Plus-One Playoffs: Why Proposed Format Trumps Flawed BCS System

As dominant as Alabama was in their 21-0 spanking of LSU, the fact still remains—LSU beat Alabama earlier in the year.

This means there are five one loss teams in the country. While we can argue Houston and even Boise State are not on the same level as LSU and Alabama, the fact remains, they only lost one game on their schedule.

In Boise's case, the one loss was by one point to TCU. Looking at this without conference bias, all five of those teams deserved a shot at the national championship. 

The BCS officials will meet to discuss changes to the system. It is a move I and many other fans welcome towards a playoff system. The most popular format is the Plus One format.

This isn't the first time this format has been explored.

Here is how it would have worked this season.

A four team playoff would have been created, and these would have been the matchups:

1 LSU vs 4 Stanford

2 Alabama vs 3 Oklahoma St

This would have been nice, but I contend, still flawed.

The only way to remove virtually every argument is to expand to an eight team playoff system, with an automatic bid awarded to any team that was undefeated during through the regular season and conference championships. If there are less than two undefeated teams, as was the case this year, then any teams with one loss should earn a berth.

In this format, this is the way the playoffs would have looked:

1 LSU vs 8 Arkansas

4 Stanford vs 5 Boise State

2 Alabama vs 7 Oregon

3 Oklahoma State vs 6 Houston

This format leaves no team with a reasonable claim to a shot at the title out in the cold, regardless of conference.

Consider that this was a odd season. In the coming years, the eight team playoff would be as close as we'll ever see to perfect.