Trash the BCS: How Would the 2010 College Football Playoffs Go?

The BCS matchups were introduced recently, and of course, they chose No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 2 Auburn (or is it No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Oregon?) for the BCS National Championship Game. 

So they got it right—the two best teams amongst the automatic qualifiers will face off for the national championship, while the best non-AQ team, TCU, gets the Rose Bowl. Now everybody can just sit back and relax.

This is a one-year aberration, though.

Usually determining who plays in the BCS National Championship Game is a lot messier than this.

This is partly the faults of the conference for making the stupid mistake of basing who plays in their conference championship games or who wins their conference on who has the highest BCS ranking.

Texas fans remember 2008, when they beat Oklahoma but were left out of the Big 12 Championship Game, and Michigan State fans this year remember a one-loss season, with one of those wins coming against Wisconsin.

On top of that, while TCU fans must be ecstatic about playing in the Rose Bowl, I know a small part of them wants to play for the national championship. 

Would I rather see a playoff similar to basketball’s March Madness? Of course, and so would everyone, including the President of the United States. Will it happen? Well, probably not—there's too much money and tradition in the bowl games.

However, I’ll dispute that bowl game tradition by pointing out that once upon a time, each bowl meant something other than money (in other words, it’s all about money). So they bastardized the bowls yet won’t put in a playoff system; in fact, last season they even said they tried but couldn’t think of a playoff system.

How It Would Work

I’m here to help.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, college football fans of all ages, I, Thomas Arsenio Galicia, am proud to present to you a whole new idea...the NCAA College Football Division I-A Playoffs!

How will it work, you might ask? Well, first off we’re taking 17 teams. Why not an even 16? Because to become the 16th team, just like basketball had with the 64th team, the two lowest-ranked teams have to play in the play-in game.

Why? Well, first off, 11 bids will go to the winners of all 11 college football Division I-A conferences (since we’re actually doing a playoff, no need for the Football Bowl Subdivision title; it's back to Division I-A and Division I-AA).

No longer will the teams from just the six BCS conferences have a better chance at a national championship than teams from the five non-BCS conferences. The last six bids will go to at-large teams based off the BCS rankings, which will be changed to the Playoff Series Rankings.

Simply put, if you’re in the Playoff Series Top 16 yet are not a conference champion, you will be considered for a playoff spot depending on your ranking, and the seven highest-ranking non-conference champions will get playoff berths.

To facilitate this and eliminate that stupid “co-champion” tag, each conference will have a conference championship game, regardless of how many teams are in each conference. (I find the whole “you must have 12 teams in your conference to have a conference championship game” rule stupid, but that’s just me.)

Since they won’t get any special favors, Notre Dame must join either the Big East (of whom they’re a member in other sports) or the Big Ten (where they’re geographically from, and by doing this they’ll still be able to play Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue every year). If they were a Big East team this wouldn’t be possible, but to hell with it, Notre Dame’s joining the Big Ten under my plan. However, it will still be the Big Ten despite having 13 schools next year. They're already going to have 12 anyway, and there’s already a Big 12 that will have 10 schools, so why rock the boat?

How It Works Step One: Automatic Berths

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GAINESVILLE, FL - NOVEMBER 21: Coacg Mario Cristobal of the Florida International University Golden Panthers directs play against the Florida Gators, November 21, 2009 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty

Yes, coach Mario Cristobal, you can fist pump knowing that under this playoff system, you have a shot at the title too!

So how does this playoff system work? Well, I gave you the short version already. Here’s the long version.

Each conference champion makes it in without fail.

Whether you’re the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Sun Belt Conference, if you can win your conference, you get invited to the party. Pretty simple, right? Well, there are 11 conferences, meaning 11 berths. Done!

Step Two: At-Large Teams

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BATON ROUGE, LA - NOVEMBER 20: Head coach Les Miles of the Louisiana State University Tigers celebrates after their 43-36 win over the Ole Miss Rebels at Tiger Stadium on November 20, 2010 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Six at-large entries are invited to participate to round up the playoffs.

Why not just have the 11 conference champions compete?

Well, how bad would it be if, say, Ohio State, which had just one loss all season, missed out on a shot at a national championship, yet a team like FIU, who started off the season with losses to Rutgers, Pitt and Texas A&M and then lost to Florida Atlantic, could make it in? We need the at-large teams.

How are they invited, you ask? Well, the way the bowls pick out what teams to invite actually has nothing to do with record—it’s based off how many tickets they could sell. Well, these are the playoffs; they should sell themselves!

We base these at-large teams on the BCS, now Playoff Series, rankings. The six highest-ranked teams that didn't win their conferences (No. 4 Stanford, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 9 Michigan State, No. 10 LSU and No. 11 Boise State this year) would get the invites.

Now would this cheapen the regular season? No. You'll see one of the reasons why in a little bit. However, here's another reason why: Had Alabama defeated LSU, they'd probably be on this list. Same goes with Oklahoma State had they beaten Oklahoma (well, they would've at least gotten to the Big 12 Championship Game if they beat Oklahoma, but stay with me), and the same thing with Texas A&M had they not tripped up against Missouri.

Step Three: Regions and Seeding

The 16 teams will be split off into four regions of four.

To keep some semblance of tradition, the brackets will be named after the four BCS Bowls: the Orange Bracket, the Sugar Bracket, the Rose Bracket and the Fiesta Bracket. Why? Because those regional finals would be held in the locations of those bowls.

I’ll explain the logistics considering that three of those stadiums are also used by NFL teams.

Step Four: Logistics

The first week of the playoffs, all games would be played at the home stadium of the higher seed.

We’re looking at a good four weeks of games. Best place to play them is the stadium of the higher seeds for the first round, right?

Plus, this will mean that the regular season will mean something. Think about it: If you're LSU, would you rather go to the horseshoe in Ohio in December or host the Buckeyes in Baton Rouge?

The second week of the playoffs, aka the regional finals, will be played in specific regions.

Easy. The Orange Bracket finals will be played in Miami, Sugar in New Orleans, Fiesta in Phoenix and Rose in Pasadena. Sure, this will take place about a week earlier than the actual games would, but trust me, this works out well.

Based off a rotating basis, two of those sites will be used for the semifinals, one for the finals and the other will take a year off.

Let’s say this year its the Fiesta Bowl's turn to host the finals. The Rose and Orange Bowl would then host the semis with the Sugar Bowl left out for one year. Then next year it would be the Sugar Bowl hosting the finals with the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl hosting the semis and the Orange Bowl skipping; the year after that the Orange Bowl hosts the finals with the Fiesta and Sugar hosting the semis and the Rose Bowl skipping; and then finally the Rose Bowl hosts with the Orange and Sugar hosting the semis and the Fiesta Bowl skipping.

It’s done, it's fair, plus it makes sense because these are the only four locations I’d consider hosting these games anyway.

The championship will be determined at the same time as it is now.

We wouldn’t have to change much. Championship Saturday is still the first week of December, they get the second week off (except for the play-in game), the third week of December is for the first round, fourth week of December is for the regional finals, New Year’s Day both semifinals get played and the week after that, the finals.

That wasn’t too hard, now was it? Plus, New Year's Day football games will mean something again!

Step 5: The 2010 Seedings

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CORVALLIS, OR - DECEMBER 4: A fan holds up a copy of a mock front page after game between the Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers at Reser Stadium on December 4, 2010 in Corvallis, Oregon. The Ducks beat the Beavers 37-20 to likely go on to the BCS

This idea could work, right? Well, it should. In fact, here’s a breakdown of how it would go if they implemented it for this year.

Part of the seedings and what region they will be placed in will be based off location and records. 

Here's a list of the qualifiers first.

SEC Champion: Auburn

Big Ten Champion: Wisconsin

Pac-10 Champion: Oregon

Big 12 Champion: Oklahoma

ACC Champion: Virginia Tech

Big East Champion: UConn

Mountain West Champion: TCU

WAC Champion: Nevada

C-USA Champion: UCF

MAC Champion: Northern Illinois

Sun Belt Champion: Florida International

At-Large No. 1: Stanford

At-Large No. 2: Ohio State

At-Large No. 3: Arkansas

At-Large No. 4: Michigan State

At-Large No. 5: LSU

At-Large No. 6: Boise State (Sorry to Missouri, Oklahoma State and Alabama, but they're the highest ranked team after the first five to not win their conference. Rules are rules. And why get mad over a hypothetical and fictional tournament?)

Sugar Bracket

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ATLANTA - DECEMBER 04: Quarterback Cam Newton #2 of the Auburn Tigers runs with the ball during the 2010 SEC Championship against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Georgia Dome on December 4, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

Sugar Bracket

1. Auburn

2. Michigan State

3. Virginia Tech

4. Play-in game winner (Florida International vs. Northern Illinois)

Fiesta Bracket

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ALBUQUERQUE, NM - NOVEMBER 27: TCU Horned Frogs quarterback Andy Dalton #14, center Jake Kirkpatrick #76 and wide receiver Alonzo Adams #81 celebrate their 66-17 win over the University of New Mexico Lobos on November 27, 2010 at University Stadium in Alb

Fiesta Bracket

1. TCU

2. Oklahoma

3. Arkansas

4. UConn

Orange Bracket

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ANN ARBOR, MI - NOVEMBER 20: J.J. Watt #99 of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates a fourth quarter interception with Patrick Butrym #95 while playing the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium on November 20, 2010 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Wisconson won the

Orange Bracket

1. Wisconsin

2. Stanford

3. Boise State

4. UCF

Rose Bracket

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

CORVALLIS, OR - DECEMBER 04: Kenjon Barner #24 of the Oregon Ducks runs for a touchdown against the Oregon State Beavers during the 114th Civil War on December 4, 2010 at the Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

Rose Bracket

1. Oregon

2. Ohio State

3. LSU

4. Nevada

Game Matchups for Round 1

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PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 07: Head coach Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate with the BCS Championship trophy after winning the Citi BCS National Championship game over the Texas Longhorns at the Rose Bowl on January 7, 2010 in Pasadena, Calif

Already, this looks promising....we haven’t even gotten to the games yet, and you know what? Here’s how I’m going to do it: Every Saturday I plan on using NCAA 2011 to simulate these games, and I’ll tell you how they pan out.

Then we’ll crown a real national champion—well, not really, but I’ll just show how exciting this is and how it would really help college football, and it wouldn’t take an act of Congress to pull all of this off either.

Next week I'll only be writing about the hypothetical play-in game between Florida International and Northern Illinois. After that the schedule looks like this:

Saturday, December 18th

4. Play-in Winner @ 1. Auburn

3. Virginia Tech @ 2. Michigan State

4. Nevada @ 1. Oregon

3. LSU @ 2. Ohio State

4. UCF @ 1. Wisconsin

3. Boise State @ 2. Stanford

4. UConn @ 1. TCU

3. Arkansas @ 2. Oklahoma

Monday, December 27th

Fiesta Bowl Finals (University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ)

Rose Bowl Finals (Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA)

Sugar Bowl Finals (Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA)

Orange Bowl Finals (Sun Life Stadium, Miami, FL)

Saturday, January 1st (I know four days is a lot, but remember it won't be too much travelling, and teams have done four-day turnarounds in the past)

Fiesta Winner vs. Rose Bowl winner (Rose Bowl)

Sugar Bowl Winner vs. Orange Bowl winner (Sun Life Stadium)

Monday, January 10th

The National Championship Game (University of Phoenix Stadium)