How is this as a playoff system for non-BCS schools?
916685
I like your idea about getting the smaller bowls to cooperate, but here's a plan:\n\nThe national championship game is January 8, 2007 - a *full week* after New Year's Day, which is when the bowl season used to finish. In other words, 01-08-2007 is about 5-6 weeks after the end of the regular season, which would allow plenty of time for a 32-team, single-elimination playoff, especially if the season were shortened back to 11 games (as it was for so long).\n\nNow, take the first round, which would be a total of 16 games: those could be the most insignificant bowls (where you usually have a 6-6 team playing a 7-5 team). As the rounds progress, each round has the more significant bowls, ultimately ending up in the semifinal round (say, Orange and Sugar Bowls) and the final round (championship). The championship game should be the Rose Bowl, or "the grandaddy of 'em all."\n\n\n\n\n\nRegardless, a playoff is necessary, so I like that you're thinking about that.
908763
In the short history of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) there has never been a game involving two teams that met in the regular season.\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCS_National_Championship_Game\n\nFlorida and Florida State did meet in the alleged championship of the Bowl Alliance.  Unlike the BCS, there was no guarantee that the winner of the Bowl Alliance would be the national champion.\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Alliance
40791
It is a combination of human polls (coaches' poll and Harris poll) and several computer rankings.  The human polls count for two-thirds of a team's BCS rating, and the computer polls account for the other third.  At the end of the regular season and conference championship games, the teams ranked 1 and 2 play with the winner being declared the BCS champion.\n\nAs for participation in the other BCS bowls, that is determined by conference champions and wild card selections.  The champions of the Big East, Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12, and Pac 10 get automatic bids to the BCS.  This leaves 2 spots open for wild card selections.  Now, if a team is rated in the top 6 in the BCS, they automatically qualify.  If the conference champions make up the top 5 or 6 teams, then the BCS bowls themselves select who they want to play.\n\nWho plays in which BCS bowl is, for the most part, determined by the bowls themselves.  The 4 BCS bowls (Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta) rotate as to which one is the BCS championship game (1 vs. 2).  Participation in the other bowls is determined by the bowls themselves, but there is a predilection towards certain bowls selecting the champion of certain conferences.  For example, the Rose Bowl, when it is not the BCS championship game, usually takes the champions of the Big 10 and Pac 10.  This is because those are the teams that historically played in that bowl before there ever was a BCS.  Also, the SEC champion usually plays in the Sugar Bowl (because of history as well).
782041
There is no limitation on the number of teams from each conference.  There are 4 BCS bowl games, plus the national championship game, so 10 slots. Each of the 6 BCS conferences automatically sends their conference champion.  #1 and #2 goes to the national championship game.  \nBowl Championship Series Selection Policies and Procedures, 2007-2010 Games:\n\nAutomatic Qualification\n\n1. The top two teams in the final BCS Standings shall play in the National Championship Game.\n\n2. The champions of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, and Southeastern conferences will have automatic berths in one of the participating bowls after the 2006 and 2007 regular seasons. \n\n3. The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:\n\n\n  A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or, \n  B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.\n\nNo more than one such team from Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, and the Western Athletic Conference shall earn an automatic berth in any year. If two or more teams from those conferences satisfy the provisions for an automatic berth, then the team with the highest finish in the final BCS Standings will receive the automatic berth, and the remaining team or teams will be in the pool of teams eligible for selection by the bowls as at-large teams.\n\n4. Notre Dame will have an automatic berth if it is in the top eight of the final BCS Standings.\n\n5. If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 4, and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 3 in the final BCS Standings, that team will become an automatic qualifier, provided that no at-large team from the same conference qualifies for the national championship game.\n\n6. If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 5, and if no team qualifies under paragraph No. 5 and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 4 in the final BCS Standings, that team will become an automatic qualifier provided that no at-large team from the same conference qualifies for the national championship game.\n\n\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nAt-Large Teams\n\n\nIf there are fewer than 10 automatic qualifiers, then the bowls will select at-large participants to fill the remaining berths. At at-large team is any Division I-A team that is bowl-eligible and meets the following requirements:\n\n\n  A. Has won at least nine regular-season games, and \n  B. Is among the top 14 teams in the final BCS Standings.\nNote: in order to participate in a BCS Bowl game, a team (i) must be eligible for post-season play under the rules of the NCAA and, if it not an independent, under the rules of its Conference and (ii) must not have imposed sanctions upon itself prohibiting participation in a post-season game for infractions of the rules of the NCAA or the rules of its Conference. \n\n\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nTeam-Selection Procedures\n\n\nThe bowls will select their participants from two pools: (1) automatic qualifiers, all of which must be selected, and, (2) at-large teams, if fewer than 10 teams qualify automatically. The following sequence will be used when establishing pairings:\n\n1. The top two teams in the final BCS Standings will be placed in the National Championship Game ("NCG").\n\n2. Unless they qualify to play in the NCG, the champions of selected conferences are con
781240
Yes the Big Least, and the Small Ten are very top heavy. Two or three elite teams and then a big drop off. SEC teams rarely get a week off, especially now that Spurrier is at SC, and Arkansas is steppin up. Even an IND like ND plays a tougher schedule than THE Ohio State or Michigan. But that is why they go by strength of schedule also and there has been less importance to the blow out victory. As far as other teams in your conference sucking, their fault that they do not recruit better. Bottom line is WE NEED A PLAYOFF FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!!!!
775814
Does this really matter?  I mean come on, the only team that can accually compete on the same field as Ohio State is Michigan, I think you are going to see the greatest whooping in a National Championship Game.  Proving that we need a College Playoff System because it will erase all doubts!\n\nUSC would be lucky to do anything.  I also am not a USC or Ohio State, and not even a Michigan fan but this one isnt even going to be close and thats a fact WITH SOME CHEESE ON IT!!!
807295
USC Doesn't deserve a no. 3 ranking, they lost to an unranked team, the shouldn't even be in the top 10. The majority of 1 loss teams lost to ranked, or were ranked at the time, teams. Gators lost to auburn, louisville lost to rutgers, west virginia lost to louisville. This demonstrates a bias in the bcs. You can also see it in the officiating of the pac-10 games where some questionable calls always go in favor to usc. If notre dame keeps it's game up, despite the fact they're basically scrimmaging against the service academies, they might beat USC, dashing their hopes at a title game. But I think to get quality teams, take your pick from any number in the SEC, excluding the red-headed step child, Vandy. It'll be the winner of the OSU/Mich game vs. an SEC team, (most likely Florida, they're the kryptonite to Arkansas). ACC is defunct as a league, especially when you have titans like FSU and Miami scraping the Barrel, and Wake Forest !?!?! is ranked. Big East hasn't convinced me, and I point and laugh at the Big 12 and, WAC and Mountain Divisions. BCS Champs, in a nail biting, grinding nightmare game, Gators come out on top, by the slimmest of margins. Only as long as they can stay healthy. OSU is gonna take a few hits in the Mich Game, but will still win, at the cost of injuries to linchpin players. Simply because it is such a vicious and bitter rivalry.
958193
No!!  You have to look at it from OSU point of view.  What would be the point?  If they played again and Michigan won all that does is show that each team won a game a piece.  To me that means a co-national championship.  Personally I think Florida is a better team than Michigan but we may never know how good.  This is why division 1A needs a playoff system.  Once and for all put a 16 team tournament together and play for the real national championship.
952953
We need a playoff system, for certain, but the rankings are as they should be.  It's not a one-game season, like all of the Michigan and Florida fans want to say; it's a 12-game season, and each game matters.\n\nAll of the Michigan fans want everyone to forget that they almost lost to Ball State, or looked very unimpressive in wins over Minnesota and Northwestern, two very bad teams.  The Florida fans want you to forget unimpressive wins over South Carolina or Florida State, or even that they stooped so low to play a bad I-AA team in Western Carolina.\n\nThey neglect to mention that USC only played two teams with losing records this season (Washington and Stanford) or that their three non-conference opponents all still have a chance to get into a BCS bowl game, all the while only playing 6 home games.  Michigan faced 5 teams who ended up with losing records and 7 home games.  Florida played 7 home games and one neutral site game while facing 3 teams with losing records.\n\nFlorida, in my opinion, has much reason to gripe than Michigan does.  The Gators will have faced 4 teams currently in the Top 25 while Michigan will only have played 3, and the Gators are in a much tougher conference, where their schedule had them avoiding both Mississippi schools and Arkansas (who of course they will play Saturday).\n\nBottom line: USC deserves to be #2 and should they beat UCLA, play for the national title in the screwed-up system we have.\n\nAnd, sorry, but Ahern's comparison is total BS.  You can't evaluate Michigan and USC based solely on how both did against Notre Dame.  The only line is his argument that is valid, and the one that runs counter-intuitive to his argument, is that USC will play 10 bowl teams (including oh-so-woeful, yet somehow 8-4, Oregon State) while Michigan only played 7.
978829
As others have said, it doesn't work.  What they do is they take teams that placed in a certain place in a certain conference and put them in a bowl game.  The winner of the MAC used to go to the Motor City Bowl, I don't know if they do anymore though.  Some teams can get at large bids, but they must have at least 6 wins.  There are so many bowl games now that almost anyone can get into one with 6 wins, which is kind of sad.  Then there are the 5 BCS bowls that get the champion from the 5 major BCS conferences (Big 10, Big 12, Big East, ACC, SEC), the top two teams in the BCS polls, and 3 at large teams from the top 10 in the BCS or the top 12 if they are a non major conference team.
865674
Yes, it is time for a playoff! Use BCS to rank teams based on record against strength of schedule, then have them seeded 1-16 for a playoff using BCS bowl game sites.
871894
yea it is a pretty good reason too, it is MONEY!!!\n\nA playoff system would negate all of these stupid bowl games every year and that would cost the NCAA millions and millions of advertising dollars, so as long as the money hungry NCAA has a say so then we are stuck with this lousy BCS crap.
835469
Not sure how your playoff process is.  There can be many combos so this is a difficult question to answer without knowing what your playoff system is like.  However, I will give you how we customize our league of 10 teams.\n\nWe start our playoffs by week 13.  The reason being is that by week 17, the teams that have clinched a playoff spot or home field advantage will rest their starters.\n\nTherefore, in week 13, the bottom 4 team plays as wild cards.  7 vs. 10 and 8 vs. 9.\n\nWeek 14 - 1 plays the lowest seed to survive the wild card (8, 9 or 10), 2 plays the next lowest seed to survie the wild card (7 most likely, but could be 8 or 9).  The rest of the teams play according to rank (3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5).\n\nWeek 15 - It is like the NCAA brackets where winner of 1 vs. lowest WC plays winner of 4 vs. 5 and winner of 2 vs. 2nd WC plays winner of 3 vs. 6.\n\nWeek 16 - Those winners go on to play for the championship.\n\nTo add a twist to it, we have a losers bracket in Week 15.  The 4 losing teams play again according to their seed in the playoffs.  The two winners go on to play in the "Toilet Bowl" in which that winner gets their money back that they put into the league.  Therefore, we take into account injuries that the bottom teams may have suffered earlier in the season but may be on the rebound at the end of the season.\n\nTwo years in a row (but not last year) we've had the 7th and 8th seed in the championship game while the top seed and 3rd seed played for the Toilet Bowl.  So there's hope for everyone usually.
845667
It's both.  The BCS standings are derived from three sources - Harris Interactive College Poll, USA Today Coaches Poll, and six computer rankings.  The votes for each team (per poll) are divided by the total number of votes available, while the computer rankings are an average of the computer scores after dropping the highest and lowest score for each school.  If you ever look at a BCS standing grid, that's why there are three columns to show how each sector voted and how the overall rating was obtained.
694743
OK, OK, here we go.............\n\nFirst I will address the concerns some of you have about a playoff.\n\nIT WILL MAKE THE REGULAR SEASON MEANINGLESS - and you cite the NCAA basketball tournament.  First of all, there is no need to include 65 teams.  I would make it "a tough to get in" 16 teams - the so called 5 BCS conference champions plus 11 at large teams to be voted in.  The "at large" category takes care of the independents (ie - Notre Dame) and the so called mid majors (non BCS) conferences.\n\nTHE PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS WOULD LOSE MONEY - This is complete nonsense.  A few years back, a corporation which wanted to promote such a 16 team tournament, offered about 3 to 4 times that amount of money that all the bowl games combined.  The predominant reason it has not happened is that the bowl sponsors and the Bowl Committees would not get the money for their personal pockets.  It's a matter of self interest, not what's best for the colleges or college football fans.  By the way, the Bowl committees are a bunch of do nothings who because of connections sit around and collect allot of money for doing nothing special!\n\nAn NCAA football tournament would soon be more popular than the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl!  We would finally have a true national champion.  Under the current system,  an undefeated team in a weak conference which plays a bunch of non-conference nobodies could easily be in the BCS title game.\nSuch a team might not even be one of the best 15 in the nation!
737736
The SEC is a joke, they play each other and thats suppose to make me believe that they are a good conference.  Who else have they played, 1-6 as a conference against the top 25 outside of conference, what a power conference.  Arkansas wont get the nod because Boise State would still end up undefeated and if so they should play OSU for the title.
796653
Who cares??  It isn't accurate.  The BCS is one of many reasons I no longer follow college ball.  We need a playoff!!\n\n"Throw out the computers!  Have a playoff so we KNOW who's the best in the country!"  Woody Paige, 'COLD PIZZA,' ESPN2 this morning, 11/13/06.\n\nSTILL think I'm nuts now?  Even SPORTSCASTERS hate the BCS!!