16 team playoffs will never happen. Too many games, too much time. I think a 10 team playoff is more fair than a 8 or 4 team playoff since 1) all conferences are represented 2) smaller schools have a better chance of making it. Eventually there will be a playoff. Considering the history of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, I wouldn't be surprised if it starts at 4 and over time it expands. Snake Plissken
Lets keep it simple stupid, I'd keep the current bowl system pretty much intact like it already exist and just tweak the selection process a little bit, because, for instance, in a 16 game playoff format the first round and quarterfinal round losers can just be cycled into the already existing bowl games per the current system. For example, the quarterfinal round losers would get the higher bowl spots available. I might consider reducing the regular season by one open date, because most coaches and fans don't like them anyway. I would then just incorporate the extra semi-final round games (just two games) and the national championship game to the already existing current bowl format. The money and fan interests that would be generated would be unbelievable, and I'm absolutely convinced that it would be a great enhancement to the sport of NCAA Division IA College Football. If this latest controversy has proven anything, it has proven that there will always be questions and controversy regarding the true national champions of Division IA college football until an acceptable playoff system is instituted and the national championship is decided once and for all on the football field. There aren't any legitimate excuses any longer for the injustice that NCAA Division IA College Football is the only NCAA collegiate sport still without a national championship decided on the playing field. Excuses used by the university presidents and other detractors for years such as the teams will play too many games are just that, lame excuses because there are 117 Division IA college football teams and only a small fraction of those teams in any given year will be fortunate enough to be playing in the playoffs, with only the top two finalist having to play at most 4 extra games, while the majority will only play 1 extra game. As for as the selection process to determine which teams make the playoffs, I'd leave that up to the university presidents and conference commissioners to decide what's fairest and what's best. The beauty of the above NCAA Division IA College Football National Championship playoff solution is it incorporates very nicely into the long existing and already established bowl system without radically changing the format, while, at the same time, greatly enhancing both the overall interests of the fans and the revenues generated by the sport. GEAUX TIGERS!!!
Here is the problem with all the people who want to use the bowls as a playoff system... It hurts you the fan... spending close to 1000 dollars a week per play off game... if you make it to the final game your tickets may be that much... 3 weeks of expensive ass road games... that sucks... i favor a play off system... by allowing 2 games to be played one week after finals... between the 1 and 4 and 2 and 3... then this will determine who will go where... this is still fair and can decide who goes to what bowls. that is the important part... if in two weeks you had michigan giong to usc for that crack at the national title and oklahoma coming to death valley for their chance to go to the national title game...damn that would generate money for the home teams... and on top of that if lsu and usc win those games then there is no dispute who should be playing for the national title... that way it does affect the bowls and it is only a road game for two teams... doesnt sound so hard to me... Tell me what yall think
Uhm...a 16-team playoff format wouldn't take any longer than a 10-team playoff format, since both will take 4 rounds to complete.
What they need to do is this; Incorporate the Cotton Bowl as a 5th BCS bowl. Continue to rotate the National Championship game between the now 5 BCS bowls, but keep the National Championship Bowl out, and play off the winners of the other 4. That's the easiest way to get a playoff system and remain fair.
10 Team Playoff is 9 games - Peach, Holiday, Cotton, Outback, Capital One, Fiesta, Rose, Orange and Sugar with conference champions receiving a week off before the playoffs. 16 Team Playoff is 15 games without any bye weeks. If there is going to be a 5th BCS bowl, it won't be the Cotton Bowl. After the 4 BCS bowls, Capital One has the highest payout at $5 million, then Cotton at $2.7 million, then Outback at $2.5 million, then Peach at $2.1 million, and then Holiday at $2 million before you get into the Bowls under $2 million payouts. Snake Plissken
I say you continue to use the BCS scoring system and go back to choosing bowls based on conferences (e.g., Rose picks Big 10 champ vs Pac 10 champ). Continue to apply BCS scoring through the bowl games. Then after the bowls are played, the top 2 BCS teams play for the College Football National Championship on January 8th. Choose a different location every year just like you do the Super Bowls. Both AP and Coaches must vote the winner of this game #1 in their polls.
There is one thing I see nobody mentioned. The way it is set up now, you have a lot of teams that win bowls and that is their last game of the season. This is a huge plus that will keep it the way that it is now. I say they do this, keep it like it is, but have special circumstanes and rules for situations. I say If lsu and usc both win and they say, "we have two national champions," Let those two teams play the next week. eric
Yeah but you’re tinkering with the existing bowl system way too much and that would make it much harder for the bowl proponents and university presidents to accept and approve. Moreover, it’s not the number of games that is so important, but instead the number of weeks it will take to conclude the playoffs and how it’s all integrated into the current bowl system with the least amount of disruption possible. If we are going to have a 4-week playoff format, I say lets make it fairer and more lucrative and include 16 teams. My suggested solution would be, for instance, to incorporate the two semi-final games into say two of the current top New Years Day bowls, with the final championship game to be played seven days later in one of the other current top bowls. Hence, I’m talking just integrating three bowls and tweaking the selection process for the others a little bit, and, of course, this could be all worked out on a rotating basis between the top bowls. Hell, there could even be a national consolation bowl game played between the two semi-finalists on the same day as the national championship game to determine the final 4.
