FBS Playoff Series: Two Teams

Re-Imaging the Bowl Championship Series

Right now, two teams are pitted in the BCS Championship to determine which team is best in the nation (or one of the best, see 2003). Eight other teams are also selected to play against each other in marquee bowls.

There have been a number of suggested ways in which this can be improved and in this first iteration of the FBS Playoff Series, I will look at three ways to do so without changing the two team playoff.

1) Playoff Entrance Into the BCS

Missouri will have to win this next week in order to get into the financially lucrative BCS (specifically the Fiesta Bowl). For Missouri, and possibly even Oklahoma, this is a playoff game, a chance to ascend to one of the five marquee bowls. Boston College and Virginia Tech are in a similar situation, as the winner of their matchup ascends into the Orange Bowl.

Texas? Texas is in. They don't have to play a game this weekend because they are sitting on a guaranteed BCS spot. Only one of Ohio State, Boise State, Texas Christian, Ball State, and Georgia Tech will get a spot and guess who makes that decision?

The big wigs in the bowl committees...And they give all this talk about the regular season being a playoff and settling things on the field...

The solution is to take the normal seven Conference Champions (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, Pac-10, SEC, and non-BCS), run two playoff games this coming weekend for the eighth and ninth spots, and give the 10th spot to the best of the rest when the final BCS standings come out on Sunday.

The playoff games would feature the next four at large teams, limiting one per conference. Here is a look at how this Saturday would look with additional playoff games:

No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Florida
No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 20 Missouri
No. 3 Texas vs. No. 11 TCU
No. 5 USC vs. UCLA (Oregon State gets the bid if UCLA wins)
No. 6 Utah; has already earned an automatic bid
No. 8 Penn State; has already earned an automatic bid
No. 9 Boise State vs. No. 10 Ohio State
No. 13 Cincinnati; has already earned an automatic bid
No. 17 Boston College vs. No. 25 Virginia Tech
after Saturday Alabama/Florida, Oklahoma, or Texas Tech receives the final spot

2) Division-less Championship Games

When it comes to selecting participants in their championship games, conferences select the top graded team in each of their two divisions. However, this commonly results in the third, fourth, or fifth best team in the conference getting preference over the second best team in the conference.

The solution is to select teams irregardless of division and perhaps even do away with the division construct in preference to freer association of rivals.

What this would mean for the top teams in the nation is that No. 15 (9-3) Georgia Tech would replace No. 25 (8-4) Virginia Tech to play against Boston College; No. 3 (11-1) Texas would replace No. 20 (9-3) Missouri to play against Oklahoma; and that (8-4) Central Michigan would replace (7-5) Buffalo to play against Ball State this weekend.

This would increase the overall prestige and strength of the potential BCS teams. Let us now re-imagine with slight alterations in the BCS play-in games that would occur this weekend.

No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Florida
No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Texas
No. 5 USC vs. UCLA (Oregon State gets the bid if UCLA wins)
No. 6 Utah; has already earned an automatic bid
No. 7 Texas Tech vs. No. 11 TCU
No. 8 Penn State; has already earned an automatic bid
No. 9 Boise State vs. No. 10 Ohio State
No. 13 Cincinnati; has already earned an automatic bid
No. 15 Georgia Tech vs. No. 17 Boston College
the highest loser of Alabama/Florida or Oklahoma/Texas (or losing USC) receives the final spot

3) Reserve This Weekend For Play-In Games

This is more of a logistical realignment to ensure that the two above points occur without a hitch. Potential problems this year could have existed should Oregon State have cliched the Pac-10 and USC needed to enter a playoff game.

Also, if Ball State was one of the top four at larges, then they would have earned a playoff spot as well. Both of these teams, this year, have another game scheduled this week.

For teams in the Pac-10, Big East, WAC, and Sun Belt, which play this weekend, this would mean a reduction of one of the three bye weeks, which they have already had. All teams would have completed the regular season Thanksgiving weekend.

For the MAC and C-USA, this would mean eliminating all but one bye in order to play their championships in time for the play-in games. In some years, this would lead to a reduction of all byes or else force these conferences to get creative in determining their champion.

Ball State may have vaulted TCU had they won the MAC Championship this past week.

Conclusion

Clearing out the final week sets up what amounts to a first round for a playoff. In National Championship context, it creates a plus-one model, whereby the top teams play off against each other (this weekend) and the top two winners play off in early January.

Also, it is keen to note that this year we would have matchups of No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3, setting up an unmistakable playoff.

The Bowl Games remain unaffected by all of these changes. The BCS still takes 10 teams and the other bowls still have their hierarchy of claiming the remaining 58 bowl eligible teams (gosh, that's a lot).

This model may also serve as a spring board to an actual playoff, matching teams in the middle of December for a mid-round, but I am not going to advocate that.

Other Iterations Of The FBS Playoff Series

Four Teams

Eight Teams

Sixteen Teams