Dare we dream? A college football playoff might be at hand
The BCS title game: When SEC domination became full-blown overkill. (AP photo)
I’d long since given up on the prospects of a college football playoff. The bowls were too powerful, I told myself. (Note that the word “bowl” comes before “championship” in “BCS.”) For all the hue and cry from the chattering class and the huddled masses, I figured nothing would ever get done.
Now I’m thinking something might.
Might, I said. Might.
I’m thinking the sight of two SEC teams playing for the BCS title was enough to push the leagues that didn’t want any part of a playoff into the we-need-to-reassess camp. I’m thinking that the Pac-12 and the Big Ten, the two leagues who persisted in seeing the Rose Bowl as the only postseason game that mattered, are getting antsy over being marginalized.
(The joke among college football writers has long been that this is the only sport held hostage by a parade. Meaning the Tournament of Roses thingy.)
Back in 2008, SEC commissioner Mike Slive, of all people, proposed a four-team playoff. ACC commissioner John Swofford seconded the motion. The other BCS league commissioners — of the (then) Pac-10, the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the Big East — all resisted. So did Notre Dame, that entity unto itself.
OK, that was then. This week Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told reporters in New Orleans: “Four years ago, five of us didn’t want to have the conversation. Now we all want to have the conversation.”
It’s not just that the SEC has come to hog the BCS title game to the extent that nobody else even got to play in the latest installment. It’s that the BCS has skewed the whole postseason. Attendance was down 2.1 percent through the first 31 (of 35) bowls this season, and anyone who was in Raymond James Stadium for Georgia’s loss to Michigan State in the Outback Bowl could tell something was off.
These were ranked teams that had won divisions in BCS conferences, and attendance was announced as 49,429, which would have ranked as the second-smallest gathering in the 17 years that Outback Steakhouse has sponsored the game. According to the Tampa Bay Times, however, actual attendance was 40,022 — the sort of gate that Georgia fans would mock if it occurred, say, in a regular-season game at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Of those 35 bowls, 33 were carried by ESPN/ABC. The good news is that ESPN/ABC pays big for the rights. The bad news is that much of the bowl season has become a couch-and-big-screen sport. No fans are more rabid than those of big-time college football teams, but those fans have surely begun to ask: Why pay $1,000 to travel to a game that doesn’t even bear the BCS imprint?
Think of it this way: The NCAA basketball tournament includes 68 teams; imagine if 66 of those were summarily demoted to the NIT while the top two seeds got to advance directly to the title game. That’d be a form of madness, all right — just not the March variety.
The BCS “system” claims to enfranchise 10 of the 70 bowl teams, but only two of those 10 get to play a game that really matters. And now, with its latest championship game, the BCS pared the list of “haves” in college football to one: The SEC rules, and everyone else is left to drool.
Great for the SEC, but bad for overall business. While we here in the Deep South paid rapt attention to the doings Monday night in the Superdome, much of the rest of the nation looked elsewhere. Alabama-LSU drew the third-smallest rating of the 14 BCS title games. Apparently not everyone in the world delights in field goals.
(As the web site Awful Announcing notes, ratings for the five BCS games were down 13 percent from last season. And Clemson’s epic loss to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl was the lowest-rated BCS game ever.)
Headed into the 2011 season, it was hard to imagine the SEC consolidating gains. Given that it had won the previous five BCS titles, how could it get any bigger? Well, it did. It didn’t just produce the national champ this time; it also generated the runner-up.
There comes a point, however, when absolute power becomes obscene overkill. Big-time college football could have reached that point. The SEC already has one championship game. (For which, not incidentally, the eventual BCS champ did not qualify.) It doesn’t need another. If the Big Ten, long the most intransigent of the playoff holdouts, is willing to change, then change might indeed be at hand.
Might, I said. Might.
By Mark Bradley
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214 comments Add your comment
Year of Vad
January 11th, 2012
2:12 pm
first
Mark Bradley
January 11th, 2012
2:14 pm
Kudos, Year of Vad.
j
January 11th, 2012
2:15 pm
1st
Burbank Dawg not Dwag
January 11th, 2012
2:17 pm
I’ll believe it when it see it.
Michael
January 11th, 2012
2:19 pm
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Matt
January 11th, 2012
2:19 pm
Don’t get your hopes up. Mark, the B1G is the only conference that is against a playoff, and Jim Delaney still weilds a big stick – if he doesn’t want a playoff, there won’t be one.
DawginLex
January 11th, 2012
2:24 pm
A + 1 would be a great start.
Would have solved a lot of problems and limited the complaining if Okie state had played Bama with the winner playing LSU.
Old Dawg
January 11th, 2012
2:26 pm
Until D-1 has a 16-team play-off like 1-AA, it will be a sham, and a shame.
Some writers etc will put in the academic issue, but if that was actually the case there wouldn’t be all of the travel for basketball, lengthy baseball seasons etc.
The entire system is sick and the prescription of more cow bell will fix it!
Silly Bloggers
January 11th, 2012
2:28 pm
It is pretty funny that the SEC owns the BCS the last six-years and we are screaming the loudest for a playoff. I think the B1G had the ingenious thought that they could wait to play conference games until October, have no Championship game, and have their good name get them into the big game. I think at that point, they didn’t like their chances of actually navigating a playoff.
Well, things have obviously changed. The B1G has a Championship (funny on the lack of attendence) and two of their poster children have been dragged through the mud (tOSU and Penn State). If Delaney wants to play ball, it will likely only take the Pac-10 to join the fray. We know the SEC wants one, as does the ACC. The Big 12 should be primed for one after getting left out of the big game and not having a second team sent.
While I would love an eight-game playoff, even a Plus 1 would add some much needed credibility to the sport.
Steve Spurrier
January 11th, 2012
2:30 pm
“And Clemson’s epic loss to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl was the lowest-rated BCS game ever.”
Tweet that Dabo!
Hal
January 11th, 2012
2:31 pm
This was a very predictable game . The football season has momentum. Bowls do not . LSU beat them once that’s all you should have to play a team in one season. Now they both have a win. Let’s go for two out of three. Yes it’s the BCS way but it proves nothing to me and many others. The regular season is the true measure of a national champion. A playoff would carry on that momentun but not the bowl system the BCS has now.
peacengrits75
January 11th, 2012
2:33 pm
I love football…but the bowl season is irrelevant to me. Unless you’re in the championship game, it’s worthless. Tired of hearing its great for the kids to see another city. Who cares? Gotta play for something right? I like an 8 team playoff…
Falcons4Eva
January 11th, 2012
2:37 pm
Can’t Wait ! !
Ted M
January 11th, 2012
2:38 pm
Lets go straight to a 16 team playoff.
Falcons4Eva
January 11th, 2012
2:39 pm
Might as well make all FBS conferences 16 teams each. Season being 10 games plus their conference championship game.
I suppose the Plus 1 would be the first step. Then 10-15 years later, these slow tortoises will move to the more preferable 8 team playoffs system.
Bob in SF
January 11th, 2012
2:40 pm
I think the new commish of the Pac-12 would be on board; he is much more forward thinking and in the 21st century than his predecessor and knows they have at least 2 strong competitors for the next few years in Oregon and USC. It’s a win-win for everyone but I still think we will see an “And One” format before a true playoff.
DawginLex
January 11th, 2012
2:40 pm
Hal
Dead on correct. Great point.
LSU lost its momentum and mojo and moxie during that 40 day layoff.
Falcons4Eva
January 11th, 2012
2:41 pm
Speaking of cleaning up these Bowls – they should do away with about 10 and make qualifying for the bowl 7 wins and not 6.
Abnerish
January 11th, 2012
2:44 pm
A playoff system is so overdue. Essentially, if your team isn’t in the National Championship game then your team is essentially playing a glorified scrimmage in December/January. As a UGA alum, I wasn’t that upset by the bowl loss. It had no bearing on us winning an SEC Championship or a national championship, so as long as we came out of it without any significant injuries and we don’t embarrass ourselves (like last year), then I was happy.
Frankly, a +1 or 4 team playoff does not go far enough. They need to make the leap to either an 8 team or a 16 team playoff. An 8 team playoff would be ideal as it would limit the impact to the bowls.
laugh
January 11th, 2012
2:49 pm
bobo joko
rduck
January 11th, 2012
2:51 pm
An even bigger problem is the fact that ESPN now holds the rights to the BCS games. ESPN has made it’s bed in the SEC. That is the league they promote and advertise as the end all be all. They are almost in complete control of college football with thier TV deals and now they own the rights to the big bowl games. Who do you think they are going to support to be in these games?
RxDawg
January 11th, 2012
2:52 pm
I think it’s due. It’s obvious that not even all of the players really care about the bowl games they play in. Sure they like the trip and the stuff. But honestly it’s just a fancy exhibition game. I still remember when whatshisface at Notre Name left Cinncy before they played thier very first ever Sugar bowl. That one move right there spoke volumes to me about just how much the bowls really mean.
1. You have to keep the regular season vital. It’s what makes college ball. How do you do that? Don’t let half the league into the playoffs. In fact, you allow very very few. 4-8 at most.
2. 4 team playoff would be nice, and is more likely because it’s the slowest rate of change. And we all know college presidents like things slow, just ask their wives (BOOM!)
3. 8 team playoff is best IMO. 6 big boy conference champs, and 2 at large. The reason I like this is because it would make winning your conference such a big goal. It would mean everything. You win your region, then you win your nation. It’s simple and it would work.
RxDawg
January 11th, 2012
2:52 pm
ughgasdgahsdghgasdghasdg….. I hate pac man eating up my posts
rduck
January 11th, 2012
2:53 pm
Falcons4eva- i totally agree. it is way to easy to get into bowl games these days.
Mark Bradley
January 11th, 2012
2:57 pm
About the bowls: More football teams play in them (70 of 120) than basketball teams play in the NCAA tournament (68 of 325.)
Beast from the East
January 11th, 2012
2:57 pm
Silly Bloggers,
Good post. I agree. If the Big 10 and the Pac 12 come on board, I think we’ll see it happen in the near future. Let’s hope!
Nodawg
January 11th, 2012
2:59 pm
College football doesn’t need a playoff. It doesn’t even need the bowl games to determine the National Champion. Judging from the last three years the winner of the Iron Bowl (Alabama vs Auburn) should be declared the National Champion.
Matt Ryan's Dad
January 11th, 2012
3:00 pm
I think we should take all the teams that play for BCS conferences and make getting to the championship game the qualifer for a playoff spot. Have two spots for each conference and rank them accordingly sort of like the NFL does. Even if the SEC gets the top two seeds every year, it will at least make December and January more interesting.
Beast from the East
January 11th, 2012
3:00 pm
RxDawg,
I agree with the premise that you must win your conference. I don’t even think at large teams should be considered. Let Notre Dame join a conference or just play their 12 game schedule on NBC until their contract expires.
Stinger2
January 11th, 2012
3:00 pm
GT fans should not care if its playoffs or the current BCS.
We won`t be in the mix no matter what.
Steve
January 11th, 2012
3:04 pm
Mark, regarding the attendance at the Outback Bowl. At least 20,000 UGA fans traveled to that game. Not to shabby for an average bowl. Not a lot anyone can do about local fan interest in Tampa as well as Michigan State being so far from Tampa.
Dawgdad (The Original)
January 11th, 2012
3:09 pm
Well, what should we expect from the college intelligensia (presidents), a stupid system hated by the common fan but praised by the creators. They thought we were just too stupid to understand their brilliant system. Well, they got enough rope eventually to hang themselves.
Now, they will try to save face by coming up with something that doesn’t completely repudiate their previous system, but gets them out of the crack. Instead of doing what we all know needs doing, a eight or 16 team playoff.
Dawgdad (The Original)
January 11th, 2012
3:11 pm
Oh, Aaron Murray, step up to the plate, son, and move on like Orson. Don’t be scared, Gruden said you were a Heisman Trophy Candidate after all.
SSIgator
January 11th, 2012
3:12 pm
Stinger2 -
Ditto for UGA fans
7576DAWG
January 11th, 2012
3:13 pm
The SEC had 3 teams end up in the top 6 and 4 in the top 9. If we have a play off Arkansas and South Carolina would have been excluded and that wouldn’t have been fair or right. If we have a play off all team’s should be considered and the SEC should have the right to make up as many of the playoff slot’s as they deserve.
7576DAWG
January 11th, 2012
3:13 pm
The SEC had 3 teams end up in the top 6 and 4 in the top 9. If we have a play off Arkansas and South Carolina would have been excluded and that wouldn’t have been fair or right. If we have a play off all team’s should be considered and the SEC should have the right to make up as many of the playoff slot’s as they deserve.
collegeballfan
January 11th, 2012
3:13 pm
I did not watch the LSU – Alabama joke. Why watch the SEC champion play the team that finished 3rd in the SEC?
In fact, I only watched the Clemson, GT and UGA bowl games. The rest I just dismissed because they were match ups that I was not interested in watching.
Zing
January 11th, 2012
3:15 pm
Not a surprise. I don’t pay attention to the bowl games at all, except for the one that my team plays in. At least pre-BCS, any of the top 5 or so teams had a shot to be voted #1 at the end of the season, depending on their competition and what the other teams in other bowls did. Now, only one bowl game matters, and it’s debatable every single year as to whether the right teams are actually playing in it. In constructing the BCS, the NCAA created a system that was the exact opposite of what they were trying to do (match the actual best team against the actual second-best team). The fact is, NO ONE KNOWS who the actual best and second-best teams are– which is why a playoff system is used for virtually every sport there is. It’s not perfect, but it at least seems to point towards a deserving champion.
Beast from the East
January 11th, 2012
3:17 pm
7576DAWG,
I disagree. I think you should have to win your conference. That is what will make the regular season so important to everyone.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
3:21 pm
I could be on board with an 8 team playoff even though I prefer 16. Make the 6 champions of the BCS conferences automatic qualifiers into the playoffs and select two wild card entries by committee (not ranking). If a conference champion from a smaller conference finishes high enough in the rankings then they should get an automatic bid to the playoffs as well.
DePort
January 11th, 2012
3:24 pm
I think 4 team playoff could work… They could play the 4 teams around the new year and then a week later the championship game… where the championship game is anyway… and lets just keep most of the BCS in tack… let it choose the 4 teams and be happy it is better than it was!
Dink
January 11th, 2012
3:25 pm
Good article MB.
Time for a plus one. Move all the bowl games back to New Year’s Day (and before) with two “semi-final” bowls, say Rose & Sugar. The 2 winners meet a week later.
Whatcha think?
LADawg
January 11th, 2012
3:29 pm
I used to think the BCS was a mythical championship. Now, I’m sure the SEC is a mythical championship. The football gods smiled on Alabama yet again! The Tide actually benefited by NOT being the SEC champion.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
3:30 pm
If we have a play off all team’s should be considered and the SEC should have the right to make up as many of the playoff slot’s as they deserve.
The only problem with this is you leave it up to human interpretation who deserves to be in. ESPN will make sure 3-4 SEC teams are in every year to protect their investment. College Football will never have a real postseason until they have an objective way to decide a champion.
Jacket99
January 11th, 2012
3:31 pm
A playoff only makes sense. Here’s a bracket and explanation for 2011.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/the-doc-sat-playoff-plan-2011-bracket-engaged?urn=ncaaf,wp11266
Shug
January 11th, 2012
3:31 pm
Hate to break it to you, but college football is a dying sport. When decisions are based solely on tv ratings, the jig is up.
Bronko Nagurski
January 11th, 2012
3:33 pm
“college football is a dying sport.”
Now that is funny!
Steve
January 11th, 2012
3:34 pm
Shug = Moron.
David Granger
January 11th, 2012
3:35 pm
Well, a four-team playoff would definitely move the argument down the ratings list. Instead of arguing between which team is #2 and which is 3#, we’d be arguing between who’s #4 and who’s #5.
It would give the final champion a little more acceptance, though there would still be an occasional year now and again when fans of one team or another would be mad that their favorite wasn’t in the playoffs over a less worthy (to them, at least) school.
Shug Supporter
January 11th, 2012
3:36 pm
Bronco and Steve, I assume you two are following the Supreme Court decision on the validity of certain types of marriage closely.
timthebrave
January 11th, 2012
3:39 pm
I hope for a 8 team playoff but a plus one is at least moving in the right direction. I think 16 would water down the regular season too much
Gustopher
January 11th, 2012
3:40 pm
Well said Mark. I for one boycotted the game. I find the fact that a 12-1 team that didn’t even win its division let alone it’s conference was picked ahead of two 13-1 teams that won their respective conference. Somebody said that if it had been Oklahoma instead of Oklahoma State, Alabama might not even been invited.
DC
January 11th, 2012
3:41 pm
I used to want a playoff system like you..then I took a football to the knee.
wxwax
January 11th, 2012
3:48 pm
Jim Delany says a +1 is a “slippery slope.”
I certainly hope so!
Joel K. Jones
January 11th, 2012
3:49 pm
I think if the peoplle who are running all the bowls situations would eliminate about twelve (at least) bowl games that in the long run, there woulld be more revenue coming in, because that is what it is all about anyway. No one really gives a d—- abouut most of the games played anyway.
Remarkable
January 11th, 2012
3:51 pm
The best playoff formula that I’ve seen is a six team play off with the top two seeds getting a bye. #2 through #6 play each other with the winners playing on New Year’s Day and the Championship game two weeks later. The champion might have to play one or two more games than this current mess.
kudzu
January 11th, 2012
3:56 pm
Gid rid of the (bowl games) and establish a playoff system in the cities that were hosting the aforementioned bowl games. i.e. “The Chick Fil A Southeastern Football Semi-Final” game.
Step out of the box- and think…
Abnerish
January 11th, 2012
3:58 pm
8 teams, 6 BCS conf champs plus 2 “wild card” teams decided by committee (not rankings or computers). Tie the 7 largest bowls into the playoffs, with the current BCS bowls rotating as the semifinals and final game. All the other bowls would go unchanged and unaffected, quite honestly. Regular season will mean more than ever and it will incent teams to play tougher schedules out of conference. Make it so.
chuckw/deadjournalist
January 11th, 2012
4:00 pm
I tend to think a 6+4 playoff (6 AQs of conference champs, 4 wild-cards) with two play-in games would be a great leap forward if the BCS/NCAA didn’t want to go full-bore playoff.
High/Low match-up, round one at home stadium of highest seed based on BCS ranking with the bowls being semi-final and finals.
But no one asked me.
Heath
January 11th, 2012
4:00 pm
If a four team playoff does happen, there will be a one-team-per-conference rule, and you will still have the possbility of a 3 loss Big East or ACC team in and a one or two loss SEC team out. So it would still be crap.
RxDawg
January 11th, 2012
4:05 pm
“Somebody said that if it had been Oklahoma instead of Oklahoma State, Alabama might not even been invited.”
Ya know what, I 100% agree with that statement. Bias over programs has just way too much sway in college football.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
4:06 pm
If we had a 4 team playoff chosen by ranking then this season would have had LSU, Bama, Ok St, and Stanford in the playoffs. Would Stanford have really deserved it over Oregon? Oregon beat them by 23 points and won the conference. You would basically be punishing Oregon for playing LSU in an OOC game.
Jamaaliver
January 11th, 2012
4:08 pm
I believe the term you’re looking for, Mark, is THE TIPPING POINT.
Shaye
January 11th, 2012
4:10 pm
Despite my being an Alabama fan, and despite thinking the (clearly) best team in the country won the trophy Monday night… yes, we need a playoff. If this season is not the best argument for one ever, I don’t know what would be. And it should be simply the best x-number of teams (at least 4 obviously, though I’d prefer 8), regardless of conference.
And for all the naysayers that say “Alabama didn’t win their division or conference,” well, they clobbered the team that did. Your argument is invalid.
Unbelievable!
January 11th, 2012
4:11 pm
“Think of it this way: The NCAA basketball tournament includes 68 teams; imagine if 66 of those were summarily demoted to the NIT while the top two seeds got to advance directly to the title game. That’d be a form of madness, all right — just not the March variety.”
Kudos to you Mark, for a perfect analogy. All those in favor of a CFB playoff should use this in every argument, and at every chance they get to discuss the subject!
Magglio DiCaprio
January 11th, 2012
4:16 pm
Mr. Bradley,
How ’bout a breakdown of the postseason pigskin pathetic-ness we’re suffering from?
Current streaks:
• Dawgs (0 for last two bowls)
• Falcons (4 straight playoff losses?)
• GTech (7 straight bowl overs?!?)
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:16 pm
Plus one .. forget it guys… Just too much controversy. #1 gets to rest an extra week. – 2 & 3 get banged up … There is no that much difference in 1-4 … a really big advantage to the “1″ this sits out the first round. ….
Minimum 4 … 8 better… and 16 would really be great other than it would likely be too much travel for 4 games and would attendance be down for the early rounds???
I personally would love to see 16…. Round 1 being at the top 8 schools campuses … Sponsors could go to the campuses and it would be a great paybock to the fans and students. Then the last 7 hames go the the big bowl sites on some rotating basis. A lesser bowl sponsorer would get much more attention and attendance as a school campus for these early 8 games that they do now for the Liberty or Music City bowl.
Fair n Balanced
January 11th, 2012
4:19 pm
Nobody wants a playoff more than the SEC fans. That way we get more possibilities within the conference to win a NC. But a 4 game playoff is only a start of a playoff system. The only game that filled a stadium was the NC game. All these bowls are creating fan fatigue. I’m glad it’s all over now.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:20 pm
Problem I see is that if these other confrences to agree to say a 4 team playoff you can bet you arse that a stipulation will be only one team per confrence and that you cant participate unless you win your confrence.
Totally against this. You want the best teams in the playoff regardless of confrence IMO.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:22 pm
F&B you can bet your arse …if these confrences agree to the 4 tm playoff, there will be a stipulation that you must win your confrence… therefore only 1 SEC team would make the playoff field. This will actually work against the SEC.
rusty
January 11th, 2012
4:26 pm
First?
rusty
January 11th, 2012
4:27 pm
Awww, I was so close! Next time.
Rodney King
January 11th, 2012
4:28 pm
A plus 0ne is perfect in my opinion. Bama clearly had the best team so they’d a won that way too.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:28 pm
GT BOB — Common man – You you’d argue the horns off a billygoat.
Nothing is going to be perfect dude. but if you had a 4-8 team playoff you would have a much higher confidence level thet the top few team are in the field and then feel better about a true champion. Better – not perfect and without bubble teams. Rather push the bubble question down to 4-5 or 8-9 that have it at 2-3.
Buckeye
January 11th, 2012
4:29 pm
But the dogs are #1 in Jan/Feb!
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
4:30 pm
Totally against this. You want the best teams in the playoff regardless of confrence IMO.
If the playoff was that small then why should a team get a chance if they couldn’t win their conference? It’s the same argument we have now. Plus if conference champions were the only ones allowed in then maybe teams will start scheduling tough OOC games instead of trying to artificially inflate their record.
Dawg_Mike
January 11th, 2012
4:31 pm
Best book I’ve read about this is ” Death to the BCS”.
Google it.
Buckeye
January 11th, 2012
4:32 pm
Make New Years day matter again. That’s what I want. And get rid of the 8:30 pm starts on freakin weekdays.
Had enough
January 11th, 2012
4:33 pm
BCS actually means bull crap the teams.
Whateva
January 11th, 2012
4:33 pm
Playoffs or no playoffs…an even bigger point is that no one cares what UGA fans think since ya’ll would never be there anyway.
Whateva
January 11th, 2012
4:34 pm
The season is over so UGA is #1 again, right?
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:36 pm
Not a lot of confidence or I should say a lot of question in the BCS rankings ability to definately pick 1 & 2…. But if the ranking system picked the top 8…. I am pretty confident that we would have the top 5-6 in the field and feel better at the end that we did determine the tru champion on the field.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
4:36 pm
Make New Years day matter again. That’s what I want. And get rid of the 8:30 pm starts on freakin weekdays.
I second this. 8:30 start times are terrible. Also, please change the half time for college football. It is way way too long.
Whateva
January 11th, 2012
4:37 pm
Would you clowns stop whining about having to win your conference? When has that EVER been a prerequisite? It took hundreds of “opinions” to pick the top 2 teams and that is who made it to the NC game. Pretty sure ALL of these sportswriters with votes don’t live in the South.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:38 pm
Would rather have the top 8 ranked, but could live with the 6 confrence champs plus the two highest ranked beyound the 6.
You stipp need the ranking system to determine seeds IMO.
But have to win your confrence… no way. best teams are in. Im and SEC guy and the strength is here not but it will shift to the other confrences at some point.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:41 pm
whateva – thes other confrences are going to want to implement a WIN YOUR CONFRENCE rule if they are going to agree to a playoff. Im tellin you. Int is not a prereq now, but it will be soon enough. This si the whole reason the other confrences are reconsidering the playoff. The dont want the SEC to take all the NC spots.
Whateva
January 11th, 2012
4:44 pm
Then that still doesn’t get what we are trying to achieve…who the best teams are. If there would have been a “playoff” system like that in 2007 UGA wouldn’t have been allowed in. Surely they were one of the 8 best programs that year? Just like Bama obviously was this year.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:44 pm
GTB – if you had to win your confrence to get in… well teams will schedule even weaker OOC games…. Think about in dude.
If it’s highest ranked get in regardless of confrence, this would steer teams to schedule tougher OOC games to improve their ranking.
Any question?
DP
January 11th, 2012
4:46 pm
Bitter whining Dawgs as usual. Imagine the Dawgs losing by 3 in OT to the #1 ranked team that had crushed everybody else, crushing everybody else themselves, and then being told they shouldn’t be in the BCS championship Game as the #2 team. Imagine Mark Bradley howling how Mark Richt’s splendid Georgia team, the standard bearers of the SEC, had been cheated. Dawg fans are still howling about not being in the game when they lost 2, one to a 6-6 team and the other by 3 touchdowns.
I’d be for a plus one. If you go to 6 or 8 teams you’d probably have to get rid of the conference championship games or teams would potentially be playing 16 games.
I love people trotting out the NCAA basketball tournament as the model. Last year it produced a champion that went 9-9 in its own conference during the regular season and virtually nobody complained about it.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:47 pm
Whateva—- Agree. But watch…. Those other confrences are going to push for it.
Would rather have the top 8 ranked, but could live with the 6 confrence champs plus the two highest ranked to fill 7 and 8 spots. At least its a major improvement .
bamaguy
January 11th, 2012
4:47 pm
The SEC wants the playoff because we are confident that we would win much more often than we would lose. I would have loved to see Alabama stop the OSU offense dead in their tracks and the Honey Badger show Luck what it was like to play against a real defense prior to the NC game. An eight team playoff would be ideal, but the top four is the most workable. But if that worked well enough and generated enough revenue (the real motivator) it might expand.
Oh, 2012: Alabama, Twenty One, LSU, Zereaux
DP
January 11th, 2012
4:48 pm
“I for one boycotted the game.”
Sure you did, and I’m not sure college football will ever recover from it.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:49 pm
Dp – No problem, it was selltled on the court and a 9-9 C record came to the top.
Gbal
January 11th, 2012
4:50 pm
Green Bay was a WC last year and ATL won 13. GB came to the top in the tourney and were superbowl champs.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
4:51 pm
Last year it produced a champion that went 9-9 in its own conference during the regular season and virtually nobody complained about it.
That team won the Big East Tournament and the NCAA tournament. How can you really argue that they weren’t the best? I guess there are two ways of looking at things. Which team had the best year, and which team is actually the best team. The regular season is supposed to be a competition to get into the playoffs, not the final decision. Especially when teams play completely different schedules.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
4:53 pm
GTB – if you had to win your confrence to get in… well teams will schedule even weaker OOC games…. Think about in dude.
I disagree. I think if teams knew that they could still win their conference and make the playoffs then they would be much more willing to risk an OOC loss because the loss would mean less to them.
Whateva
January 11th, 2012
4:55 pm
So UConn should never have made the “playoffs” then based upon their regular conference season, correct? They went 9-9. That’s a team that got hot at the right time. Either the regular season counts or it doesn’t…which is it?
dawgfan
January 11th, 2012
4:57 pm
10 game regular season. Drop all the worthless creampuffs (UGA might have to drop Tech). Conference championship games. SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 12 Champs get automoatic invite (ACC too big of a post-season disaster to deserve this). Anyone else has to be in final top 16 of BCS (yes, crybabies will cry if their team just misses the cut. Boo hoo.) 16 team playoff. The four conference champions get to play at home. Everybody else may have to travel. If you think the regular season will be meaningless, wait until you have to go play at Wisconsin in December because you didn’t win your conference. Then tell me how meaningless the regular season is.
There you have it.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
5:01 pm
Either the regular season counts or it doesn’t…which is it?
The regular season hurt their seed in the Big East tournament which made it much harder to win. They won it anyways. By winning the tournament they got an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament but with a lower seed because of their regular season record. Because of their lower seed the NCAA tournament was tougher for them. They won it anyways. The regular season counted.
Mike
January 11th, 2012
5:05 pm
I couldn’t be happier that this year’s title game got such low ratings. It deserved to. After all the “best regular season in sports”, after all the “you must win your conference talk” over the last few years, its good to see the general public give that game the disinterest it deserved. Bama had their shot and lost. The only reason they made this game was politics (Bama name over OSU name), and it got the system screwed. Picking Va Tech and Michigan for the Sugar Bowl was awful as well. Passing up Kellen Moore and Boise St. was a huge mistake.
Herb Street
January 11th, 2012
5:13 pm
I’m all for blowing up the entire college football industry. Let the guys at ESPN (who truly represent all fans) dictate how much money schools and networks make off the labor of the student-athletes. Also, ESPN (the fans’ representative) should be the outfit that determines how long the season is and how much time and effort the student-athletes have to exert.
Mike
January 11th, 2012
5:13 pm
What these rating show is that the general public cares about the matchups. They dont care about Big East vs ACC. They dont care about rematches. They dont care about storied programs barely ranked in the top 15. They want to see the best go against the best.
Personally, I dont think a plus one will solve much. The politics will be centered around spots 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2. Take this year as an example. Should Stanford be in at #4 without a conference title too? Is it Oregon’s fault they opened with LSU while Stanford played cupcakes?
They need a playoff that removes the politics. The only way to do that is 8 teams using the current BCS rules (6 automatic qualifier conference champs and two at large teams with the mid major and Notre Dame rules intact). No its not perfect, but if you win your conference, your in. This year, Bama and Stanford would be the at large bids since Boise St. did not win the MWC. Here are your matchups:
LSU vs WVU
Bama vs Clemson
OSU vs Wisconsin
Oregon vs Stanford
Yes there are two rematches, but that will happen in playoffs…always has. If Boise had won their conference, they would be in against Oregon instead of Stanford. No politics, just either win your conference or have a good enough season to be in the at large running.
bamaguy
January 11th, 2012
5:14 pm
In addition to some kind of playoff, I would like to see cities bid for the College National Championship game like they do for the Super Bowl. Why couldn’t Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando or Houston host?
Mike
January 11th, 2012
5:15 pm
Forgot to add, I seeded the playoffs by BCS ranking.
Mike
January 11th, 2012
5:18 pm
I would argue that my 8 team playoff shouldnt be seeded by BCS rankings, but you have to give the top seeds some credit for being such. Seeding Bama and Stanford as 7 and 8 would mean LSU and OSU would be playing the toughest first round games which is not a reward for being top 2 conference winners.
ga gator
January 11th, 2012
5:21 pm
Good article Mark, 8 game playoff would require 7 bowl games and 3 extra games for the final 2. Whatever 7 bowls selected to be part of the playoff would certainly be more important than they are now. Use a selection committee of former AD’s or other experts similar to what they do now for NCAA Basketball and then we would not have to listen to coaches polls where you have coaches who vote who don’t have time to watch games but still influence the BSC formula.
ga gator
January 11th, 2012
5:21 pm
Sorry, I meant 8 team playoff.
DP
January 11th, 2012
5:25 pm
To the Dawgs who want an 8 team playoff, the 6 major conference champions plus 2 at large teams that can’t be from the 6 major conferences, imagine this scenario:
Georgia goes 12-0 in the regular season, crushing everybody on its schedule including South Carolina which doesn’t lose another game and ends the regular season ranked #2 in the country. Georgia is ranked #1 in the country from mid September until the SEC championship game.
Georgia Tech loses to Furman out of conference, but rebounds to win its ACC division at 6-2. Georgia beats them 35-0 in the last game of the regular season.
There is a 3 way tie in the West at 5-3 in the conference and LSU, 5-3 and 8-4 overall record with a 3 touchdown loss to West Virginia out of conference, wins the tiebreaker for the West.
LSU beats Georgia 17-14 in the SEC championship game with a Hail Mary pass on the last play of regulation to tie the game and a field goal in OT to win it.
Georgia Tech wins the ACC championship game 14-13 over Maryland and has a 9-4 overall record.
So Georgia Tech and LSU, 9-4 each and conference champions, are in the 8 team playoff for the championship and 12-1 Georgia is out. 11-1 South Carolina is out.
I’m sure all of you would be fine with it.
Paul in NH
January 11th, 2012
5:30 pm
The BCS will likely go to a +1 but that is NOT about trying to find a true champion – it is about protecting the big bowls and the remuneration for the organizers that go with them.
There needs to be a playoff but it will have to be pushed by all of the big 6 conferences for it to happen.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
5:34 pm
To the Dawgs who want an 8 team playoff, the 6 major conference champions plus 2 at large teams that can’t be from the 6 major conferences, imagine this scenario
Nobody said that the 2 at large teams can’t come from the major conferences.
Rico
January 11th, 2012
5:41 pm
“While we here in the Deep South paid rapt attention to the doings Monday night in the Superdome, much of the rest of the nation looked elsewhere.”
Wrong – I live in the Deep South and didn’t watch a single snap. I fell asleep the first time those two teams played. Why would I want to try watching them again?
South Carolina DAWGS
January 11th, 2012
5:45 pm
I will have to SEE IT to BELIEVE it – I like it just the way it is personally – One Dance and both the girls are DIXIE BELLS!!!!!!!!!
Sting_em
January 11th, 2012
5:45 pm
Go to 16 team playoff. At large teams no more than two a conference and have to be in different brackets.
South Carolina DAWGS
January 11th, 2012
5:45 pm
Enter your comments here
Alphare
January 11th, 2012
5:50 pm
LADawg,
“I used to think the BCS was a mythical championship. Now, I’m sure the SEC is a mythical championship”.
Actually BCS Champ holds more water than SEC Champ.
While BCS tries its best to pick 2 best teams, SEC doesn’t care about its 2nd best team at all. Actually this year SEC pits #1 SEC team LSU against #5 SEC team UGA.
If SEC picks 2 best teams, it would be LSU vs BAMA instead of LSU vs UGA in the SEC CG, which would make this year’s BCSCG less contraversial.
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
5:53 pm
Mark,
There is no doubt the plus one is happening. The others( Big 12, Big 10, Big East, PAC 14) all realize they have one shot at this ( to stop the SEC from dominating without due process) for the next 6 years. The problem they all see is the money generated by the SEC and this year the money will be at it greatest all time.
Money and Embarrassment has formed this one plus scenario.
DP
January 11th, 2012
5:54 pm
GTTroll, “Beast from the East”, who I believe is a Florida fan, thinks only conference champions should be in the playoff and I’ve read numerous Dawg fans on various AJC blogs who have taken the same position lately, though they believed differently in 2007.
crazy
January 11th, 2012
5:56 pm
Its about time..
Nativebird
January 11th, 2012
5:59 pm
If the championship game is between two same-conference teams again, or if the winner is an SEC team again…it WILL change. Count on it.
Michigan football looking forward to taking on national champion Alabama – Detroit Free Press | Global Sports Insiders
January 11th, 2012
6:00 pm
[...] pegged …2013 College Football BCS National Championship Odds and PredictionsBleacher ReportDare we dream? A college football playoff might be at handAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog)College Football Nation: SEC-reign-120111ESPN (blog)South Bend [...]
Alphare
January 11th, 2012
6:00 pm
On another thought:
1. If SEC picks highest ranked East team vs highest ranked West team, it’d be LSU vs SC.
2. If SEC picks teams with best records in its own division, it’d be LSU(5-0) vs SC(5-0) as well.
3. If SEC picks 2 best ranked team in the conference, it’d be LSU vs BAMA.
Instead, SEC uses a weird formula, as a result, 5th best SEC team UGA got into this year’s SEC CG.
DP
January 11th, 2012
6:02 pm
Good points Alphare. It’s amusing to see Dawg fans who pretend like they finished 2nd in the SEC because they didn’t play the best 3 teams in the conference during the regular season.
Alphare
January 11th, 2012
6:05 pm
4. If SEC uses overall record plus tie-breaker, it’d be LSU vs SC as well.
Sam Robards, Dawg Fan
January 11th, 2012
6:06 pm
I think you can use the current poll/bowl structure to facilitate an 8-team playoff.
Let’s face it: we both love and hate the polls, so you take the top 8 teams from the final BCS poll and put them into a playoff.
The first round would take place in the 4 current BCS bowls (Sugar, Fiesta, Orange and Rose), then have your semi-finals and championship at those same stadiums (rotating the semis and championship location annually).
I don’t think it should be limited to conference champions because there are some really good teams that, while they didn’t win their conferences (Bama this year, UGA in ‘07 for starters), still deserve a shot at the title.
What’s so wrong with that system? Heck, the big bowls would love it because they (potentially) get twice as much revenue than a standard year.
And the field of teams is so small that it would require an extremely good season to get into the top 8, hence maintaining the regular season.
Too bad it won’t happen. Oh well.
Go Dawgs!
Keep it how it is
January 11th, 2012
6:07 pm
Playoff will just draw out more crybabies en masse
DP
January 11th, 2012
6:08 pm
Alphare, I hadn’t thought of it this way previously, but in the regular season Georgia didn’t play the 3 best teams in the SEC, lost to the 4th best team and beat SEC teams from 6-12 in a year when the SEC was as top heavy and as weak on the bottom as it has ever been.
xroyalx
January 11th, 2012
6:12 pm
so much for bowl week 830pm. should play 4 the sat b4 new years day and 4 On new years day. i never have understood why college football waits a month after the last game to play its championship
OopsSee
January 11th, 2012
6:21 pm
Clemson should be thankful that the Orange Bowl was the lowest-rated BCS game ever!
Tony in Johns Creek
January 11th, 2012
6:27 pm
Now the commissioners are on board huh? what about the education they’ll miss and the extra games that aren’t good for them? blah blah blah… they are losing MONEY now.. because they’ve heard the collective yawn that is now spreading through the country that this “system” or whatever it is they call it (different every year with the criteria it seems) is a joke. Bowl games are meaningless exhibitions. The SEC championship game is really what my season comes to. They know how much a playoff would bring in terms of ratings over these silly bowl games… take the conference champions, ask the players what their opinions are re: a playoff. They deserve a voice in this. Not just the suits and the big wig millionaire coaches. The coaches shouldn’t be allowed to vote. That’s absurd, ignorant and borderline criminal.
Dare we hope? A college football playoff might be at hand | Mark … | Antalya Football Travel Blog
January 11th, 2012
6:29 pm
[...] Link: Dare we hope? A college football playoff might be at hand | Mark … [...]
Crimson Crush
January 11th, 2012
6:40 pm
Sam Robards, Dawg Fan
January 11th, 2012
6:06 pm
________________________________________________________________________
Bingo ! .. play out the top 8 ranked regular season … FORGET the “conference champ auto qualify” routine … that is simply a ruse to allow weaker conferences a chance to water down the field with scrubs hoping one year they can hit a 2 game hot streak . ( Hell the Pac 12 could have easily been sending a “champion” into a that style playoff this year that lost six frigging gamesin the regular season )
Most people screaming for a playoff don’t really want to see the strongest teams in college football play it out … they want THEIR team to have a shot to get in … even if the standards and regular season both have to be weakened to do it .
If an expanded playoff was to be , what you wrote is what I have been espousing for a while now verbatim .
Saban Never Sleeps
January 11th, 2012
6:47 pm
A few comments
1. Sorry some of the other nation decided not to watch..NOW, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT REAL WINNERS LOOK LIKE and the SEC is not going to come down to your level, you must rise to ours.
2. Not all conferences are equal so a playoff must consider rankings and not conference champions. The Big 12 no longer even have a conference championship.
– The larger conferences and invest more, created more branding and have more fans. Why should they be penalized. If the MWC gets 1 team then the SEC gets 4 into a playoff.
3. The Big 10 and PAC 12 need to cut the ties to the Rose Bowl and open it to all. What a bunch of crap. The southern team were cut out and now they are crying like little whiners. To add to that now they are starting to schedule regular season games against each other. Kind of like how when a loser gets his a(!) kicked all the time he crys and will not play anymore. Sorry, uga but you cqan now see how much you embarassed the conference with that lackluster display.
4. AND THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT
ROLL TIDE ROLL, 2011 NATIONAL CHAMPS. Held a team to 92 total yards and 5 1st downs. DOMINATING. You can run but you cant hide.
GssiT
January 11th, 2012
6:56 pm
When a team that neither wins its division nor its conference plays in the big game, that tells me that big money is making all the decisions. After all, “it is all about the money” to quote an ACC athletic director.
David
January 11th, 2012
7:11 pm
This just in! The LSU football team is stuck in New Orleans and has been unable to leave. Seems some unruly Bama fans painted a 50 yard line in front of their bus…………..
Sharkman
January 11th, 2012
7:12 pm
It’s about darn time!
Born2Buzz
January 11th, 2012
7:21 pm
There was an Orange Bowl this year? I missed it. Was there a Sugar Bowl or Cotton Bowl? Missed them too? If they aren’t going to play the bowl games on New Years Day then they can just get rid of them.
8 team playoff, now!
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
7:21 pm
I can guarantee you that winning the conference championship will have nothing to do with getting into the plus one or playoff position.
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
7:22 pm
The automatic qualifying option will be gone, and the SEC will be able to get more than 2 teams into BCS bowl games.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
7:34 pm
I can guarantee you that winning the conference championship will have nothing to do with getting into the plus one or playoff position.
How exactly can you guarantee that? Even if you are Mike Slive you can’t guarantee that. If they created a playoff where most of the teams are SEC teams then College Football as a business will tank even more.
Big Crimson 75
January 11th, 2012
7:47 pm
Bring it on.
4 teams, 8 teams, whatever.
As long as they pick the best teams, no matter what conf. Do it
It’s only gonna prove the superiority of the SEC
whats a three point shot worth ?
January 11th, 2012
7:50 pm
most all of America watched something other than the champ bcs bowl…..this means the sec is only important to trailer dwellers in the south
DP
January 11th, 2012
7:56 pm
I remember 1974 when North Carolina, NC State (with David Thompson) and Maryland (with Tom McMillen, Len Elmore and John Lucas) were 3 of the 4 or 5 best teams in the country all playing in the ACC. Only the conference tournament champion got in the 16 team NCAA field, but the champions of the Ivy League and various other conferences got automatic bids. Maryland lost the ACC championship game to NC State in OT 103-100 and didn’t get into the NCAA tournament. Here’s a video on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nJpPGBa-Ic
If college football goes to a plus one or 6 or 8 team playoff, it should be the highest ranked teams even if that means multiple teams from a conference, or if taking a team that didn’t win its conference championship over one that did (like Stanford over UCLA this season had 6 loss UCLA upset Oregon in the Pac 12 championship game).
Tech Engineer
January 11th, 2012
8:00 pm
They should eliminate the BCS and let the bowls compete for teams. The AP and coaches polls would then vote for the national champion. They would do a better job than the BCS, and it would provide much more interest. Realignment would go away, since conference affliation would not matter.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
8:01 pm
If college football goes to a plus one or 6 or 8 team playoff, it should be the highest ranked teams even if that means multiple teams from a conference
Yes, we all can’t wait for this tournament setup:
1. LSU vs 8. Georgia
2. Bama vs 7. South Carolina
3. Arkansas vs. 6. Auburn
4. Florida vs 5. Oklahoma
That would be really exciting.
JAC
January 11th, 2012
8:03 pm
Playoff could start next year, it’s simple. Just have the 4 highest ranked Conference Champions play each other in a New Years day bowl. The next week have the 2 winners play for championship. This keeps the regular season and conference championship games meaninful, and keeps the fun of the BCS rankings intact.
Gman84
January 11th, 2012
8:07 pm
Just never got around to watching Clemson-WVU. Guess I missed a lot of….just doesn’t matter.
Playing the BIG game on a random Monday in January was just a stupid as making the Orange Bowl must see Wednesday night TV or whenever it was played.
I enjoyed Baylor Washington and 58 minutes of UGA-MSU. Other than that, I don’t recall a single play from any other game. If your team isn’t playing it’s increasingly hard to GAS.
Roy Drinkard
January 11th, 2012
8:22 pm
One additional point to your point about traveling to a bowl game is why invest money and time to go sit in the end zone to watch a game when you can watch it in HD on the 50 yard line. The seats the schools recieve for the most part are awful seats.
1/11/2012 Evening Edition | collegefootballnewswire.com
January 11th, 2012
8:23 pm
[...] Deserves A Good Look MONSON: University Of Utah Should Drop The ‘Utes’ Nickname BRADLEY: Dare We Dream? A College Football Playoff Might Be At Hand MARSHALL: Auburn’s VanGorder A Throwback KING: Bowl Games And Those Who Watch MANDEL: [...]
Orange11
January 11th, 2012
8:33 pm
When do student athletes stop being students? When a playoff system is put in place.
DP
January 11th, 2012
8:42 pm
GTTroll, shouldn’t you be getting ready to watch Tech at NC State in basketball on TV tonight? I know you guys weren’t much in football, but this is basketball and Tech is……
Never mind, I just remember that I watched Alabama slaughter them at Tech’s home away from the home the other night and Tech’s basketball team is even worse than its football team.
Reality
January 11th, 2012
8:47 pm
We can dream…..
Dreamer
January 11th, 2012
9:10 pm
If College FB had a playoff, I would cry tears of joy…so would Boise St
Auburn Jacket
January 11th, 2012
9:15 pm
Take the 6 automatic qualifier conference champions and 2 at-large bids into an 8 team for a 3 game playoff. Quarters and semis are on campus the weeks following the conference championship games and the National Championship game can be rotated among the top bowls. The teams eliminated can still be slotted for New Year’s Day bowls.
gbal
January 11th, 2012
9:16 pm
gasit – NO – What it tells you is that all the voters and computers show that the other confrences are so weak and play such a weak schedule; that a stronger confrence has multiple teams that are stronger than these weaker confrences,
Are you suggestin that the ACC # 1 is deserving or good enough to get in the NC game over the SEC 2 or 3 just because they win their weaker confrence?
BS
gbal
January 11th, 2012
9:20 pm
JAC = BS This thought must come from a democrat. All shout have an equal chace regardless of the effort they put into being the best. This would deam confences useless.
gbal
January 11th, 2012
9:24 pm
GT – If those are the best 8 then it should be the 8 in the field. Other confrences better figure it out and get better. You dont feel the best 8 should make the field? Drop all confrences all together… Now should the best 8 make the playoff
ptdawg04
January 11th, 2012
9:42 pm
One possibility that is very intriguing is this. BCS may dump all bowl affiliations to go to plus one only model, bidding out the location like the super bowl. No more complaints to them about automatic vs. Non-automatic qualifiers or what also-ran gets snubbed from BCS conferences.
They may just let each bowl committee deal with those headaches.
In this scenario each bowl would likely accept only conference champs, therefore avoiding cheapening the regular season as in this year (I know it worked out this year with bama, but this year has opened Pandora’s box so to speak).
The big10 & PAC12 champs already play. The acc & big east champs already basically play. Leaving the sec & big12 to work something out with the sugar & fiesta bowls. The plus one would then choose after the bowl games & play 2 weeks later, just like the NFL. Any outside schools (ND & BYU) would have to find their way into one of the conferences to beef up their schedule strength.
If this were to happen, the regular season matters, conference championships matter, schedules matter, polls matter & bowls matter.
What do y’all think?
inmyhonestopinion
January 11th, 2012
9:57 pm
Another flaw in the current system…..
Because of the 5 – 6 week layoff between the regular season and the bowls – BCS championship, you really are crowning the champion on being the best team that can prepare during such a layoff. It’s not the best team at the end of the real season. It reflects the best team after sitting around for a month during the holiday season. To represent the true champion, the playoffs need to follow the regular season and be completed on New Years day.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
10:05 pm
GT – If those are the best 8 then it should be the 8 in the field. Other confrences better figure it out and get better.
Or they should cut a good TV deal with ESPN as soon as possible because they are the ones who really determine rankings. There is no real objective way to just rank the teams therefore every ranking is questionable and biased. Especially when coaches vote. The teams you think are the top eight may not actually be the top 8.
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
10:28 pm
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
7:34 pm
I can guarantee you that winning the conference championship will have nothing to do with getting into the plus one or playoff position.
How exactly can you guarantee that? Even if you are Mike Slive you can’t guarantee that. If they created a playoff where most of the teams are SEC teams then College Football as a business will tank even more.
Please stay on top of things, or learn to stay off these blogs. For weeks now you have been whining the crap out of a non-conference champion playing in the game. And then last Friday THREE(3) of the Big Boy Commissioners all stated that until every conference plays a “Championship game in EACH Conference” that the exclusion of non champions is not going to exclude teams. Mike Slive and your ACC commissioner both stated that the best two teams disregarding conference affliliation should be in the Final game and if that game resulted after the initial bowl games they would vote for it.
Your whining is old, and as a graduate of GT myself I am sick of your repeated non useful and idiotic post. You must have been a Business graduate or you work in the janitorial services wing at GT and your name is Bob.
DawgFan
January 11th, 2012
10:30 pm
conference champions plus two at large teams. sounds good to me. This allows winning your conference to still be relevant as well allowing two highly ranked at large teams to get in. If you want four at large then make a ten team playoff. go dawgs.
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
10:31 pm
inmyhonestopinion
January 11th, 2012
9:57 pm
Another flaw in the current system…..
Because of the 5 – 6 week layoff between the regular season and the bowls – BCS championship, you really are crowning the champion on being the best team that can prepare during such a layoff. It’s not the best team at the end of the real season. It reflects the best team after sitting around for a month during the holiday season. To represent the true champion, the playoffs need to follow the regular season and be completed on New Years day.
Did you happen to keep up with the FCS Playoffs this year. How about 3 weeks layoff between games? Yeah it happened. It gives teams a chance to return players who may have been injured late in the season or during a playoff game.
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
10:33 pm
From all comments coming out the last 5 days, the automatic qualifying is going to be history. The only one that is arguing is the smaller schools, conferences and Notre Dame.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
10:34 pm
lol. Boom Boom is mad. He got caught making stuff up and pretending he knows something. It’s ok man. We are all just speculating here. Unless you were in the first round of BCS meetings in New Orleans. Were you?
Sun Devil Dave
January 11th, 2012
10:36 pm
Umm, since I watched maybe 30 minutes of the UGA/MSU game, 10 minutes of the Clemson slaughter, 3/4 of the Arizona State beat down, 10 minutes of the Oregon game and zip of any other games, a play-off/SEC 1 and 2 BCS or any other bowl at the holidays mean nothing to me. I’m finished with the greed mongering – $1800 a ticket to watch the SEC National Championships indeed. Only morons would pay that!
gbal
January 11th, 2012
10:37 pm
3 point shot ..So you saying the NC gamed should be what is best for TV and get the highest rankings. Ok. I thought it should be about the two best teams.
Hey, I wouldnt have watched if the game was USC Oregon … So what? Im just not interested.
So happend that the voters located all over the country voted unanimously almost that two teams from the same confrence and region of the country were the best this year which didnt set up well for tv.
Oh, but it should all be about tv, sorry.
Lets come up with a computer system that will predict the best TV ratings and let this be 1/4 of the BCS formula. Cant have the best playing if some people wot watch it now. F>O
gbal
January 11th, 2012
10:41 pm
Sun devil – Dont blame you. I wouldnt have watched this year either if I hadnt had a confrence or team in the race that was of interest. Things will change…
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
10:41 pm
For those of you who really think an eight(8) team playoff is going to happen, please rethink what you are saying. It may be what you want, but Presidents, Coaches and AD’s will only allow 1 additional game. You can expect 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3 and two winner play it out in the BCS Championship game, maybe starting in 2013 Orange Bowl with rotating between the off Site( this year it would have been the Rose Bowl) next year it would be the Fiesta Bowl with the Orange Bowl hosting the BCS Championship game. They are all jockeying for position now.
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
10:43 pm
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
10:34 pm
lol. Boom Boom is mad. He got caught making stuff up and pretending he knows something. It’s ok man. We are all just speculating here. Unless you were in the first round of BCS meetings in New Orleans. Were you?
Never made up a thing, as a matter of fact I was in New Orleans and OKC this past week. I think we will see who is right and who is the blow hard…go back to sweeping the floors before you custodial manager fires you and we have to support you with more services.
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
10:44 pm
GT Bob..you are embarrassing every GT Graduate…please change your handle..
Boom Boom
January 11th, 2012
10:47 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/sports/ncaafootball/change-is-coming-to-college-football-postseason.html?ref=ncaafootball
Please read..this is one of many many articles that will enlighten you on what some of the discussions have gone down and tweaking…
over1861
January 11th, 2012
10:47 pm
Something seems wrong here! Isn’t the NCAA in charge of college sports? When did the conference commissions get to call all the shots?
gbal
January 11th, 2012
10:50 pm
boom boom – sorry, your 10:31 just is irrelevent> NO point.
gbal
January 11th, 2012
10:56 pm
it will probably start with 4. +1 makes no sense. 2 mor for 2 teams and one more for a third??? Make it 4 if there is a change.
If it went 8 or 16, I sure hope the bowls pick up the 7 Poff games and eliminate ssome of the meaningless bowls down the line.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
10:59 pm
Please read..this is one of many many articles that will enlighten you on what some of the discussions have gone down and tweaking…
Please tell me where in that article all of the conference commissioners are saying that conference championships will not be used as a qualifier. That article is just regurgitating the same crap everyone has been reporting the past couple of days and it says nothing about what you are arguing.
gbal
January 11th, 2012
11:14 pm
GO to bed GTB Ypu make no sense bro
gbal
January 11th, 2012
11:18 pm
no one said all of the conference commissioners are saying that conference championships will not be used as a qualifier. what arr you saying.
GTBob
January 11th, 2012
11:23 pm
Actually if you want to read the Boom Boom post from 10:28, that is exactly what he said.
Boom Boom
January 12th, 2012
12:02 am
GTBob…
You sir are just ignorant and your post for the past 4 weeks reflect your total lack of knowledge as it applies to sports, and collegiate football. You whine, you cry, you are proven a liar, you are proven a fake and yet you come on every blog and repeat the same old crap and disregard that the team you said did not deserve to be in BCS Game DESTROYED the supposed best team in America while OKSU loses to a 6-7 team, had to go into overtime to beat an injured Stanford team, gave up 400 plus yards each week to average teams. Your logic is lost, your ignoranc is growing and you are irrelevant. I have a sneaking suspicion you are Mike P in disguise.
Boom Boom
January 12th, 2012
12:07 am
You really need to read more post, the Commissioners ( SEC/ACC) BOTH have stated conference affliliation, conference champions, and automatic qualifying would have no impact in their opinions on who would play in the game if they had their way. The common thing is placing the top 4 teams in positions to play with the winners playing in the BCS championship game. That was their opnions and had been for the past three years and it would take a much better plan that did not do away with bowl games to make it a livable situation with most of the BCS community.
You will not see an 8 TEAM Playoff…NOT this go around….the Bowl folks have too much influence.
Paul in NH
January 12th, 2012
12:43 am
There certainly are some humerous posts on this blog. My favorite was the one about having 8 teams and that it should be the top 8 teams even if it means only 2 conferences are represented.
Does anyone seriously think that Jim Delaney (B1G) and Larry Scott (Pac 12), representing 2 of the 3 conferences with the greatest financial clout, are going to sign on for any 8 team system that didn’t have automatic entry for the winners of their conferences? Does anyone think that the networks are going to go along with an 8 team playoff without the 2 most populous conferences being represented?
Paul in NH
January 12th, 2012
12:51 am
gbal
January 11th, 2012
10:37 pm
So happend that the voters located all over the country voted unanimously almost that two teams from the same confrence and region of the country were the best this year which didnt set up well for tv.
——-
No they didn’t – unless you have a new definition of “unanimously”. LSU was a unanimous #1 when picked for the BCSCG but Ok State had a large number of votes for #2, even though Alabama had more. The computer rankings, one of the components in the BCS rankings, had Ok State ahead of Alabama
Flounder
January 12th, 2012
1:09 am
35 Bowl games this year (not including the NCG). That’s 70 teams. 14 of those 70 teams had a 6-6 record or worse (the worse = UCLA who was 6-7). What’s the point?? Why invite two 6-6 teams to play in the “WhoCares.com” Bowl in NoWhereVille, USA if its not an early part of a Playoff system??
Also, for a concrete example of the farse that this year’s bowl season was … consider the MAJOR SHAFT that Boise State (11-1 record) got by being matched against Arizona St (6-6 record).
Brian Friel
January 12th, 2012
4:59 am
I heard someone on ESPN compare the BCS to the NFL: Let’s just vote the two best teams and Green Bay and New England will “play” the Super Bowl.
I think a NFLer once said, that’s why they play the games…..
Dawggone shameful bowl....
January 12th, 2012
5:49 am
First, Dawg fans couldn’t be bothered to attend their teams bowl game in far-away Florida; then, the Dawgs themselves couldn’t lift a paw to stop a second half collapse and defeat at the hands of…a big 10 opponent. I do hope Richt gets some sort of career endurance medal for his time in Athens: between dealing with a thug-filled and spoiled group of wannabe athletes, his fan base has to be one of the least impressive in all of college sports.
drew
January 12th, 2012
6:06 am
I’ve advocated for several years a boycott of all meaningless bowl games (i.e., all except the championship game). And from the low TV ratings for all of the “exhibition” bowls, maybe it’s finally working. If people don’t go, and more importantly, if people don’t watch, change will come. I won’t watch another bowl game until a playoff system is implemented. Of course it’s all about the money…always has been, always will be, but the money comes from advertising, and advertisers won’t continue to pay big bucks for games no one is watching. A playoff system is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when. And the more people support the current system, the longer it’s gonna take.
BCS got the NC RIGHT!
January 12th, 2012
6:56 am
Mark still think Bama did not deserve to be in the NC and OK state which should have lost to Stanford deserved to be there? You missed that one!
BCS got the NC RIGHT!
January 12th, 2012
7:05 am
Mark you SEC hater. Because the SEC plays great football and the others are sub-par we should let the other teams play in the NC every once in a while just for kicks? What about other conferences dominating other sports?
elroy
January 12th, 2012
7:51 am
Dare we dream, only 1 or 2 AJC columnists. keep schultz & sh*t can the rest, especially Bradley!
FLA DAWG.
January 12th, 2012
7:59 am
Ironically this season Bama benefited from the lack of a playoff.
They did not win their division and had lost in regular season to LSU (well, Bama gave LSU the first game). It was the lack of a playoff that gave Bama the opportunity to show they were indeed the better (much better) team.
Insulted Dawg Fan!!!!!!!!!
January 12th, 2012
8:22 am
How in the world am I the ONLY GA fan that seems to have caught Mark’s unbelieveable/unforgiveable mistake. Mark, how could you screw up the name of GA’s stadium?! Bobby Dodd Stadium? That’s GA Tech’s stadium. What an INSULT!!!!! GA’s stadium is Sanford Stadium. It’s also shocking to me that no GA Tech fan caught the mistake. Mark you need to do a better job of getting your facts straight/proof reading!
Alphare
January 12th, 2012
8:42 am
FLA Dawg,
Hate to break to you if it’s all new to you. BCS is a 2-team playoff system. That’s why we have the elaborate human polls and computer polls to determine which are the 2 best teams.
Except the top 2 teams, BCS doesn’t care about any other ranked teams, which is why BSU was not playing a BCS bowl while WV/VT/Clemson/MI were playing.
FLA DAWG.
January 12th, 2012
8:51 am
Ha!
The BCS is a playoff system!
No way in he!!.
Just ask Auburn fans from a few years ago – undefeated, winner of The SEC and no shot at The BCS.
That’s not a playoff system.
Bama earned their Championship but the lack of a playoff system got them their second shot.
A playoff system means you beat a team and move on to the next – not play the same team again.
A true playoff system has nothing to do with voting.
TallaDawg
January 12th, 2012
9:08 am
The lack of enthusiasm is also in large part becasue the games have skewed so far from January 1st. I am as rabid a college football fan as anyone (I do not watch NFL, MLB or NBA, ever.), but I quit watching Monday night. It was MONDAY night January 9th for crying out loud. I had to go to work on Tuesday, and it did not even seem like the college football. IF the championship game is not on January 1, which is understandable, it should be on the SATURDAY after January 1. That would help, alot.
I take exception to all of the yahoos that say the championship game is all that matters. Ask WVU, or MichSU or UFla. fans what a victory over a out of conference opponent in the final game of the year does for morale and bragging rights. Saying the championship is ALL that matters is unsportsman-like. Basically saying, “If you do not win it all, why bother even playing the game?” How about playing for the competition and playing to prove in each match-up who is the better team, and God-forbid for the fun of it.
Gbal
January 12th, 2012
9:12 am
FLA – “Ironically this season Bama benefited from the lack of a playoff.”
Wouldnt say they benifited from the lack of a playoff system…. Yea they were voted #2 by the BCS overwhelmingly and therefore played in the BCSNCG… It did happen to be a confrence opponent who they had played already and lost to.
BUT — Had there been a 4-8 team playoff system in place I would hope that Alabama would have made the field based on ranking, and would have still had a chance to win the NC. I think they would have been on of the top to favorites.
fuzzybee
January 12th, 2012
9:21 am
Can’t be done without a comprehensive rework of college football. An 8 team playoff would be fine except you are now asking unpaid “student” athletes to play as many as 3 more games after an already expanded college schedule of up to 12 games. That means more injuries and less time to actually attend school (insert snickers here).
Seriously, you would have to limit school schedules to no more than 10 games including a conference championship game which means less money for the schools, especially the ones not moving on to the playoff. That is not going to go over well.
I do like the concept because it would further marginalize and hopefully kill some of the stupid bowls. Who cares about 6-6 teams playing in some icy open-air stadium in east bumblefrack?
DP
January 12th, 2012
9:42 am
Mark Bradley, after pitching a hissy fit a few weeks ago about Alabama only getting into the BCS championship game because of its “brand”, can’t bring himself to say a word about Alabama playing a virtually perfect game and crushing an LSU team that was being talked about as possibly the greatest college team of all time. If that had been Georgia instead of Alabama, Bradley would write about the game for the rest of his career. It looks like Bradley took Furman Bisher’s position as the AJC’s resident Alabama hater, though Bisher was in the bag for Bobby Dodd and Tech and Bradley is in the bag for Mark Richt and Georgia.
Mark Bradley
January 12th, 2012
9:52 am
That wasn’t a mistake, Insulted. What I meant was that Georgia fans laugh out loud when Georgia Tech draws a crowd of 40,000.
Alphare
January 12th, 2012
9:53 am
FLA DAWG,
“Bama earned their Championship but the lack of a playoff system got them their second shot.”
Lack of playoff system got them their 2nd shot? Are you kidding yourself? They got their shot with the current 2-team playoff system. They would have their 2nd shot with a 4-team playoff system as well.
Jim
January 12th, 2012
9:54 am
As we have seen any changes to the current system will be driven by the amount of money to be made. I would make the following changes:
1. All conferences limited to 12 teams, split in two divisions, and play a championship.
2. Do away with qualifing and not qualifing conference for the BCS. To qualify for a BCS Bowl a team has to finish in the top 8.
3. The BCS Bowl games would pit 1/3, 2/4, 5/7, & 6/8. Teams 5/7 and 6/8 would play on New Year’s Eve and 1/3 and 2/4 on New Year’s Day. The National Championship game would be played a week or 10 days later between the winners of 1/3 1nd 2/4.
4. The other Bowl games would pit Conference Champions against Conference Champions and Division Champions against Division Champions.
5. I would also add one more bowl game to cover teams like USC who are barred from Bowl play and call it the Charity Challenge Bowl. In this Bowl the teams would play but the proceeds would go to a charity rather than the school. This way the school is punished but the players are still rewarded. This could be a win/win.
I would add that the talk of the plus 1 pitting 1/4 and 2/3 would be more like stacking the deck for a pre determined outcome.
What you guys think?
Jimmy Crack
January 12th, 2012
9:55 am
Go figure, Mark, that there is such an anti-SEC sentiment nationally, yet who was the conference that offered up the playoff scenario that no one wanted to discuss? The SEC.
robodawg
January 12th, 2012
10:09 am
ESPN has way too much sway on college football. Maybe they’re getting what they deserve.
Alphare
January 12th, 2012
10:17 am
robodawg,
I thought everybody just watches games, not ESPN. I don’t watch them unless there are games there. Turn away when games are off.
Gbal
January 12th, 2012
11:31 am
8 team playoff – I think it should be the top 8, per the current BCS ranking system (nothing better), regardles of confrence, but I can assure you that several confrences are not going to let that happen. The main reason they are giving it consideration now is because two teams from the same confrence were in the two team playoff this year. They want to insure that their confrence champions have a shot in the future.
So I would settle for now with (and tweak down the road).
8 team playoff –
6 BCS confrence winners automatically qualify IF they finish in in the top 10 per the BCS ranking system.
2 additional spots filled based on BCS rankings.
If a confrence winner fails to qualify due to rankings, the next highest ranked team will fill the open slot.
>>>>
The 7 highest bidding or BCS bowls to host the games. First round Mid Dec, Second 2 weeks later, final Jan.
Other bowls stil exist on their own schedule and will continue to be as meaningless as ever but a reward to the schools.
The season is not really exdended. Yes there would be either 1 or 2 more games for 4 teams. 70 or so bowl teams continue practicing thru December any way.
Gbal
January 12th, 2012
11:36 am
And bet the house, TV ratings would be up on all 7 of the BCS Bowl games. Attandance??? Now thats a tough one. Dont know that a crowd could follow their team for 3 potential games?
Best would be to have the first round at the highest seeds school. Let the Bowl come to the campuses!
Gbal
January 12th, 2012
11:39 am
p
rick
January 12th, 2012
11:58 am
Automatic conference qualifiers is not the answer, as we saw this year with the pathetic teams that played in the Big East and ACC. The depth of the SEC would have had at least four teams better than the conference champs of each of those conferences, and if you don’t believe it look at what South Carolina did to Clemson. I think the answer is at least 16 teams in the playoff, seeded by a selection committee, and preferably 32 to where anyone who even remotely thinks they have a chance gets in. First round games are played at the higher seeded teams home, where they will for sure play before a sellout, then the round of 16 goes to traditional bowl sites like Miami, LA, Dallas, New Orleans, Phoenix, Atlanta, and then add in Indy, and either Minneapolis or Detroit. Guaranteed sell outs, lots of excitement, TV ratings off the chart, and huge money to the colleges just like the basketball tournament. If you aren’t good enough to be one of the best 32 teams in the country, you shouldn’t be playing in the postseason anyway. I watched three bowl games this year, the Outback, the Fiesta, and the rematch, just so I could see Les Miles get his hat handed to him.
FLA DAWG.
January 12th, 2012
12:11 pm
Alphare,
You don’t know what would have happened if Bama had to play an extra game or two.
Need Proof?
LSU BEAT THEM in regular season. Another team might have beaten them too.
You don’t know and neither do I but the fact is Bama benefited from the current system.
No hard feelings against The Tide – I greatly respect the team and am very confident they are the undisputed Champs.
GSUGRAD
January 12th, 2012
2:13 pm
I am pretty sure there is already a playoff in college football, at least I am pretty sure that is what the last 2 games I attended in Statesboro were, and pretty sure we got beat down in a semifinal game in North Dakota. Am I missing something?
Delbert D.
January 12th, 2012
4:03 pm
So, this would be the BCS Invitational Tournament (BIT). Since it would not include all conference champions, the winner should not be declared “NCAA Champion.” That is not really any better than the hare-brained scheme currently used.
FLA DAWG.
January 12th, 2012
5:20 pm
Even in high school football teams reach the playoffs by their win / loss record.
No one votes to determine who will play – it’s done by their win / loss record – period.
These are youngsters who may play SEVERAL additional games with no ill effect.
We don not have a playoff system in place when a conference winner is subject the the outcome of what is essentially an election by vote of people around the country to determine against whom that conference winner will play.
Ask Auburn Fans how they felt about their 2004 season. They win their division, they win the conference and do not get a shot at a Championship because they didn’t get enough votes!
Go figure.
FL DAWG
January 12th, 2012
9:16 pm
Alphare,
Where are you?
I guess you have nothing to say.
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