Divison 1 Football (March Madness Tournament Idea)

I have been saying for years that divison 1 should obviously have a playoff tournament. My idea though has been totally different than any other I have heard and I believe it is the best possible outcome for all parties.

In my situation all the best teams get a chance to play for the title as well as the champions of the smaller conferences so it has a March Madness like feel to it. The BCS poll would still be in use to help select the teams in the tournament as well as seed the squads.

Here is the basic rundown all conference champs get an automatic bid to the tournament. (SEC, ACC, BIG 10, BIG 12, BIG EAST, PAC 10, MW, WAC, CUSA, MAC and SUN BELT.) That is 11 automatic bids and would leave 5 at larges every year for the next 5 highest rated BCS teams to get at-larges.

That may seem like a low number but do you really think 6th best team to not win their conference really deserves to be in the tournament over say a champion of Conference USA? I don't because that 6th team will have either 3 or 4 losses while the other most likely will have less. Even if they have the same number of losses it is always better in my opinon to give the little guy a chance.

The last bit of business is where will the games be played. First the championship game, the two semifinal games and one of the quarterfinal games will be the four BCS bowls. The other three quarterfinal games will be the Cotton Bowl, the Gator Bowl and the Capital One Bowl. The first round games in my opinon should be at the site of the highest ranked team but they also could be other bowl games if they wanted to do that as well.

So here is what I predict this year's tournament would look like if this existed.

1. Alabama (SEC CHAMPION) vs.

16. Troy  (SUN BELT CHAMPION)

8. Oregon (PAC 10 CHAMPION) vs.

9. Ohio State (BIG 10 CHAMPION)

4. Florida (Falls to 4 after loss to Alabama, 1st at large) vs.

13. Pittsburgh (Falls to 13 after loss to Cincinatti, 5th at large)

5. Boise State (WAC CHAMPION) vs.

12. Penn State (4th at large)

2. Texas (Big 12 CHAMPION) vs.

15. Temple (MAC CHAMPION)

7. Georgia Tech (ACC CHAMPION) vs.

10. Iowa (2nd at large)

3. TCU (MW CHAMPION) vs.

14. Houston (CUSA CHAMPION)

6. Cincinatti (BIG EAST CHAMPION) vs.

11. Oklahoma State (Beat OU and earn 3rd at large)

Man that would be great wouldn't it??