Another Way To Crown the NCAA College Football Champ

The purpose of this article is to open a discussion to propose an alternative method of crowning our NCAA national football champion—one that allows a level playing field for all teams regardless of conference affiliation.

Unfortunately, the unavoidable vagaries inherent in any method used to select a finite number of playoff teams will remain, but that is life. It is also light years better than selecting two teams using the current BCS process. The biggest change in the proposal is to take the current BCS concept off the table. But as will be discussed, the mega conferences can still make their big bucks.

There are a million political and financial reasons this idea won't work. But as ol' Granddad used to say, "If you don't put a line in the water, you'll never catch a fish." So here goes. Please comment on this article with your take, not only on my idea, but on what you would do as well.

Overall concept: divide the season into three parts; 1. regular season (ends the first Saturday in November); 2. playoffs each week until a champ is crowned in early December; 3. a period for traditional holiday bowls beginning in early December.

Note that in order for this to work, teams must buy into the end of their regular season by a fixed date if they want to be eligible for playoff selection. For example, the first Saturday in November. Some teams, by choice, may not elect to become eligible.

Playoff results will be used to crown our national champion. As discussed below, playoff venues are completely divorced from the current BCS bowls. 

After the playoffs the holiday bowl season resumes as it was before the BCS took control of the BCS bowls. That means traditional bowls will resume with traditional rivalries, at traditional sites, at traditional times, as was pre-BCS. Selections to the holiday bowls are based on tradition and prior agreements and are independent of the playoff team selection process or playoff results.

Teams that are not selected for the playoffs may play in holiday bowl games. Sometimes lesser bowls can be scheduled concurrently with the playoff schedule.

Financial rewards from the playoffs are divided in proportion to the conferences providing playoff teams. Independents could be lumped together. In the long term this will serve to even the financial playing field for future national champions. Financial rewards from holiday bowl games are based on pre-BCS terms. Therefore, the big conferences and schools still get the big bucks during the holiday bowls.

More details

Playoff bowl venues. Select a pool of playoff venues before the season based on criteria similar to choosing stadiums for the Super Bowl. Include in the pool appropriate pro stadiums as well a suitable college stadiums.

Ideally all playoffs should be at neutral sites. Upon completion of the regular season, playoff teams are seeded and matched to neutral playoff sites. For logistical purposes, it would probably make sense to hold earlier playoff rounds at neutral college stadiums and final rounds at pro stadiums.

The regular holiday tournaments include playoff teams and other good non-playoff teams. The purpose for the holiday tournaments, as in the past, are to reward loyal fans, successful teams, and to serve as a financial source of income for bowls, conferences, and schools.

For example, the Big 10 champ versus the Pac 10 champ in the Rose Bowl on New Years' day each year as it has been in years past. And an important note—it is independent of earlier playoff team participation. For example, Ohio State might participate in the playoffs (and even win) and if they were also Big 10 conference champs they would also play in the Rose Bowl. 

Note that these traditional holiday bowl games may offer some very intriguing and unexpected matchups because criteria for selection of holiday bowl teams are typically determined before playoff selections are made.

As a result of playing the holiday bowls after the playoffs, it is inevitable that polls will continue to proliferate and perhaps teams different from the national playoff champs will rise to the top of polls.

But for fans that is just icing on the cake. Holiday bowls or post playoff polls will not change the importance or prestige of winning the earlier official NCAA playoff tournament. It Should, if anything, increase interest in the holiday bowls, and thus financial successes for the participating conferences and schools. Especially if they are lucky enough to have teams participating that were also selected for the the playoffs.

Pros:

Fans will love it.

TV and sponsors will love it.

(Most) conferences and Schools will love the increased potential for financial success.

Cons:

The BCS big boys will fight it but may trade off their control for more the extra money they would get. We are not subtracting bowls, rather adding new playoff games.

Some schools may not like it because of the extended schedule. But for the reasons above, and because of the low number of playoff teams, they will come around too, or simply elect not to participate.