2009: The Best-Ever Case for a Major College Football Playoff

In the 12 seasons the Bowl Championship Series has been in use, nine national title games have been surrounded by some level of controversy.

For something that was supposed to eliminate all controversy, it has seemingly only created more.

This month was all too reminiscent of December 2004, when five teams finished undefeated heading into the bowl selections. In 2004, many believed it was Auburn, and not Oklahoma, that should have played a clearly-deserving USC team for the national title.

Five years later, the song remains the same. This time, it is TCU, and not Texas, that should play a clearly-deserving Alabama team for the national title.

The solution? Playoffs. And not any of this eight-team stuff Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson pitched to the BCS committee this spring.

My solution calls for a 12-team, single-elimination tournament to be played, with the BCS standings serving as a seeding system instead of the lightning rod for controversy it is today.

As per current standards, the six BCS conference champions would receive automatic bids into the playoffs. Next, any non-BCS conference team in the top 12 of the final BCS standings would be awarded an automatic bid.

The field would be completed by filling the remaining spots with teams in order of final BCS standing. Conference limits would be abolished—if one conference received four bids, so be it.

Finally, conference champions could be leapt in the seedings by a non-BCS conference team if said non-BCS conference team finished with a higher ranking in the final BCS standings.

First-round games would be played at the home field of the higher seeded team. Quarterfinal games would take place at a neutral site while the semifinals and national title game would take place at BCS bowl sites which best served as a neutral site.

Last year's seeding would have looked like this:

1. Oklahoma (Big 12 champion)

2. Florida (SEC champion)

3. USC (Pac-10 champion)

4. Utah (automatic non-BCS bid)

5. Penn State (Big 10 champion)

6. Boise State (automatic non-BCS bid)

7. TCU (automatic non-BCS bid)

8. Cincinnati (Big East champion)

9. Virginia Tech (ACC champion)

10. Texas (at-large)

11. Alabama (at-large)

12. Texas Tech (at-large)

The 2009 field, in all of it's much-needed glory, would look something like this.

1. Alabama (SEC champion)

2. Texas (Big 12 champion)

3. Cincinnati (Big East champion)

4. TCU (automatic non-BCS bid)

5. Boise State (automatic non-BCS bid)

6. Oregon (Pac-10 champion)

7. Ohio State (Big 10 champion)

8. Georgia Tech (ACC champion)

9. Florida (at-large)

10. Iowa (at-large)

11. Virginia Tech (at-large)

12. LSU (at-large)

The road to the semifinals would be a hard one to walk. In the first round, Boise State would host LSU, with the winner set to take on TCU. Oregon and Virginia Tech would clash in Eugene, with the winner earning a date with Cincinnati.

Ohio State and Iowa would relive their epic clash at The Horseshoe, with the winner earning a shot at Texas. Opposing styles would clash in Atlanta with Georgia Tech hosting Florida, the winner earning a shot at the top-seeded Crimson Tide.

Questions would be answered across the board with this playoff system.

Was Boise State's only victory over a BCS opponent a fluke? We'd find out when LSU traveled to Boise in the first round.

Could Alabama repeat its thrashing of defending champion Florida? A rematch, quite possibly in Atlanta, would be likely in the second round.

Is Cincinnati capable of hanging with big-time opponents? Neutral site match-ups with Oregon and Texas would tell us all we need to know.

2009's version of the playoffs would serve the ultimate purpose: showcasing every team with a claim to the national title. The TCU-Boise State clash would determine non-BCS conference supremacy, while the Alabama-Florida rematch would again eliminate one of the nation's elite teams from national title contention.

Cincinnati and Texas would likely take advantage of friendly quarterfinal draws to clash with a trip to the national title game on the line.

The winners of those two games would then head to Pasadena to crown a true, undisputed national champion.

In a perfect world, this system would be a reality. In reality, this system doesn't have a fighting chance.

Why?

It makes too much damn sense.