Today, Dec. 20, is the beginning of the bowl season. The four meaningless bowl games today feature the EagleBank Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl, the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl, and the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl. As these games begin, I realize today is the day the NCAA should begin the Division I college football playoffs.
Although there have been many suggestions, there is one easy format for the playoffs that would make everyone happy (including all of the presidents of the universities).
To start, every team in the NCAA would schedule 11 games in the regular season. The conference championships would no longer be necessary. The conference champion would be eligible for the playoffs if it reached the top eight rankings in the BCS standings. This year, the ACC champion and Big East champion would not make the playoffs.
The playoffs would include the top eight teams based on the BCS standings at the end of the regular season. This year, based on the BCS rankings, the following teams would make the NCAA Division I playoffs: 1. Oklahoma, 2. Florida, 3. Texas, 4. Alabama, 5. USC, 6. Utah, 7. Texas Tech, 8. Penn State.
The first round would be based on the seeding, with the eighth seed playing the first seed, 7-2, 6-3, and 5-4. These games would always be played the Saturday before Christmas. Bowl games would be used as the sites for the playoff games. The bowl games used for the playoffs would be selected by the longest consecutive bowl games in existence.
This year, the first round playoffs would begin today, Dec. 20, and would include the following scheduled bowl games:
Fiesta Bowl: Penn State vs. Oklahoma 8pm ET—ABC
Gator Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Florida 3:30 ET—CBS
Cotton Bowl: Utah vs. Texas 1pm ET—ABC
Sun Bowl: USC vs. Alabama 4:30 ET—ABC
The top seeds get the closest home stadium for the bowl game. Looking at these games, it would be an incredible day of football. The ratings would be through the roof. Can you imagine how much excitement there would be?
Re-seeding would take place in the next round, with the top seed playing the lower seed. The semifinals would always be played on New Year's Day. The semifinals and final would always rotate between the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl would always be played at 4:30 on New Year's Day when not scheduled as the championship game.
The semifinal schedule would be as follows if the top four seeds won the first round.
Rose Bowl: Alabama vs. Oklahoma 4:30 ET—ABC
Orange Bowl: Texas vs. Florida 8pm ET—ABC
The Championship game would be played the following Monday a week after New Year's Day. It must be at least a week between the semifinals and finals. This season, the championship game would be played at the Sugar Bowl on Monday, Jan. 12. This year, it's 12 days between, but that's because New Year's Day is on a Thursday.
Monday, Jan. 12
Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. Oklahoma 8pm ET—ABC
One other aspect of the playoffs is the fact that every other bowl game can still be scheduled that is not part of the eight-team Bowl Playoff series. This means all the other meaningless bowl games that begin today, including the EagleBank Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl, the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl, and the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl can be played as scheduled. This would make everyone satisfied.
I think this is the perfect format for an NCAA playoff. Yes, there will still be controversy over which teams make it and which teams don't. However, the top teams in the country will always have an opportunity to prove themselves and play for the national championship.
I would be glued to my TV today if this happened. However, I am not watching any college football until Jan. 8.
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