College Football Playoff for the 2009 Season

Many years ago yours truly submitted a college football playoff system to the editor of a nationally published weekly sports magazine.

In the breakdown, we incorporated all of the conference champions and the best of the independent schools.

During that season the listed semifinals were Texas vs. Alabama and Nebraska vs. Notre Dame. The champion was projected as Nebraska.

Shockingly, one of the staff writers took the idea and rode with it. Preparing a full spread on the process.

How much money was paid for that idea? The price of the postage on the "Thank You" card received a week later from our publishing friends who, shall we say, like to Illustrate their Sports.

You grow up quickly in the writing game when you are looking for dough to survive instead of promoting ideas for consideration.

How did the season actually play out that year?

Nebraska went undefeated during the regular season and met Alabama in the Orange Bowl for what turned out to be the National Championship deciding contest.

Leading all the way, Alabama ended Nebraska's dreams of a perfect season, 39-28. The Crimson Tide was awarded the AP National Title.

The Cornhuskers were led by their brilliant Fullback, 5'8" 158 pound Frank Solich, who made up for what he lacked in size with grit and determination.

It should not be lost on anyone that Frank Solich is still in the post season business. As head coach of Ohio University, he has the Bobcats in the Little Caesar's Bowl this season.

To the point, the listed playoff system provided two of the finalists for the title.

Due to such success early on, there is a book on this table which contains all of the past seasons of this personal playoff system.

Oh, it has been modified over the years due to conference expansion, the slide from major college football by the Ivy and the Southern Conferences, and the demise of the once beloved by sportsmen, Independent teams.

Nowadays, we must have two playoff system breakdowns. One for the pre-season rankings and the other after the final regular season games and conference champions are declared.

The following is the latest in a long line of Baby Tate's Playoff System.

Who Goes There?

Taking into consideration the current conference champions, the 11 Best 11s rankings, and the BCS rating system, 16 teams are chosen for the playoff.

There are 11 "FBS" (major college) conference champions. This is America so every champion goes to the playoff just like in college basketball.

There are now only three major Independents, Notre Dame, The Navy, and The Army. A place must be set at the table for the best of this group.

After all, what are we, anti-religious and military-hating zealots?

The final four positions are taken from the 11 conferences as at-large teams. As a rule of thumb, no more than two schools from any one league is allowed to be in the playoffs to keep it balanced nationally.

Where Do We Play?

Suppose we make it simple, and profitable?

Take the 16 teams and place them in four different brackets without regard to geographic region. Seed the teams according to rating, one through sixteen.

Winners move on to the next opponent in the bracket.

Eventual region bracket finalists produce a semi-final national title game and then those winners reveal the true national championship contestants.

As a reward for superior work in the regular season, the first two rounds of the four round playoff will be played at the home field of the higher seeded team.

The third round, or semi-finals, will be played at the four BCS Bowl locations followed by the title game being played at a pre-arranged neutral site each season that will be fitting for such an event.

Someplace like the new Cotton Bowl in Arlington.

Read It and Weep: Who Is In and Who Is Out?

The chosen programs for the playoff are as follows:

1-11: The Conference Champions.
12: The Independent– The Navy.
13-16: The Four At-Large Teams From The Conferences.

The Four At-Large schools are Florida, Iowa, Virginia Tech, and Nebraska.

This gives us two teams from the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and ACC along with The Navy and the 11 Conference Champions.

Piercing The Veil Of The Magic Question: Who Is No. 1?

Based upon the previously outlined information, the brackets will be arranged in the following manner and produce a National Title game finalist.

No. 1: Texas, Big 12 Champion
No. 16: Navy, Top Independent

No. 8: Georgia Tech, ACC Champion
No. 9 Ohio State, Big 10 Champion

No. 4: Boise State, WAC Champion
No. 13: Nebraska, At- Large of Big 12

No. 5: Florida, At- Large of SEC
No. 12 Central Michigan, MAC Champion

One of the areas that will be addressed from time to time is how strong are teams from the non-BCS conferences?

It appears the question may be answered in this section of the playoffs.

Although balanced, this is a powerhouse group of schools with five of the teams having won National Championships in the past 20 years.

If You're No. 2 Do You Really Try Harder?

As the top seed of this side in the playoff bracket, Alabama appears to loom over this group of teams as the grim reaper.

It would take an upset of stunning proportions to ask the lower seeded teams to advance in this region.

No. 2: Alabama, SEC Champion
No. 15: Troy, Sun Belt Champion

No. 7: Oregon, PAC 10 Champion
No. 10: Va Tech, At-Large of the ACC

No 3: Texas Christian, Mountain West Champion
No. 14: East Carolina, Conference USA Champion

No. 6: Cincinnati, Big East Champion
No. 11 Iowa, At-Large of the Big 10

In this sequence, we find the notorious defenses of TCU and Iowa along with the exciting offenses of Oregon and Cincinnati.

The coaching of Skip Holtz and Frank Beamer cannot be overlooked when it comes to preparing a team for one game.

What Teams Would Survive A Playoff System?

In the No. 1 versus No. 16 bracket we would no doubt find Texas moving past The Navy. In the eight vs. nine situation it is anyone's guess.

For the sake of advancing the discussion, let us say the Yellow Jackets wear down a tiring Ohio State defense and go ahead to meet Texas.

While Ga Tech is extremely difficult to prepare for and contain, there would be a confidence about the Longhorn team which would allow them to subdue Paul Johnson's ACC Champions.

In the bottom half of the bracket, No. 4 Boise State would find themselves stunned and stung by the ferocious defense of No. 13 seated Nebraska.

On the other side, No. 5 Florida survives the Mid-American Champion Chippewas.

Despite the equal defenses, the view here is that Tim Tebow would find a way for Florida to move on past Nebraska in a tense, hard fought game.

In the final game of this side of the ledger, the Texas Longhorns would be a favorite over the Florida Gators. In a somewhat surprsing shoot-out between two top quarterbacks, Texas moves on to take its place in the National Championship game.

Bigger Is Not Always Better

From the Alabama perspective, the disposing of totally outmanned Troy would be similar to the Tide-Misssippi State regular season game.

The opponent in the following round would be the PAC-10 Champion Oregon Ducks. The Ducks find themselves in this position following a win over ACC At-Large entry Virginia Tech.

And here is where the upsets begin. Going into Tuscaloosa, Oregon unleashes an offensive display not seen in that State since John McKay brought Sam Cunningham to town and put 42 points up on Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide in 1970.

Never knowing what hit them, Alabama bows out of the playoffs following a devastating loss to the high-performance Oregon Ducks in a game close from start to finish.

The bottom side of this bracket reveals highly respected TCU against CUSA Champion East Carolina and Big East Champion Cincinnati against Big 10 At-Large Iowa.

The Hawkeyes are a very underrated team. In a shocking turn of events the Hawkeyes stun the Bearcats and move along to challenge fearsome TCU following the Horned Frogs' win over East Carolina.

Iowa continues to shock the world by downing highly respected TCU to set the stage for the region final with Oregon.

At this time the Hawkeyes run out of gas and their fine run ends at the hands of the explosive Oregon Duck scoring machine.

Next stop for the Green and Yellow clad champions of the PAC 10?

The National Championship Game with Texas.

It's All Over Now But The Shouting

In any other contest, it would be a simple matter to take the fearsome Ducks and their machine-like offense to simply bore a hole though the defense of any competitor.

Not this time.

Texas has the offense to score on Oregon, and score, and score.

The Longhorns faced the best defense in the country in Nebraska for the Big 12 title, anyone else is a coffee break.

And Oregon will not be able to run up and down the field on Texas since the Longhorn defense will be rested due to their time of possession advantage.

In an interesting clash between highly talented squads, the Texas Longhorns would be the 2009 college football playoff champions.

Will the Longhorns be champions in the one stop, one shot for all the marbles BCS Title Game?

No one can say with any authority at this time but, many are convinced. Texas will not disappoint their enormous fan following throughout the entire nation.

As Wally Cleaver often remarked on Leave It To Beaver, "We'll see."