Archives
December 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
7:05:00 PM EST
There is no doubt that the BCS is a ridiculous system. This year only further proves that reality. Its supporters claim that it makes the regular season significant. The season is the playoff, which makes every game matter they say. That must be why the two teams that will play in New Orleans on January 7 lost at home in November. It must be why a two loss LSU team will play for the title, which undefeated Hawaii will not. They say that games like Ohio State against Michigan will lose meaning if both teams have a guaranteed playoff spot. They ignore the intensity of games like North Carolina against Duke in college basketball. Others point to the tradition of the bowl system, which would be lost. Some argue that the bowls are good because thirty-two teams can end the postseason with a win, while a playoff would have only one team happy as if this was first grade tee ball and not major college football. Others argue a playoff would make the season too long, ignoring the fact that every other division of college football aside from 1-A has a playoff system and that the NCAA just sanctioned an additional game for Division 1-A teams. Still, others claim that the last team left out of a playoff would complain just as much as the third team in the BCS does. This assumes that Clemson would have as much of a gripe about not being able to play for the National Championship as undefeateds Auburn, Utah, and Boise State did in 2004.
There really are no good arguments for the BCS. There is no way to prove that LSU is any better than USC, Oklahoma, or West Virginia. I have devised a system, which addresses most of the bogus concerns of BCS backers and allows teams to decide a National Champion on the field.
Every conference will have 12 teams spilt into 2 divisions. Every team must be part of a conference.
Part of the inequality of the BCS is that some teams have to win a conference championship game, an extra chance for top teams to be upset, while others do not. Notre Dame can schedule whoever it wants for the entire season. This proposal brings more uniformity to the system. If getting Notre Dame into a conference requires letting it keep a separate television deal with NBC and not forcing it to split gained revenue with other conference schools, that is fine. The goal here is to come up with a good system. Economics are secondary. Notre Dame would enter the Big Ten, the most natural twelfth team for that conference in terms of academics, football prestige, and built in rivalries. Storied programs like Army and Navy would make natural fits for the Big East. Up and coming Central Florida would give the Big East a natural rival for South Florida and further cement the conference’s foothold in the fertile recruiting ground of Florida. Division 1-AA power UMass would help get the conference back into the Boston market it lost when Boston College defected to the Big East. It would also create a great rivalry game for the two schools. Secondary options include Marshall as a rival for West Virginia and returning Temple to the Big East. The Pac 10 could take a pair of solid rival Mountain West programs, BYU and Utah. Backup plans might be emerging programs like Boise State and Hawaii. The ACC, SEC, and Big XII could hold their status quo. Non BCS conferences could find 1-AA powers in the same geographic regions to fill their voids. The goal is to give all conferences twelve teams with as smallest amount of upheaval possible.
Reduce the number of regular season games to 10.
This helps eliminate any concern of a playoff making the season too long. It also clears out more room in December to conduct the playoff.
Every team will have 5 conference games within its division and 5 nonconference games to schedule at its own discretion.
This serves a number of purposes. First of all, it gives a uniform schedule to everybody competing for a conference title. In the new superconferences, some teams avoid powerhouses in a given year, like this year’s Kansas team playing neither Oklahoma nor Texas, while other Big XII North members got both. That gave the Jayhawks an unfair edge in their fight for a conference title, which would not be a problem under this system. It also decreases the likelihood of rematches in conference title games, which are usually unfair to the winner of the first matchup since it is tough to beat a good team twice in one year. Teams now will also have ample opportunities to improve their strength of schedule through nonconference play. When Florida beat Michigan out for a spot in the BCS Championship Game last season, many Wolverines fans complained that their team had been unfairly punished because it had a weaker schedule from playing in a weaker conference. They complained that Michigan had no control over it. Now the Michigans of the world have ample opportunities to compensate through a vigorous nonconference schedule. Since one loss would not be the end of the world with a playoff, more bigtime programs would be willing to schedule series like Texas and Ohio State did a few years ago. Finally, the advent of big conferences has cost college football some of its best rivalries, like Penn State-Pitt and Miami-Florida. This system would give enough nonconference games to restore them. This might eliminate interdivisional rivalries within conferences like Tennessee-Alabama and Auburn-Georgia, but those teams could easily continue their rivalries by scheduling nonconference games against each other.
The 11 conference championship games will be contested over Thanksgiving weekend. The winners advance automatically to the playoff.
Pro football currently dominates the Thanksgiving holiday, but conference title games would put the college game back into consciousness as it was when Nebraska and Oklahoma met. College football could own Thanksgiving night by kicking off Championship Weekend with the Big Ten Championship Game every year. The title games would continue through Friday and Saturday with a spot in the playoff on the line. Every champion from the Sun Belt to the SEC gets into the field. Hawaii might never win the National Championship, but they have passed every test in front of them this year. They at least deserve the chance to compete. Now they get that shot to prove they can play with the big boys.
A selection committee of experts decides the ten best teams in the country that failed to win their conference. They seed those teams 1 through 10. Those teams play the next weekend 1 vs. 10, 2 vs. 9, 3 vs. 8, 4 vs. 7, and 5 vs. 6 at the home field of the higher seed. Winners advance into the main playoff field.
This is the determination of the five at large spots for the sixteen team playoff. It puts an emphasis on winning the conference. Otherwise, teams have to play an extra week to make the field, while the champions get to rest. It also eliminates any advantage for highly ranked teams that did not play in a conference title game. For example, Kansas did not win the Big XII North. The Jayhawks essentially would have received a bye the week before the playoffs for not winning their division, while the Oklahoma team that won the conference would have to immediately bounce back after a game against the top ranked team in the country.
A selection committee of experts breaks the 16 remaining teams into two brackets and seeds them 1 through 8. The teams play three rounds at the home of the higher seeded team.The third round games take place on Christmas Day.
The reason for the selection committee both in choosing the at large bids and in seeding the field is simple. The BCS has proven time and again that it cannot accurately rank the teams. The media and coaches do not have time to consider all factors. They have deadlines and other jobs to execute. They also have biases. A committee can sequester itself over a number of days and take the time to look at all factors when rating teams. It works in basketball. The reason that the higher seeded team gets to play at home is simple. It puts emphasis on the regular season. Take the Ohio State-Michigan game last season as an example. Both teams were undefeated. The winner got a spot in the BCS Championship Game. Some claimed that a game would lose all meaning if there was a playoff. While the intensity of college basketball rivalries where the same conditions apply refutes that claim, this system would ensure the game would have mattered regardless. Neither team would have been playing for its life, but they would have played for a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game and the right to avoid the extra first round game for at larges. In addition, the game would have meant the difference between playing a third round game at home and traveling to Florida. The National Semifinals would take place on Christmas Day, which would give college football a new holiday.
Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the minor bowls will take place, comprised of teams that missed the playoffs and eliminated teams.
There is no reason for fans and players for 6-6 teams cannot travel to exotic locations to see their teams play exhibition games. Just because there is a playoff, the bowl system can be preserved.
On New Year’s Day, the five BCS games take place. In lieu of the BCS Championship Game, the Cotton Bowl would be part of the rotation. The championship game rotates every year.
New Year’s Day used to be the holiest of days for college football fans. Since the National Semifinals take place on Christmas, the National Championship can be decided on the first day of the new year. There is no way to play two BCS games at the same place on the same day so a new fifth bowl is needed. The Cotton Bowl has more tradition than any second tier bowl. It used to be considered a premier event. It deserves to be back in the mix with the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta. The two National Semifinal winners will play inthe finale at night. The other BCS slots can be determined among the playoff losers. The six BCS conference champions receive automatic BCS bowl invites. So does the top champion from a non BCS conference and the top three at large teams in the BCS standings. The Rose Bowl would pit the Big Ten and Pac 10 champions if possible. The Sugar Bowl would get the SEC winner. The Big XII champ would go to the Orange Bowl if it came from the old Big 8 or the Cotton Bowl if it came from the old SWC, the old traditional tie ins.
There would be no conference tie ins in minor bowls. The selection committee would rank all of the bowl eligible non BCS teams. All conference champions would be guaranteed a bowl. The top two teams would play in a bowl, as would three and four, five and six, etc. The established bowls, Citrus, Gator, Outback, Peach, Holiday,and Sun would alternate first, second, third, fourth, and fifth best non BCS games from year to year. The other bowls would alternate among sixth, seventh, eighth, etc. from year to year. This provides better matchups across the board in bowl season. It also eliminates the restriction conference tie ins place on where teams can travel. Now every team can go to any bowl game.
This system answers all concerns of BCS apologists. It shortens the season for most teams. It maintains the bowl system. It makes the regular season matter as well. It also brings back numerous dormant rivalries through more flexible scheduling and brings the Cotton Bowl back to prominence. In the next post, I will provide the example of how this season would have played out under such an arrangement.
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7:05:00 PM EST
How to Reform College Football
There is no doubt that the BCS is a ridiculous system. This year only further proves that reality. Its supporters claim that it makes the regular season significant. The season is the playoff, which makes every game matter they say. That must be why the two teams that will play in New Orleans on January 7 lost at home in November. It must be why a two loss LSU team will play for the title, which undefeated Hawaii will not. They say that games like Ohio State against Michigan will lose meaning if both teams have a guaranteed playoff spot. They ignore the intensity of games like North Carolina against Duke in college basketball. Others point to the tradition of the bowl system, which would be lost. Some argue that the bowls are good because thirty-two teams can end the postseason with a win, while a playoff would have only one team happy as if this was first grade tee ball and not major college football. Others argue a playoff would make the season too long, ignoring the fact that every other division of college football aside from 1-A has a playoff system and that the NCAA just sanctioned an additional game for Division 1-A teams. Still, others claim that the last team left out of a playoff would complain just as much as the third team in the BCS does. This assumes that Clemson would have as much of a gripe about not being able to play for the National Championship as undefeateds Auburn, Utah, and Boise State did in 2004.
There really are no good arguments for the BCS. There is no way to prove that LSU is any better than USC, Oklahoma, or West Virginia. I have devised a system, which addresses most of the bogus concerns of BCS backers and allows teams to decide a National Champion on the field.
Every conference will have 12 teams spilt into 2 divisions. Every team must be part of a conference.
Part of the inequality of the BCS is that some teams have to win a conference championship game, an extra chance for top teams to be upset, while others do not. Notre Dame can schedule whoever it wants for the entire season. This proposal brings more uniformity to the system. If getting Notre Dame into a conference requires letting it keep a separate television deal with NBC and not forcing it to split gained revenue with other conference schools, that is fine. The goal here is to come up with a good system. Economics are secondary. Notre Dame would enter the Big Ten, the most natural twelfth team for that conference in terms of academics, football prestige, and built in rivalries. Storied programs like Army and Navy would make natural fits for the Big East. Up and coming Central Florida would give the Big East a natural rival for South Florida and further cement the conference’s foothold in the fertile recruiting ground of Florida. Division 1-AA power UMass would help get the conference back into the Boston market it lost when Boston College defected to the Big East. It would also create a great rivalry game for the two schools. Secondary options include Marshall as a rival for West Virginia and returning Temple to the Big East. The Pac 10 could take a pair of solid rival Mountain West programs, BYU and Utah. Backup plans might be emerging programs like Boise State and Hawaii. The ACC, SEC, and Big XII could hold their status quo. Non BCS conferences could find 1-AA powers in the same geographic regions to fill their voids. The goal is to give all conferences twelve teams with as smallest amount of upheaval possible.
Reduce the number of regular season games to 10.
This helps eliminate any concern of a playoff making the season too long. It also clears out more room in December to conduct the playoff.
Every team will have 5 conference games within its division and 5 nonconference games to schedule at its own discretion.
This serves a number of purposes. First of all, it gives a uniform schedule to everybody competing for a conference title. In the new superconferences, some teams avoid powerhouses in a given year, like this year’s Kansas team playing neither Oklahoma nor Texas, while other Big XII North members got both. That gave the Jayhawks an unfair edge in their fight for a conference title, which would not be a problem under this system. It also decreases the likelihood of rematches in conference title games, which are usually unfair to the winner of the first matchup since it is tough to beat a good team twice in one year. Teams now will also have ample opportunities to improve their strength of schedule through nonconference play. When Florida beat Michigan out for a spot in the BCS Championship Game last season, many Wolverines fans complained that their team had been unfairly punished because it had a weaker schedule from playing in a weaker conference. They complained that Michigan had no control over it. Now the Michigans of the world have ample opportunities to compensate through a vigorous nonconference schedule. Since one loss would not be the end of the world with a playoff, more bigtime programs would be willing to schedule series like Texas and Ohio State did a few years ago. Finally, the advent of big conferences has cost college football some of its best rivalries, like Penn State-Pitt and Miami-Florida. This system would give enough nonconference games to restore them. This might eliminate interdivisional rivalries within conferences like Tennessee-Alabama and Auburn-Georgia, but those teams could easily continue their rivalries by scheduling nonconference games against each other.
The 11 conference championship games will be contested over Thanksgiving weekend. The winners advance automatically to the playoff.
Pro football currently dominates the Thanksgiving holiday, but conference title games would put the college game back into consciousness as it was when Nebraska and Oklahoma met. College football could own Thanksgiving night by kicking off Championship Weekend with the Big Ten Championship Game every year. The title games would continue through Friday and Saturday with a spot in the playoff on the line. Every champion from the Sun Belt to the SEC gets into the field. Hawaii might never win the National Championship, but they have passed every test in front of them this year. They at least deserve the chance to compete. Now they get that shot to prove they can play with the big boys.
A selection committee of experts decides the ten best teams in the country that failed to win their conference. They seed those teams 1 through 10. Those teams play the next weekend 1 vs. 10, 2 vs. 9, 3 vs. 8, 4 vs. 7, and 5 vs. 6 at the home field of the higher seed. Winners advance into the main playoff field.
This is the determination of the five at large spots for the sixteen team playoff. It puts an emphasis on winning the conference. Otherwise, teams have to play an extra week to make the field, while the champions get to rest. It also eliminates any advantage for highly ranked teams that did not play in a conference title game. For example, Kansas did not win the Big XII North. The Jayhawks essentially would have received a bye the week before the playoffs for not winning their division, while the Oklahoma team that won the conference would have to immediately bounce back after a game against the top ranked team in the country.
A selection committee of experts breaks the 16 remaining teams into two brackets and seeds them 1 through 8. The teams play three rounds at the home of the higher seeded team.The third round games take place on Christmas Day.
The reason for the selection committee both in choosing the at large bids and in seeding the field is simple. The BCS has proven time and again that it cannot accurately rank the teams. The media and coaches do not have time to consider all factors. They have deadlines and other jobs to execute. They also have biases. A committee can sequester itself over a number of days and take the time to look at all factors when rating teams. It works in basketball. The reason that the higher seeded team gets to play at home is simple. It puts emphasis on the regular season. Take the Ohio State-Michigan game last season as an example. Both teams were undefeated. The winner got a spot in the BCS Championship Game. Some claimed that a game would lose all meaning if there was a playoff. While the intensity of college basketball rivalries where the same conditions apply refutes that claim, this system would ensure the game would have mattered regardless. Neither team would have been playing for its life, but they would have played for a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game and the right to avoid the extra first round game for at larges. In addition, the game would have meant the difference between playing a third round game at home and traveling to Florida. The National Semifinals would take place on Christmas Day, which would give college football a new holiday.
Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the minor bowls will take place, comprised of teams that missed the playoffs and eliminated teams.
There is no reason for fans and players for 6-6 teams cannot travel to exotic locations to see their teams play exhibition games. Just because there is a playoff, the bowl system can be preserved.
On New Year’s Day, the five BCS games take place. In lieu of the BCS Championship Game, the Cotton Bowl would be part of the rotation. The championship game rotates every year.
New Year’s Day used to be the holiest of days for college football fans. Since the National Semifinals take place on Christmas, the National Championship can be decided on the first day of the new year. There is no way to play two BCS games at the same place on the same day so a new fifth bowl is needed. The Cotton Bowl has more tradition than any second tier bowl. It used to be considered a premier event. It deserves to be back in the mix with the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta. The two National Semifinal winners will play inthe finale at night. The other BCS slots can be determined among the playoff losers. The six BCS conference champions receive automatic BCS bowl invites. So does the top champion from a non BCS conference and the top three at large teams in the BCS standings. The Rose Bowl would pit the Big Ten and Pac 10 champions if possible. The Sugar Bowl would get the SEC winner. The Big XII champ would go to the Orange Bowl if it came from the old Big 8 or the Cotton Bowl if it came from the old SWC, the old traditional tie ins.
There would be no conference tie ins in minor bowls. The selection committee would rank all of the bowl eligible non BCS teams. All conference champions would be guaranteed a bowl. The top two teams would play in a bowl, as would three and four, five and six, etc. The established bowls, Citrus, Gator, Outback, Peach, Holiday,and Sun would alternate first, second, third, fourth, and fifth best non BCS games from year to year. The other bowls would alternate among sixth, seventh, eighth, etc. from year to year. This provides better matchups across the board in bowl season. It also eliminates the restriction conference tie ins place on where teams can travel. Now every team can go to any bowl game.
This system answers all concerns of BCS apologists. It shortens the season for most teams. It maintains the bowl system. It makes the regular season matter as well. It also brings back numerous dormant rivalries through more flexible scheduling and brings the Cotton Bowl back to prominence. In the next post, I will provide the example of how this season would have played out under such an arrangement.
Written by georgecoztanza Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
12/12/07 12:14 AM
Bring in the BCS's best ranked non-BCS conference team. That gives us Hawaii.
For the final teams, just add the top three ranked teams in the BCS rankings that aren't already in the tournament. That gives us Georgia, Missouri and Kansas.
Seed 'em 1 thru 10 with the top six teams getting a bye (use the BCS rankings for seeding ... and try to keep conference teams far away from each other). Play at home sites except for the title game. Screw using the bowls. The non playoff teams get that shot.
5-Georgia at 4-Oklahoma
10-Hawaii/7-USC winner at 1-Ohio State
9-West Virginia/8-Kansas winner at 2-LSU
6-Missouri at 3-Virginia Tech