner be determined based on division games?

Like I said...I don't pretend that this is a likely scenario. But it's fun to talk about. I realize it takes away some great things about college football today and gets us further from some great things about college football of yesterday, but I think it could also bring a lot of great stuff to college football of tomorrow.

 

We currently have a true champion crowned. Are you suggesting we abandon that? I'm just looking for a better way to make sure all teams have a shot at being the true champion.

 

If...Richmond can beat Duke, Villanova can beat Temple, and William and Mary can beat Virginia, then an FCS team can beat Vandy, Arkansas State/Tulane, UAB, WKU or Memphis.

Plus, they've got the non-conference schedule. That's a chance to pick up a couple more W's.