Another Perspective on a College Football Playoff

You know there have been so many people out there coming up with their own plans for a college football playoff.  However, 95 percent of them don't really take everything into account.

There are the bowls, which are very important to the history of Division I-A Football.  Anyone who wants to come up with a system shall not leave leave out the 34 bowls we currently have.  This system uses them all to which the importance and history of the bowls are not slighted. 

New Years Day is a great day for the bowls and always has been.  This system has the Regional Finals on New Years Day at major bowl sites.  With the National Semifinals taking place a week later, and the National Championship game to be held at least a week after that on a Monday (Would probably come a day after the AFC and NFC Championship games).

There is also the issue of travel and neutral sites.  The first two rounds of the tournament do not use neutral sites, rather the home field of the highest seed.  They do this in a lot of the other NCAA Tournaments.  Fans will come to the games, just like the NCAA Tournament where there are three weekends of travel. 

Now comes the task of deciding the teams and how many will be in the tournament.  As most NCAA Championships go the winner of each conference has an automatic bid into the tournament, football should be no exception.   This would make 11 so far.  

Independent Teams can automatically qualify in four ways.  Go undefeated, Win 11 games and be in the top 60 Strength of Schedule, Win 10 Games and be in the top 40 Strength of Schedule, or win 9 games and be in the top 20 Strength of Schedule.

The At-Large teams was a struggle to think about.  If there were only five, I think a lot of teams that have the capability of winning it all would get left out.   Adding eight more At-Large teams would bring the field to 24 and give all those legit teams a shot at the title. 

The way these teams are decided will be through the BCS Standings. There will be a committee that seeds and places the teams according to region.

The top 16 teams will host a game, whether it is in the Opening Round or a Regional Semifinal.  The top 8 teams will have a bye awaiting the winners of the Opening Round.

The four regions will be named after major bowls and where the Regional Final will take place.

Based on last year's BCS Standings, here's how the regions would have shaped up.

FIESTA REGION:

1. Oklahoma (Big 12), 2. Penn State(Big Ten), 3. Boise State (WAC), 4. BYU (AT-Large) 5. Oregon (At-Large) 6. Troy (Sun Belt)

OUTBACK REGION:

1. Florida (SEC), 2. Texas Tech (At-Large), 3. Ohio State (At-Large), 4. Georgia Tech (At-Large), 5. Pittsburgh (At-Large), 6. Buffalo (MAC)

COTTON REGION:

1. Texas (At-Large), 2. Utah (MWC), 3. Cincinnati (Big East), 4. Georgia (At-Large), 5. Michigan State (At-Large), 6. East Carolina (C-USA)

ROSE REGION:

1. Alabama (At-Large), 2. USC (PAC-10), 3. TCU (At-Large), 4. Oklahoma State (At-Large), 5. Virginia Tech (ACC), 6. Missouri (At-Large)

Of course the teams near the top are going to get the venue that is closest to them.  Also, the idea is to avoid having conference foes in the same region.  The Big 12 got five teams in the tournament.  Oklahoma State and Missouri are in the Rose Region, but it would be highly unlikely that they face each other.

The National Semifinals will take place at the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl will feature the winners of the Rose Region and the Fiesta Region, while the Orange Bowl will feature the winners of the Outback and Cotton Regionals. 

The National Championship will rotate between these bowls.

On December 12th, the Opening Round begins with eight matchups.  The top two seeds in each region gets a bye, much like the conference playoffs in the NFL. Here would be those matchups, with probable winners in parenthesis. 

Troy @ Boise State (Boise State)

Oregon @ BYU (Oregon)

Buffalo @ Ohio State (Ohio State)

Pittsburgh @ Georgia Tech (Pittsburgh)

East Carolina @ Cincinnati (East Carolina)

Michigan State @ Georgia (Georgia)

Missouri @ TCU (TCU)

Virginia Tech @ Oklahoma State (Virginia Tech)

At this point, just like the NFL the #1 seed will play the bottom seed that is left.  The Regional Semifinals will take place on December 19th.  Here are those matchups with probable winners in parenthesis.

Oregon @ Oklahoma (Oklahoma)

Boise State @ Penn State (Penn State)

Pittsburgh @ Florida (Florida)

Ohio State @ Texas Tech (Ohio State)

East Carolina @ Texas (Texas)

Georgia @ Utah (Utah)

Virginia Tech @ Alabama (Alabama)

TCU @ USC (USC)

New Years Day has now arrived with the Regional Finals

FIESTA BOWL: Oklahoma v. Penn State (Oklahoma)

OUTBACK BOWL: Florida v. Ohio State (Florida)

COTTON BOWL: Texas v. Utah (Utah)

ROSE BOWL: Alabama v. USC (USC)

On January 8th, 2010 we have the National Semifinals

ORANGE BOWL: Florida v. Utah (Florida)

SUGAR BOWL: Oklahoma v. USC (USC)

Then we have Florida v. USC for the National Championship on January 18th.

A system like this should keep the bowls happy.  However only 7-of-34 bowls will be used in the playoffs.  The other 27 bowls will still be played, again we have to keep them happy.  Think of the these bowls as the Football version of the NIT.  Many teams finish at .500 or above and all those teams will be eligible for bowl games just like they are now.  These bowls can be played from December 20th to the National Semifinals, which are the dates they play at anyway.

Like I said in the beginning, there have been multiple articles about this very topic.  Everyone has their own way of determining a champion, but this way is fair to everyone.  The little guy does get their shot, and teams that lost tough games get a chance to prove they are the best in college football.  If college football ever has a playoff system, I foresee that it would end up something like this.