I'm in agreement with TigerBait3 that a playoff system probably won't fix the issues which have arisen this year. Here's the problem with college football: we're all trying to figure out "who is #1". In the pros they aren't trying to figure that out; they're just playing to see who wins the bucks in the Super Bowl. Their playoff system works because no one is really concerned with whether a better team got eliminated, but just with who survives the process. The process is important to the pros. On the other hand, in the college game, there's always--for many years--been an effort to pick which team is playing best and crown that team. That's the Pete Carroll argument which says that it doesn't matter who won the BCS, the poll tells you who is best. Frankly, I think in a way LSU fans now understand what he was trying to say in 2003. Whatever the system, you have to figure out what you want it to achieve. Do you want to pick the team which is playing best? Then you'll really need to give weight to conferences and not penalize the SEC teams like Florida, Georgia and LSU for two losses. This implies more if not total reliance on human polls. Or do you just want a Super Bowl, where you get the team which is left standing in an artificially created bracket of 8? I think the bowls are a nice thing for many teams and for fans. I also think weeks of playoffs are injury-producers, and could actually cause the best teams to go down. I don't think it's a coincidence that our team was ranked so highly this year and many of our best players were injured. That would definitely happen during a playoff run. I think LSU was a victim of its own pre-season hype to some extent and I think that a playoff system would be even worse for this team than what has happened. It's like having two or three SECCG to have to get through. Think about it.
You have a terrific point. Every game does count, and I like the excitement of the regular season. Even an 8 team playoff wouldn't be perfect. Some 10-2 team would be in at #7 or #8, and the #10 or #11 team argues that they beat #8 during the season, blah blah blah.... However, when the smoke clears after the BCS National Championship, I am still left wondering if they got it right. I like championships to be won or lost on the field. When you have 3 or more deserving (or undeserving depending on how you look at it) teams it must be decided on the field, and not by some computers, members of the media or retired coaches.
If the polls would actually pick from week to week who the best teams are based on how they are playing, instead of the ESPN hype, then the current system is fine. BUT that aint gonna happen. AGAIN.. MONEY
I always felt that the answer was to include the Bowl games in the playoffs. Round 1 Capitol One Bowl: Seed #1 vs Seed #8 Outback Bowl: Seed #2 vs Seed #7 Cotton Bowl: Seed #3 vs Seed #6 Fiesta Bowl: Seed #4 vs Seed #5 Round 2 Sugar Bowl: Winner of Capitol One Bowl vs Winner of Fiesta Bowl Orange Bowl: Winner of Outback Bowl vs Winner of Cotton Bowl Championship Game (Rose Bowl) Winner of Sugar Bowl vs Winner of Orange Bowl The rest of the Bowl games bids go out to teams that don't qualify as one of the final eight. We'll continue to use some variant of the BCS Poll to determine the final eight, giving Conference Champions from the SEC, ACC, Big East, Pac 10, Bug XII and Big 10 automatic bids with the poll determining the two at-large teams. The BCS Poll determines the seeds as well. This would increase television ad revenue for the Cotton, Outback and Capitol One Bowls and arguably the same for the rest which are currently BCS Bowl games. Conferences with multiple teams in the final eight could really clean up with multiple appearances in multiple bowl games as they advance through the playoffs. As for the rest of the Bowl games, they would finally see big name programs that they normally would never see because those teams were left out of the playoffs. The playoff games would start the night of New Year's Day, giving the rest of the Bowl games until then to play and have the spotlight.
having the BCS system makes you follow the games that would have not been so big otherwise...good for entertainment value to say the least
The only change I would make would be to have a round robin championship game so each bowl would host the game.
