We just can't get the need for using media-based rankings out of our heads, can we? Any system where #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7, etc... at the home of the higher ranked team no less, consists of media bias at its very best. It's the same media bias we are trying to avoid. To rid us of media bias, you align the conferences so they all have a championship game and only the champions advance. The conference champions hosting the first and perhaps second rounds are preset and rotate annually and are not determined by seeding (all seedings require a ranking, and all rankings require the media, and here we go again...) In other words, we eliminate all bias. If eliminating bias isn't the target, if creating the most level of playing fields isn't the goal, then why change the system?
not sure having games at a neutral site in bvack to back weeks is a great idea. might be tough to get 2 separate fanbases to travel like that. there is a reason the NFL plays all their games at home except the Super Bowl.
For many people, the flaws of the current ranking system are exacerbated by the fact that out of 120+ teams, only 2 teams are able to play for the national championship each year. Expanding the number of teams makes it more likely that a team that gets screwed under the current system will not get screwed, in other words. Sure, I'd personally love to be given full control over the entirety of Div. 1-A football. I would have TONS of changes made to the system. But limiting my thinking to what is more realistically available, and I think that some sort of ranking system will be used. Here's the deal - the Sun Belt champion this season will likely have 5 or more losses. Repeating - a conference champion will have 5 or more losses. To have such a team not only make it into a playoff system, but to even have an opportunity to host a playoff game, would truly diminish the regular season of college football. I like the NFL, but I don't want teams that lose half of their games making any college playoffs. Not everything is black or white. I don't want an NFL style playoff system for college football, where you automatically get in simply by winning a conference/division, no matter how crappy you actually performed that season. Under your "conference champions only" scenario, a one-loss team, with that one loss coming to the undefeated conference champs, would be left out of a playoff system that would allow a 6 loss conference champion. That's just unacceptable to me for college football. I believe that an 8 team system would rarely if ever leave out a truly deserving team (in my opinion, deserving teams are undefeated teams, plus teams that have maybe one or two losses that are "almost wins", possibly due to a fluke play or two, injuries, bad officiating, etc. I will lose no sleep with such a system such as that, and that 5 or 6 loss conference champion can go on to play in a bowl game.
Very valid point... some fan bases would be able to travel well to two big games, while others wouldn't. Plus this system would only give the winning teams on New Year's Day about a week to get the championship game details arranged (although I'm guessing that all 4 semi-final teams would sell tickets to the championship game ahead of time). I didn't think that the Super Bowl was at a neutral site as much for the fan base issue, but more about making it a big 2 week "event", with a lot of corporate sponsors buying/getting most of the actual tickets.
point wasn't so much about the Super Bowl being Neutral, it was more about the playoffs NOT being neutral. there wouldn't be enough fans and corporate fat cats to support that. because if there was, you can pretty much bet the NFL would do it.
The Sunbelt? As I suggested, the major conference would all go to 12 teams with a championship as starters. I doubt the Sunbelt would be one of the 8 conferences. A better example is the Big East with a 3 or 4 loss champion. If they were expanded to 12 teams, sure their champ would go. No different if the SEC had "one of those years".
You may be right - haven't seen or heard of any financial studies to know if a hypothetical college system that would send teams to the big BCS bowls on New Year's Day and then sends two of those same teams to a 3rd BCS bowl about a week later would be able to sell out all seats, etc. I suspect that the BCS bowls would do just as well or better in most years, simply because the national championship would be within reach of more teams, which should heighten the interest of the fans.
It does make a lot of sense logically to have the teams organized in a more balanced fashion. However, I just don't see that happening - I don't think the NCAA has the will or the power to implement it. Even if it did happen - I don't like the idea of a 4, 5, or 6 loss conference champion (possibly getting blown out in most/all of their losses, with few if any wins over teams with winning records) getting an automatic playoff spot over a 1 or 2 loss team that has been really good most of the season, with no "bad" losses. The conference champions can be guaranteed decent bowl berths, just like they are now - I'd just punish the "bad" conference champs by leaving them out of the playoffs. If you let them in, then it really hurts the regular season too much.
I only used the Sun Belt because I happened to see that they will likely produce a conference champ with 5 or more losses, but I feel the same exact way about any conference champ - a 5 loss SEC team doesn't deserve a playoff spot either, in my opinion.
While I don't think the BCS formula is perfect, most don't have much of a problem with the rankings. What people have a problem with is when top teams get left out (Auburn, USC, to a lesser extent Boise St, TCU, Utah). A playoff would fix that and leave the only remaining gripe - isn't LSU better than TCU? That's a gripe I can live with, it will leave some controversy, and hopefully cause the BCS formula to be revised to include SoS. It's not perfect, but it maintains the great things about college football that a super-conference realignment would severely damage. I don't want college to be a mini-NFL. Bias isn't the big problem everyone has - the big problem is leaving an undefeated Auburn out, an undefeated Boise St or TCU.
