A Nebraska Victory in Big 12 Title Game Could Kill the BCS

Every football fan in American who is in favor of a college football playoff should be a Nebraska Cornhusker fan tonight.

For Coach Bo Pelini and his Cornhuskers, they are one victory away from reaching one of their goals for the season: winning the Big 12 Championship.

However, a Cornhuskers' victory over Texas tonight in Dallas, could mean a heck of a lot more to everyone in college football. It could trigger the end to the mathematical system known as the BCS that's been in place since 1997.

Entering this weekend's games, there are six undefeated teams in Division I-A, including the Cornhuskers' opponent, Texas. Two of the other five, Alabama and Florida, play each other today as well. Three of the teams without a blemish on their record come from lesser conferences; Boise State, Cincinnati, and TCU.

If Texas wins tonight, as predicted, they will play the winner of the Alabama-Florida matchup in the SEC Championship game in the BCS title game in January. However, if the Cornhuskers and their third-rated defense, led by All-American defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, can beat the Longhorns, chaos will ensue.

It could mean that because of the mathematical system used by the BCS, that a one-loss team could play for the National Championship despite there being three other undefeated teams. Boise State has been that team before and Cincinnati and TCU could soon find themselves being snubbed by the BCS as well.

As we all know, the BCS skews it rankings to favor schools from the six founding conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 10, and SEC). Each of those conference champions receives an automatic bid into one of the four BCS bowl games.

The remaining Division I conferences (Conference USA, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt, and WAC) must be ranked in the top six in the BCS to gain a berth to a BCS game. This season, there are two undefeated teams from these conferences that are in the top six in the BCS rankings.

Playoff Proposal

How do you fix this flawed system?

Here's a plan that would resolve the problem:

• Create a 16-team playoff
• Two teams from each of the founding conferences with 10 or more teams (Big 12, Pac 10, Big 10, ACC, and SEC) makes the playoff.
• If these conferences employ a division system, the winner of each division within the conference will represent the conference in the playoff
• The regular season champion from each of the remaining conferences (Big East, Conference USA, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt, and WAC) makes the playoff.
• No more conference championship games.
• Reduce the number of allowable regular season games from 12 to 11.
• Seeding will be determined by rankings at the end of the regular season.
• The first round will include eight games with all 16 teams, with games being played at the home venue of the highest ranked team.
• Subsequent rounds would played in two-week intervals at bowl venues selected to host playoff games.

Here is how this plan could have been rolled out this season:

Round One

Dec 5 (by seed):

Game 1: No.16 Troy (Sun Belt)  at No.1 Florida (SEC East)

Game 2: No. 15 Clemson (ACC Atlantic) at No. 2 Alabama (SEC West)

Game 3: No. 14 Central Michigan (MAC)  at No. 3 Texas (Big 12 South)

Game 4: No. 13 Nebraska (Big 12 North) at No. 4 TCU (Mountain West)

Game 5: No. 12 Houston (Conf USA)  at No. 5 Cincinnati (Big East)

Game 6: No.11 Oregon St (Pac 10)  at No.6 Boise St (WAC)

Game 7: No.10 Georgia Tech (ACC Coastal)  at No. 7 Oregon (Pac 10)

Game 8: No.9 Iowa (Big 10) at No. 8 Ohio St (Big 10)

*Losers in Round One could then be invited to play in non-playoff related bowl games

Round Two

Dec 19:

Quarterfinal 1 (Maaco Las Vegas Bowl) : Winner of game one v Winner of game eight

Quarterfinal 2 (R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl) : Winner of game two vs Winner of game seven

Quarterfinal 3 (St. Petersburg Bowl) : Winner of game three vs Winner of game six

Quarterfinal 4 (New Mexico Bowl) : Winner of game four vs Winner of game five

Round Three

Jan 1:

Semifinal 1 (Sugar Bowl) : Winner of Quarterfinal One vs Winner of Quarterfinal Four

Semifinal 2 (Rose Bowl) : Winner of Quarterfinal Two vs Winner of Quarterfinal Three

Final Round

Jan 9:

Consolation game (Orange Bowl-change date from Jan 5) : Losers of each semifinal

Jan 11:

National Championship game (Tostitos Bowl-change date from Jan 4) : Winners of each semifinal

Future national championship games could be rotated between the Sugar, Orange, and Tostitos Bowls. The Rose Bowl would maintain it's role as a New Year's Day semifinal game. The four bowls in the second round could be rotated to include other bowls during that weekend.

In the end, the NCAA would have a system that provides an opportunity for the best teams from each of the Division I-A conferences to win a National Championship. The conferences would also be able to make more money under this playoff system than under the current BCS system.

Go Cornhuskers!