Making An NCAA Football Playoff

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Making an NCAA Football Playoff

Filed on August 29th, 2007 in Best Of..., Featured, NCAA Football ⋅ ⋅

The most controversial sport in the world, outside of boxing, is college football. It is the only sport that has a league format, with no discernible playoff. All professional sports, and as far as I can tell, all college sports, have some type of playoff. Whether it’s tournament style (like basketball, baseball, etc.) or meet style (track and field, gymnastics), all other sports have a way to determine a true champion. College football has a single game per team to determine a champion.

This system has led to many controversies over the years, leaving many teams to feel as if they’ve been left out of the national championship game. It’s led to co-national champions, a title that no one should ever have to hold. Even with the Bowl Championship Series, which was supposed to “solve” the problems, we have had controversy. From teams being “screwed” out of playing for the title, to a shared national title, the BCS has not solved the problem

Often, the topic of post-season college football is as debated as the teams themselves. You can have bowl games, or you can have a playoff. The pro-bowl side says that if you have a playoff, the regular season is meaningless. Nonsense. First of all, is the NFL regular season meaningless? No. Not even close. Second of all, would you rather have some regular season games not mean as much, or the entire post-season not mean anything. Even if I bought into the ridiculous argument that it would hurt the regular season, so what? If it will give us the excitement of a true post-season, I’m on board.

The most important thing to be solved, is how do we best determine a national championship. There are two trains of thought here. One, do you want to try to figure out the nation’s best team, and reward them with the title? Or do you want to crown a national champion? There is a difference between the two. The bowl system makes an effort to figure out who is best and then call them “champion.” The NCAA basketball tournament, for instance, determines a national champion.

Being the NCAA national champion in basketball doesn’t necessarily mean you were the best team that year. It means you won the tournament. But every year there is one team that can call themselves “champion.” And they are the only team (in the top 64) that ended the season with a win. You will never, ever have co-national champions or two undefeated teams in college basketball. Do we always crown the best team? Probably not. But we always have a true champion. The question you need to ask is, would you rather have a true champion, or try to reward the “best” team? I personally want a true champion, someone who beat all comers and was the only team left standing.

There is a way to make this all happen. I am here to tell you that we can determine a true champion with a short tournament after the regular season, we can allow the exact same number of teams to participate in the post-season, and we can increase the total number of post-season games, thus increase revenue for everyone involved. The system is not that complicated, and as far as I can tell, produces winners all around.

Before I unleash my proposal, I’m going to address the main concerns of going to a playoff system.

First, the most popular response to a playoff system is that it will render the regular season meaningless. I mentioned the NFL earlier and will return to that analogy. In the NFL, 12 teams out of 32 make the playoffs. For the most part, every game matters. Sure, there are a few throw-away games at the end of the season when all of the playoff spots are locked up, but everyone seems to quickly forget about that once the playoffs begin. In the NCAA, there are nearly 120 Division-I teams. Twelve, or 16 of them making the playoffs is hardly going to take away from the regular season. If anything, the fight to get into the tournament will be so fierce that it will make games more meaningful.

Right now, a loss can completely kill your season. Creating a system that can be forgiving of a quality loss would encourage better non-conference games, resulting in a not necessarily more meaningful regular season, but perhaps more exciting.

Honestly, do you really think that every game in college football is meaningful? Even the games with the 43 point spread? Or the games against I-AA teams? Teams are so afraid of losing right now that they won’t schedule tough non-conference games (obvious teams excluded). There are always going to be meaningless games because there will always be mismatches. People will care just as much if a playoff berth is on the line as they do when a bowl bid is on the line. And as much as the NCAA doesn’t want to admit it, as long as there is a point spread, the games will matter.

Second is the argument that it will take away from the bowl games. So apparently watering down the bowls so much that teams are coming out of bowl games with losing records. Let’s face it, the bowl games haven’t mattered since every one of them got a sponsorship and started inviting any 6-6 team to play in it. The bowl games are for the athletes and coaches as a reward for a good (or average) season. Every bowl game except one doesn’t matter. The BCS has already done the damage that opponents of a playoff thought the playoff will do. My system will maintain the (mostly meaningless) bowl format, and the average teams that play in them, to be played in conjunction with the playoff.

Another argument against the playoff is that it would have to take place during final exams and four weeks in December and January is too much for the “student-athletes” to handle. First of all, is this really the time that we are going to start playing the “student” card? Nobody gets too concerned that the college basketball season gets underway at about the same time. Or that the current bowl practices take place over the same time frame. Adding an away game for a handful of teams at the end of the week would not be too much to overcome. Not to mention, the scheduling could be done in a way that gives the “students” enough time off to take care of their exams in a responsible manner.

And when’s the last time anyone complained about the three weeks it takes to crown a basketball champion? Being a student-athlete requires sacrifice. These kids have enough time, resources, and tutors to safely navigate finals week during football practice. If this is the final hurdle, I don’t think we have a problem.

Under my system, the BCS would remain intact as it is. The only difference is that it wouldn’t determine single-game matchups, but seeds for the post-season. The BCS, as it is, is as good of a way as any to rank the teams. This is my choice for an official seeding system.

While many people feel that 16 teams is too many to be playing for a national championship, I think it adds more excitement. Part of the reason there is always controversy in college football has to do with teams being left out. Sixteen teams is a good number to get a solid format, and include teams that may otherwise have no chance. Also, by having 16 teams, you make it possible to have multiple teams from the same conference fighting for a national championship.

I also feel that by keeping the bowl format, all of the current sponsors would be happy to stay on board. ESPN will still air the meaningless bowl games for the same reason they do now- people will watch. The players will be glad to play in the postseason, I believe, in any of these formats. A single bowl game still gives the players and coaches a few more weeks of football, and the two tournaments have built in excitement.

The bottom line is that a playoff is needed to determine a true champion. A championship should always be determined on the field. Human and computer voting is fine to establish rankings and seeds, but not to establish a champion. Voting is too arbitrary. How good a team was supposed to be should not impact how successful they end up being (see On Preseason Polls). The schools and the players deserve a chance to play for the championship.

So, without further adieu, here is my proposal for an NCAA football playoff system, in outline form.

The National Championship Playoff System can be found by itself here.

REGULAR SEASON FORMAT

12 Game Maximum Schedules

All teams must finish regular season play by the Saturday after Thanksgiving. In 2007, that makes for 14 Saturdays from September 1 to December 1

Any conference championship game must be played within this time frame as well, even if that means cutting the regular season schedule to 11. This would be up to each conference. They could also choose to scrap the conference title game and determine a winner through standings.

To be bowl-eligible, you must have at least six wins vs. I-A opponents

To be eligible for the National Championship, you must have at least nine wins vs. I-A opponents (can include conference championship, if applicable)

POSTSEASON FORMAT

16 teams in playoff to play in National Championship Playoff

16 teams in Second Tier Tournament similar to college basketball’s NIT

32 teams in 16 Bowl Games to reward players and schools and to keep small

Bowl-hosting cities in the mix

Total of 64 teams in postseason (64 in 2006-07)

Total of 48 postseason games (32 in 2006-07)

Same number of teams in postseason, with 16 additional games.

Teams to play in National Championship Playoff

Six major conference champions (must be ranked in BCS top 20)

Any other conference champions ranked in BCS top 20

Independents must be ranked in the Top 20 for consideration, top 15 for guaranteed entry

At-large bids based on BCS standings and an expert committee

No more than three teams per conference

Winner of previous year’s Second Tier Tournament, if in top 20 or nine I-A wins

Teams to play in second tier tournament

All other conference champions

At-large bids based on expert committee

Teams to play in Bowl games

Teams not selected in either tournament will be allowed to accept any invitations they wish from any Bowl. Individual bowls may choose to keep their current affiliations.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF FORMAT

16 teams in a single elimination tournament

Seeding based on final BCS standings

All first round games are at home field of higher seeded team

Second round games are at neutral site

Semi-Final games are at a neutral site

National Championship game at a neutral site

Neutral site games are a rotation of major BCS and other bowls

Total of seven neutral site games to be at currently existing bowl sites

SECOND TIER TOURNAMENT FORMAT

Winner of tournament can get into National Championship tournament the following year with a top 20 BCS finish, or nine Division-I victories.

16 teams in a single elimination tournament

Seeding done by expert committee

First and second round games at home field of higher seeded team

Semi-Final and Championship game at neutral site

Neutral site games are at currently existing bowl sites

BOWL GAMES

All bowls to be played as they previously have in the past

Single game format only

Here’s what the 2006-2007 National Championship Playoff would have looked like:

Round One (all games hosted by higher seed)

Game 1
1 Ohio State
16 BYU

Game 2
2 Florida
15 Rutgers

Game 3
3 Michigan
14 Virginia Tech

Game 4
4 LSU
13 Wake Forest

Game 5
5 USC
12 West Virginia

Game 6
6 Louisville
11 Notre Dame

Game 7
7 Wisconsin
10 Oklahoma

Game 8
8 Boise State
9 Auburn

Round Two (using higher seed as winner for illustration, also top-seed hosts)

Game 9
Games 1 & 8 Winners
Ohio State vs. Boise State (Gator Bowl)

Game 10
Games 2 & 7 Winners
Florida vs. Wisconsin (Capital One Bowl)

Game 11
Games 3 & 6 Winners
Michigan vs. Louisville (Sugar Bowl)

Game 12
Games 4 & 5 Winners
LSU vs. USC (Orange Bowl)

Round Three – National Semi-Finals (neutral site games)

Game 13
Games 9 & 12 Winners
Ohio State vs. LSU (Fiesta Bowl)

Game 14
Games 10 & 11 Winners
Florida vs. Michigan (Rose Bowl)

Championship Game
Games 13 & 14 Winners
Ohio State vs. Florida (at Sugar Bowl)

Scheduling format for playoff would be as follows:

Round One: Saturday, December 9, 2006
Round Two: Saturday, December 16, 2006
Semi-Finals: Monday, January 1, 2007
Championship: Monday, January 8, 2007

Second Tier Tournament

Tier Two Seeds:

1 – Arkansas
2 – Tennessee
3 – California
4 – Texas
5 – Texas A&M
6 – Oregon State
7 – Nebraska
8 – Boston College
9 – UCLA
10- Georgia Tech
11- Georgia
12- Houston
13- Hawai’i
14- Penn State
15- Troy
16- Central Michigan

Tier Two Dates:

Round One: Thursday & Friday, December 7 & 8, 2006
Round Two: Thursday & Friday. December 14 & 15, 2006
Semi-Finals: Saturday, December 23, 2006
Championship: Monday, January 1, 2007

The Tier Two Tournament would follow the exact same game format, including two home game rounds, followed by three neutral site games.

Rounds three and four games would be played at current Bowl Game sites not used in the National Championship Playoff. The Tier Two Tourney would get second choice of bowl tie-ins, before the final bowl games are played under the old bowl standards.

BOWL GAMES

Staggered on weekdays to keep the feeling of bowl season during tournaments

32 teams and 16 games

The bowl games here and above can be changed according to the needs of the current season. This is just an example template.

Dec. 19
Poinsettia
TCU vs. Northern Illinois

Dec. 20
New Orleans
Middle Tennessee vs. Rice

Dec. 21
Papajohns.com
South Florida vs. East Carolina

Dec. 21
New Mexico
San Jose State vs. New Mexico

Dec. 22
Hawaii
Arizona State vs. Florida State

Dec. 26
Motor City
South Carolina vs. Clemson

Dec. 28
Texas
Navy vs. Kansas State

Dec. 29
Champs Sports
Maryland vs. Purdue

Dec. 30
Alamo
Kentucky vs. Iowa

Dec. 31
Independence
Oklahoma State vs. Alabama

Jan. 1
Armed Forces
Utah vs. Tulsa

Jan. 1
Sun
Oregon vs. Missouri

Jan. 1
Humanitarian
Miami (Fla.) vs. Nevada

Jan. 1
Insight
Texas Tech vs. Minnesota

Jan. 7
International
Cincinnati vs. Western Michigan

Jan. 7
GMAC
Southern Mississippi vs. Ohio

In the end, all of the teams that played in a bowl game would still have a post-season game, or maybe a few. Increasing the number of post-season games, and the importance of many of them is better for the sport in the long run. What may be lost in the regular season is more than made up for in the post-season.

College football needs a playoff system. There may be some people who won’t realize it until they live through it, but it needs a playoff. The only thing holding it back is the stubborn-ness of the powers that be, and the unwillingness to make a logical change for the good of the sport.

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