4 Easy Steps: A Happy BCS, Bowls Alive, and a National Championship Playoff Too
You absolutely can have a national championship tournament, while keeping the BCS Ranking System and each and every bowl game.
Yes, that's right! Everyone can be happy and we can finally have a true battle-tested, undisputed national champion. College football fans have debated an infinite number of possibilities regarding how exactly a playoff system could be implemented in college football while keeping every current football post-season entity happy. I honestly don't believe it is as complicated as many people suggest. I'll show you how in 4 Easy Steps!
Step 1: Do Nothing to Change the Regular Season or the Conference Championships
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This works on multiple levels. There will be no need to reschedule games/dates that have been agreed upon for years. There should be no fear of headaches for those individuals who put together schedule agreements. There will be no destroying traditional rivalry games by moving them from their annual dates. Leave the season-ending rivalry games and Thanksgiving classics alone! There is no need to try modifying a regular season and conference championship week that are already filled with plenty of excitement and intrigue.
Allow the BCS to Still Run the Show and Determine Tournament Competitors
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Assuming that the tournament includes 8 teams, your entrants would consist of the 6 AQ conference champions and two at-large teams. One at large slot would be guaranteed to a non-AQ school who would qualify under the current BCS rules. The last slot in the tournament goes to the school with the highest BCS ranking that has not already qualified for the tournament. In case no non-AQ school meets the current BCS qualifications, the two at large slots would be given to the two schools with the highest BCS rankings not already in the tournament. As an example, if the regular season ended on Sunday, November 14, here are your qualifying teams:
1. Oregon (Pac-10 leader)
2. Auburn (SEC leader)
3. Wisconsin (highest BCS ranking of the three conference leaders)
4. Nebraska (Big XII leader, wins tiebreaker with Oklahoma State)
5. Virginia Tech (ACC leader)
6. Pittsburgh (Big East leader)
7. TCU (Non-AQ qualifier)
8. Boise State (highest BCS ranked school not already qualifying)
Step 3: Push BCS-Selection Sunday back by 1 Week
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The reason for this would be that the first Saturday following the Conference Championship weekend would be used for the quarterfinal round of the National Championship Tournament.
Allow the BCS rankings to determine seeding, and use the logical 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, and 4 vs. 5 matchups. I would select two “regional” locations for this round and play two games (one 1 PM start, one 8 PM start) at each location. You can also allow the higher-seeded team to host the lower-seeded team. Honestly, I really don’t think this matters as long as the playoffs are actually happening.
Going by our previous example, here would be your first round matchups:
1. (1) Oregon vs. (8) Pittsburgh
2. (2) Auburn vs. (7) Virginia Tech
3. (3) TCU vs. (6) Nebraska
4. (4) Boise State vs. (5) Wisconsin
There are options to re-seed teams after the quarterfinal round, or play the tournament in a pure “bracket” style, similar to the NCAA basketball tournament. Once again, I don’t think this matters much, as long as the tournament happens.
Also of note, the BCS bowls would still have three weeks to hype matchups. It is also likely that some of the lower-tiered bowls would already have extended invitations and secured teams prior to the week of the quarterfinals.
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Step 4: Let The BCS Bowls Get Teams They Really Want and Keep Every Bowl Game
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How do you keep the BCS bowls happy and allow them to get teams they actually want playing in their games?
Once again, the solution is simple. Instead of BCS conference championships leading to automatic BCS bowl game berths, have these conference championships result in automatic NCAA tournament berths. Allow any team losing in the Tournament quarterfinals to remain eligible for a bowl appearance. A team losing in the quarterfinals, particularly in an extremely close game, may still be a very attractive option for a major bowl.
Now, the BCS bowl games would not be required to take a team like an 8-4 Pittsburgh squad, and could instead choose a team such as an 11-1 Ohio State, 11-1 Michigan State, 11-1 Stanford, or an Auburn team that may have gotten upset in the SEC Championship. Two of the four BCS Bowl Games, on a rotating basis, can serve as the semifinal Tournament games, with the winners meeting a week later in the National Championship Game. The BCS Bowls already occur a week before the current BCS National Championship Game, so this would not lead to any schedule re-arranging.
Most importantly here, every single bowl game will still exist. With no teams having to be removed from bowl competition to play in a National Championship Tournament, every bowl will still be able to be played, the BCS Bowl Games will all have true quality matchups, and there will be no anticlimactic, uninteresting blowouts of teams that don’t truly deserve to be playing at that level. This also should lead to very strong television ratings for every BCS Bowl Game.
Now Everybody's Happy
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Well, that’s it! The BCS remains a powerful presence, none of the bowl games disappear, we get a true National Champion, and everyone involved in the process makes a boatload of money. It's a true win-win situation.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
