College Football Playoffs?

[RHshoxfan]

I think they could have the Final 4 at the BCS bowls, and rotate between the 4 sites for the Champtionship game.

I think 16 teams is perfect, cause you still get 5 at large bids.

Another reason the playoff is good. Look at West Virginia. I really don't think there team is that good. They have a high powered offense but, they play in by far the worst BCS conference. The Big East. Who have they beaten that is noteworthy? There one loss is South Florida, who is a top 25 team, but still.

[ABC]

Div II has playoffs and bowls. That can work for Div 1.

The top 16 go to the playoffs and there are still 8 bowls like the Sun Bowl, Gator Bowl, San Diegeo Nurses Association Bowl etc.

[J&J-Ryan]

ahh bowls...who can forget such Juco classics such as the "Valley of the sun" bowl, and I know I'll never forget the Mineral Water Bowl...

[BA2929]

What's the worth of winning a bowl game (minus the NC)? Honestly?

First of all: it's worth a lot of money. Especially in the SEC, which has revenue sharing.

Plus: When your team wins a bowl it's great! The 2000 Cotton Bowl when we beat Texas? Awesome. One of my favorite Razorback moments ever.

Listen I love the way college baseball and basketball are done. I just also am fine with the way college football is done. Is my team one of the best in the country? No. But I'm still going to enjoy watching us play in a bowl game. We had a GOOD season and it will be even better if we win our bowl game (whatever it is) and bring home a trophy.

I also follow Ball State, for example. The Cardinals are looking to go to their first bowl game in a very long time, and their fans are PUMPED!

Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, they won't be matched up against a #1 or #2 seed that's vastly superior to them, but a comparable team on their level.

I watch all the college football I can. And bowl games are the best because of all the interesting matchups.

They could still keep around all the other Bowls, such as the Papajohns.com Bowl and the Tire Bowl, for the teams not in the top 16, similar to the NIT. They could put the other bowls during the week, then keep the Championship Tourny games on Fri/Sat/Sun. Then we'll have a true national champ and get to watch college football 7 days a week! Its a win/win! :yahoo:

[vbird53]

This is one of the coolest things ESPN has done in quite some time.

[fastbow]

This is all well and good, but we need to make sure our own house is in order first. WSU needs football before any of these arguments really matter to us.

j/k, but wouldn't it be nice?

[BA2929]

This is all well and good, but we need to make sure our own house is in order first. WSU needs football before any of these arguments really matter to us.

j/k, but wouldn't it be nice?

We'd lose a truck load of money and nobody would go after the 1st year after the team stunk it up.

[Indy23]

A 16-team playoff will never happen. It'd be insane. You're asking these kids to play another month of football against the best teams in the country. The risk to the players, especially the seniors trying to make it to pro ball, would skyrocket. Not to mention trying to take finals in the middle of this tournament. For a team like USC, who would constantly be in these tournaments, your asking the freshmen to play an entire season's worth of more football over their careers than their counterparts at a place like Oregon State. With the 85-man scholarship limit, and all the injuries that already happen, this is just not possible.

And does a #16 seed deserve a title shot anyway? I say they don't. If you want a title shot, don't lose three times in the regular season. If the SEC is too tough, go to the Big XII North. We'll gladly get rid of Iowa State.

Another reason against a 16-team playoff - over four weeks, talent will win out. Just like in NCAA basketball, the teams in the finals almost certainly aren't going to be the cindarellas. I can already see LSU and Ohio State playing each other. I don't need to wait four weeks to see the same game.

The solution might be a combination of BCS playoff and traditional system. The top four BCS teams play a Final Four. The remaining teams play in traditional bowls, like the Sugar, Rose, Holiday, etc. This season it would look like this:

BCS Championship Western Semifinal (Phoenix, AZ)
1 tOSU
4 Oklahoma

BCS Championship Eastern Semifinal (Miami, FL)
2 LSU
3 Virginia Tech

The winners of each semifinal play in BCS Championship Final.

[Shox151]

So Indy you're telling us that the kids in the BCS or FBS schools require more time for academia than those students that play football in all other divisions. Fat chance.

The real reason the playoff likely won't happen is Money, to think other wise is to ignore the obvious.

Does the 65th team in MM deserve a chance, hell yes they do, it rewards their season of hard work. Are they likely to win it all, no. Same can be said for a 16 seed in football. But why do we have to have the 63 and 64 best div I football schools in the whoknowwhat.com bowl?

You don't want to wait for the same game every year, the BCS, just about produces the same games every year so throw that arguement out.

The "and 1" format is, by all means, just a stepping stone to a true playoff. if that is what it takes to move to a playoff format i'm all for it.

The current system is flawed, the best team isn't always going to have zero or one loss. Unless they fatten up on nobodies in non-conference, al a KU and Ohio State. Even then you have to have a soft conference schedule to boot. like the big 10 or big 12 north + the weaker three big 12 south teams. A playoff would make it possible to have more great in season matchups.

[ShockerFever]

A 16-team playoff will never happen. It'd be insane. You're asking these kids to play another month of football against the best teams in the country. The risk to the players, especially the seniors trying to make it to pro ball, would skyrocket. Not to mention trying to take finals in the middle of this tournament. For a team like USC, who would constantly be in these tournaments, your asking the freshmen to play an entire season's worth of more football over their careers than their counterparts at a place like Oregon State. With the 85-man scholarship limit, and all the injuries that already happen, this is just not possible.

One could argue the NCAA basketball tournament requires another month of additional games in order to win it. Does that not increase a risk of possible injury to them as well?

Ditch the retarded conference championship games and that opens up another game/week.

And does a #16 seed deserve a title shot anyway? I say they don't. If you want a title shot, don't lose three times in the regular season. If the SEC is too tough, go to the Big XII North. We'll gladly get rid of Iowa State.

Shox151 already pointed it out: Does the 65th best team deserve a shot at a title in basketball? It kinda defeats the purpose of having a playoff if it's only limited to two or four teams.

Another reason against a 16-team playoff - over four weeks, talent will win out. Just like in NCAA basketball, the teams in the finals almost certainly aren't going to be the cindarellas. I can already see LSU and Ohio State playing each other. I don't need to wait four weeks to see the same game.

That's not necessarily true - especially in regards to this year, where upsets seem to be a regular occurance. Maybe it's just me, but my favorite part of the NCAA basketball tournament is the first two rounds, where you get unusual match-ups and awesome upsets.

Tell George Mason in 06 that talent wins out over the course of a month..

The solution might be a combination of BCS playoff and traditional system. The top four BCS teams play a Final Four. The remaining teams play in traditional bowls, like the Sugar, Rose, Holiday, etc.

You made a point earlier how 3-loss teams don't deserve to be in a playoff, but on the other end of the spectrum, according to this "Final Four" playoff, an undefeated team like Hawaii gets left out? Is it their fault they play in a weak conference? Is it their fault they lost ZERO games through the course of a year and then get no shot at a title?

[Indy23]

Other divisions only play 10-game regular seasons, so with the tournaments, the championship teams are only playing 14 games. The same number of games that Missouri will play this year.

If the same regular season was kept, with a 16-team playoff, Missouri would potentially play 17 games. I think that's too many games to ask young men to play.

If a tournament is going to happen, the regular season needs to be shortened. If you decrease the number of reular season games, it probably comes from the non-conference slate. Well the Pac-10 plays nine conference games, which means their fans would get treated to one non-conference game a year. Most other conferences would allow two. Non-conference match-ups get great TV ratings and most fans look forward to those games. Some rivalires, like Georgia/Georgia Tech and South Carolina/Clemson would be threatened. And for a team like Hawaii, the non-conference is really the only way to boost SOS using the BCS system.

Perhaps an 11-game regular season, using the Pac-10's round-robin style of deciding a champion without a confernence championship game would make the tournament more doable? I'm not against it, I just don't think it's feasible without some major changes.

[BA2929]

Perhaps an 11-game regular season, using the Pac-10's round-robin style of deciding a champion without a confernence championship game would make the tournament more doable? I'm not against it, I just don't think it's feasible without some major changes.

This wouldn't be possible in the Big 12. There are too many teams to have a round-robin style of play and have non-conference games too.

Here's what I propose: Make every team have a conference championship game like in basketball. 10 regular season and 1 conference championship game before the playoffs start only makes 11 games. Then 4 playoff games makes 15 games, which is only 1 game more than most teams will play this year and only 2 teams would play that amount. They could have the 1st round of the playoffs this year on the 22nd of December, outside of finals week so nobody can complain that the students miss too much class (even though all the over divisions play these tourny games and don't miss class. I guess Ohio State has a tougher schedule class load than Valdosta State. :roll: ). The 2nd round on the 29th, 3rd on the 5th and the last game of the year on the 12th. Then no players would miss any class and the season would only go 5 days longer than it does now for the teams in the National Title game. - The other teams can play out their season in a 12th game, which would be the other bowls not used by the tournament and they could be played during the week. - Its the same as the BCS formula, but there is a tournament involved. Its really not that hard to figure out but the University Presidents want money, so a playoff system will never pan out due to greediness.

They could even cut the tournament field to 8 teams (3 games max) and add an extra non-conference game for extra revenue.

[RHshoxfan]

If you don't make the playoff's, then they can play in one of the other bowls. Like the Holiday, Capital 1, Cotton, and etc. It would be just like the NIT.

[CharlieHog]

If you don't make the playoff's, then they can play in one of the other bowls. Like the Holiday, Capital 1, Cotton, and etc. It would be just like the NIT.

I bet the bowl sponsors that give the schools millions of dollars would be cool with becoming the football NIT.

[RoyalShock]

If you don't make the playoff's, then they can play in one of the other bowls. Like the Holiday, Capital 1, Cotton, and etc. It would be just like the NIT.

I bet the bowl sponsors that give the schools millions of dollars would be cool with becoming the football NIT.

Aren't the bowls outside the BCS already the football NIT?

I admit that I don't pay much attention to college football, but when I did, it seemed like if it wasn't one of the big 3 or 4 bowls, the only people who cared were the host city and those connected with the two participating teams.