A College Football Playoff Idea That Could Work

Like most college football fans, I feel the need for a playoff in Division I college football. Also like other fans, I have an idea as to how to manage this playoff.

While some will agree and some will disagree, this is my plan.

A 32-team Tournament starting the first weekend in December running through the first weekend in January.

We will start by merging the FBS and FCS together to become Division I.

The field will be made up all 25 Conference Champions and the top seven ranked teams that didn't not win their conference.

The higher seeded team will have home field until the national semifinals which will rotate yearly based on the bidding system that is used in college basketball to determine a host cost.

Seeding will be determined by standing in the BCS polls. If a playoff participate is not ranked then the tie breaker will be win-loss record.

In the case that multiple teams are not ranked and have the same win-loss record, then conference win-loss record will be used, if conference win-loss record cannot break the tie, then seeding will default to a coin flip.

Based off of last years conference champions and final polls this is how a First Round matchup would look.

No. 32 Harvard @ No. 1 Oklahoma

No. 17 James Madison @ No. 16 Montana

No. 25 Albany @ No. 8 Penn State

No. 24. Colgate @ No. 9 Boise State

No. 21 Northern Iowa @ No. 12 Cincinnati

No. 28 Eastern Kentucky @ No. 5 USC

No. 20 Liberty @ No. 13 Oklahoma State

No. 29 Eastern Carolina @ No. 4 Alabama

No. 27 Jacksonville @ No. 6 Utah

No. 22 Appalachian St @ No. 11 TCU

No. 19 Central Arkanasa @ No. 14 Georgia Tech

No. 30 Troy @ No. 3 Texas

No. 26 Cal Poly @ No. 7 Texas Tech

No. 23 South Carolina St @ No. 10 Ohio St

No. 18 Grambling St @ No. 15 Virgina Tech

No. 31 Buffalo @ No. 2 Florida

The first round wouldn't be much to talk about, as with almost any college tournament. The exceptions would be the East Carolina-Alabama contest, seeing as East Carolina has already defeated one of the higher seeded teams earlier in the year.

Assuming no upsets happen, this is how the second round would look and this is when it would get good.

No. 16 Montana @ No. 1 Oklahoma

No. 9 Boise State @ No. 8 Penn State

No. 12 Cincinnati @ No. 5 USC

No. 13 Oklahoma State @ No. 4 Alabama

No. 11 TCU @ No. 6 Utah

No. 14 Georgia Tech @ No. 3 Texas

No. 10 Ohio State @ No. 7 Texas Tech

No. 15 Virgina Tech @ No. 2 Florida

As you can see the matchups have gotten better.

In this round I predict two upsets. TCU wins the rematch with Utah, and not as big an upset, the Buckeyes take down the Red Raiders in Lubbock.

This is how your national quarterfinals would look.

No. 8 Penn State @ No. 1 Oklahoma

No. 5 USC @ No. 4 Alabama

No. 11 TCU @ No. 3 Texas

No. 10 Ohio State @ No. 2 Florida

In this round I see only one game going to the visitors, that would be the 5-4 matchup.

At this point we have reached the national semifinals which will now be played at a neutral site determined from the bidding system a few years earlier.

Our final four matchups would be:

No. 5 USC @ No. 1 Oklahoma

and

No 3. Texas @ No. 2 Florida

For illustration purposes I am going to stop picking winners and progressing the rounds as you can see where this is going.

While we may have ended up with the same results as last year, all teams had a fighting chance, and who knows maybe Penn State could have knocked off Oklahoma.