Projected 2008-09 College Football Playoffs

By Sean Haugh.

The BCS is even more of a joke than ever this year. 

The Big East and ACC champions still have tickets, while one of an undefeated Utah or an undefeated Boise St. will get shut out.  We need playoffs!

The first criticism of the playoffs is the incompatibility with the bowl system.  That’s hogwash.  All you have to do is use the bowls as playoff sites. 

The lower tier bowls can still have their CUSA No. 5 vs. Sun Belt No. 3 match-ups in December. 

All bowls would have incentive to improve so they can move into the playoff system or move up a tier to host a later round game.

The argument that more games may interfere with academics is even bigger bunk.  The players are still committed to practice while waiting a month to play their last game.  Other major college sports play more games with seasons that last at least as long.

And finally, the feeling that there’s too much money invested already in the bowls is absurd.  Playoffs would generate far superior match-ups with much more than just school pride on the line, leading to increased viewership, and thus ad revenue.

So here are the rules: It’s a 16-team single elimination tournament. 

All 11 conference champions get in, plus five at-large teams.  Even though it has taken some heat lately, we’ll carry over the BCS rule of no more than two teams from any conference (which means sorry Texas Tech and Georgia, thanks for playing).  Seeding will be according to projected BCS rankings.

I’m going old school with the bowl names, avoiding their more modern and annoying corporate designations whenever possible.  Preference is given based on 2008 total payouts.   In odd years (such as this one, since these are January games), the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls get the semifinal games, while they would go to the Rose and Orange Bowls in even years.

Given current standings and a number of assumptions of how future games will play out, with homerism breaking all ties, here is how the first round would look:

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