The whole purpose of a playoff system is to, as much as possible, remove the bias out of the process and make it fairer to all involved. Your suggestion leaves the biases of the computer programmers along with the innate biases of both the voters in the AP and Coaches polls.
There never will be a 16 team playoff. Should Miami of Ohio, Iowa, and Florida have a chance at the national championship? And then 8 games on one day? Games would have to on multiple television channels which means a highly segmented audience which means smaller television contracts and advertising dollars for that round. Teams that played in the conference championship will be at a disadvantage since they just played the previous week. The bowls are linked to the playoffs. Otherwise home playoff teams will receive additional revenue. What happens to visiting team payouts? And who will go the lesser bowls? Are bowls to schedule bowl matchups immediately after a team loses in the playoff? There is too much logistics involved for a 16 team playoff to happen. I'm fairly confident we'll get islstl's proposal which was mentioned on the Jim Rome show today, a 4 team, or 8 team playoff in 2007. Snake Plissken
I learned a long time ago to never say never. Why not if they are one of the top 16 teams as determined by whatever fair method the university presidents and conference commissioners decide upon? So what? Division IAA has been doing it for years without a hitch. Big deal. We're talking the first round of the playoffs and this isn't exactly the NFL. What kind of advertising revenues are being generated now? Let's not begin counting our money quite yet! Well I guess that is just the breaks, or the college presidents and conference commissioners could develop a more equitable solution. Nevertheless, IAA football has been doing it for years with no major complaints. Per my proposal, the bowl system would remain relatively unchanged and intact; the difference is the bowls wouldn't select the teams until after the second round of the playoffs when 12 playoff teams would become bowl eligible. Or as an alternative, the loser of playoff game A will play the loser of playoff game D in the such and such bowl, all that can be very easily worked out later. As for as compensation, leave it up to the university presidents and the conference commissioners, that’s what they get paid the big bucks for; let them earn their salaries. Why? IAA has been doing it for years and they experience no problems. Hell, NCAA basketball plays 32 games in the first round, big deal! For years the university presidents have been selling the fans short in favor of the bowls. I’m just advocating a fair and balanced playoff system that will decide a true national champion on the playing field, not via a popularity contests decided in the minds of sports writers, college coaches, or computer geeks all with their own special interests in mind. For instance, you never would have found a single sportswriter in the country that would have predicted KSU would blow out OU in that game Saturday. How do you know what's going to happen till you play the game? I predict that just like the NCAA basketball tournament, each playoff first round will be sprinkled with surprising upsets adding to the fun and flavor of the game and generating more interests with the fans.
I'm with Vincent ! Let's add one game and see what happens. We can add more games later if needed. Let's at least get a four game playoff.
Why not start the season 2 to 4 weeks earlier to accomodate the playoff system??? I'm always dying for college football to start anyway.
Well, then the regular season becomes much less important than it does now. Mostly because you will only need to win when it really "counts", not every week. It will completely change the face of college football, and you will just have another NFL to follow. College baseball and basketball are not college football. College football still generates more money during the regular season and higher TV ratings, than those two sports, and let's not forget how dismal the college basketball ratings are during the regular season. In college basketball, playing just over .500 is not too bad (and could get you a birth in March Madness if you play well in Feb), in football it is dreadful record and not deserving of a chance at the NC just b/c you might hit a hot streak in Nov/Dec. So you can't compare these two very different sports. I do not think there is any shame in winning your confernece, but suffering a few losses during the season, thus not getting a chance at the NC. I say just let the top 4 decide the NC if we must have a playoff, being too inclusive will cheapen the honor of being THE college football national champion.
I say The Mighty Gators should go to the Playoffs! I mean we won against the future National Champs of 2003!
Sure. A shot...yes. If any one of those teams wins 4 straight over the best competition in the country, they ARE national champs. Right now, we have the situation where a team could go 1-1 in their last two games and win the NC. Would NOT be possible in a playoff format. ....and as far as the logistics...we're talking about having games either at the higher seed's home field, or at a bowl site that is used to having to house, feed, and entertain 2 teams/year anyways. What "logistical problem"? ...as far as the money goes, the NCAA and the university presidents are sitting on a gold mine! You actually think that the TV ratings for the first round of the playoffs would be worse than for the Weed Eater Bowl or the whogivesashitwhowins.com Bowl? Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
