A College Football Playoff System for Dummies

Something needs to change at the end of the college football season. 

While so many teams get to go to a bowl game as a reward at the end of the season, I always seem to feel unsatisfied once the season ends.

This year will be no different.  No matter who is playing in the BCS Championship game at the end of the year, there will be questions as to who really is the best team.

Got to hand it to the BCS. It is an endless wellspring of unintended consequences. They are like Wile E. Coyote. It has to be the single greatest source of how-did-that-happen snafus in human history.

Oklahoma jumps Texas into the Big 12 championship game and, with a victory over disappointing Missouri, into the BCS Championship Game.

Yeah, that's the same Texas that beat Oklahoma by 10 points on a neutral field less than two months ago. Only in college football could we have a system that overrules the most basic evidence possible for deciding which team is better: head-to-head competition.

Also, you may be eliminated from a BCS Championship by having just one bad half.  Just ask the USC Trojans about that lonely Thursday night in Corvallis.  Because of one bad half, they will have to sit on the sidelines and settle for another Rose Bowl.

Imagine if that happened in the NFL.  When the Giants, who are arguably the best team in the NFL, lost to Cleveland back in October it was not that big of a deal because they have a playoff to settle things.  If the NFL used rankings and computers, the Giants' season would be over after a loss like that.

The NCAA did not use polls and computers to decide it liked Memphis' overall season better than Kansas' and awarded the Tigers the 2008 national basketball title. The Jayhawks earned what they got in the Alamodome.

But that's basketball, which tends to settle the same things on the court. Whereas college football prefers things settled by microchip and guesswork.

So here is my simple and effective plan to have a college football playoff:

Get rid of the 12th game. 

This will shorten the season to make room for a playoff.  Even though some teams have done well in adding good opponents to their non-conference schedule, most have just added cannon fodder from the Sun Belt, MAC, and the FCS. No one cares to see Oklahoma vs. Chattanooga or Florida vs. The Citadel.

Now that there is room, here is the formula.  Take the top eight teams from the AP Poll (or any poll for that matter),seed them, and have your playoff.

This way a team that is deserving can have a bad game and even lose late, and still be involved in the debate for a National Champion by settling it on the field.  So say, if Alabama loses to Florida and Missouri upsets Oklahoma, the Tide and Sooners will probably still make the playoff.

This playoff system will also give us match-ups that even casual fans will tune in to watch.  Do not get me wrong, I am thrilled Cincinnati won the Big East, but who else besides their fans and die hards want to watch them in a BCS Bowl against Utah or the ACC Champion?

Here would be the games in the first round of my playoff system, using the top eight teams from the BCS:

1. Alabama vs. 8. Texas Tech

2. Florida vs. 7. Utah

3. Texas vs. 6. Penn State

4. Oklahoma vs. 5. USC

Do any of those games seem boring or unwatchable?  You have the power game of Alabama against the spread of Texas Tech, Urban Meyer against his old team, and two games pitting classic college football powers against each other.

Critics have said that if we move it back to eight teams, people will debate who should be that eighth team in.  So what?  In the history of college football, there has never been a team ranked below fourth in the country that has had a legitimate claim to a National Championship.

So Boise State gets left out of the playoff, sorry. They play a weak schedule in a weak conference.  Ohio State?  Sorry.  Got beat by 30 on the road and lost to a more talented Penn State team at home.

It still may not be the perfect system, but it is much better than the system we have now.  Get rid of the computers and just settle it all on the field.