BCS Wildcard Playoffs Today!

[Dutch]

Well, we could have been watching these games today

(4) Ohio State
@
(1) USC

and

(3) Penn State
@
(2) Texas

These games could be used to determine the national championship. It doesn't interfere with anything else.

Bowl Matchups would not be determined until after these games are complete. Losers go on to whatever bowl they should be in.

Winners play in a rotating Bowl Championship Game.

Obviously this year, it's not much of an issue, but controversy will strike again.

Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish for a regularly scheduled NCAA Football playoff. What a great college football weekend they could make this.

[Easy Mac]

What about Oregon? I'd argue a 1-loss team (loss to the first place team only) deserves a 4 seed over Ohio State.

Face it, even a 4 team playoff is useless.

[Easy Mac]

dola, it also doesn't seem right that 2 no-loss teams would have to jump through another hoop when its clear they're the top teams in the country. Just get over it people, the BCS worked whether you like it or not. I'd rather argue over who belongs in the meaningless 7 v 8 bowl instead of the 1 vs 4 spot in the playoff.

[Dutch]

What about Oregon? I'd argue a 1-loss team (loss to the first place team only) deserves a 4 seed over Ohio State.

Face it, even a 4 team playoff is useless.

An 11-5 team can miss the NFL playoffs because a 7-9 team won the division. Shit happens. But if you standardize the way the shit happens...it's their own bad luck they couldn't break the Top 4.

[Easy Mac]

but 2/3 of the BCS (which you're basing your opinions on) is completely subjective. I don't think college football is standardized in any way.

[st.cronin]

An 11-5 team can miss the NFL playoffs because a 7-9 team won the division. Shit happens. But if you standardize the way the shit happens...it's their own bad luck they couldn't break the Top 4.

Well, it already *is* standardized. It's just that people don't like the standard.

[Dutch]

Standize it using the coaches poll. Make a show of it on a Wed Night on ESPN 2. "All the votes are in. Let's open the envelope of who the #1 team is....the #2 team is....the #3 team is....the #4 team is...."

[Airhog]

Why should it just be a coaches poll? Its not like coaches have nothing better to do on saturday, than watch 10-12 football games

[Dutch]

Make it whatever poll. Make it a computer poll. I don't care.

[Buccaneer]

What a crock full of shit. I guess losing a game during the regular season == not losing a game during the regular season. How about just enjoying the bowl games for what they are instead of trying to make them overly important.

[cthomer5000]

death before a playoff system

[streetballer22]

It would make no sense in this year. We have the top two teams in the championship and I think it's pretty clear to see that.

[Dutch]

It would make no sense in this year. We have the top two teams in the championship and I think it's pretty clear to see that.

And no doubt they would still be playing in the game after this playoff system. The #1 and #2 teams in the nation get to play at home, how often do those teams lose at home? Not very often.

When a 4-team playoff pays dividends is when there are 3 teams that clearly have a right to be #1.

(The 4th team is given a chance, albeit a slim to none chance to get the National Championship title.)

And the thought of it not making sense is precisely the point. Many times, the way it's done now makes absolutely no sense. Having a set method for determining the national championship with standard rules gives hope that whomever does become the National Champions, "makes sense".

[RPI-Fan]

dola, it also doesn't seem right that 2 no-loss teams would have to jump through another hoop when its clear they're the top teams in the country. Just get over it people, the BCS worked whether you like it or not. I'd rather argue over who belongs in the meaningless 7 v 8 bowl instead of the 1 vs 4 spot in the playoff.

This is absolutely ridiculous. The BCS did not work.

It provided the matchup everyone wants DESPITE itself.

[Easy Mac]

well that makes sense, thanks for clearing up that even thought it worked correctly, it didn't get it right.

Just like when #1 and #2 play in a playoff, they work in spite of themselves.

[waltwal]

here it is 8 leagues - 16 divisions 16 team playoff. any team deciding not to join a league is ineligible for the playoffs. let's see how long nd decides to be an independent. also downgrade teams to 1-aa that do not fulfill div 1-a requirements. i believe there are 4 requirements and they should be enforced.i don't have any special love for auburn(last year) or oregon but why should it be decided that they are not given a chance to be in the title game or in the bcs.

[Dutch]

here it is 8 leagues - 16 divisions 16 team playoff.

Now that WILL destroy the bowl game system. I'm only suggesting *two* additional games to be played on a single weekend. A weekend where absolutely no other football games are scheduled (this one)...with no damage to the current bowl system, excluding the two teams that will be pitted against one another for the decisive championship game.

[Buccaneer]

death before a playoff system
Which is why I like you a lot (despite your questionable tastes in music). :)

[MJ4H]

My favorite potential format:

Top 6 bcs teams, top 2 get first round bye. I think the argument that you would then have an argument over the 7th best team being left out is a silly one because the goal is to IMPROVE the current situation in which a clearly deserving team does not get EVEN A CHANCE to play for the national championship. The chances of that happening with 6 teams are DRAMATICALLY (exponentially) smaller than with 2 teams.

When you think about it, we really already have a playoff system, it is just with only 2 teams. Since the flaw in this system is that deserving teams are being left out, it seems only natural to expand the number of teams in the playoffs. I think 6 teams with top 2 getting a bye retains the importance of the regular season (of course you want that first round bye, and it is a very big reward for going undefeated or being at the top of the BCS heap. Still, there may be more teams that deserve a shot (as we have seen several times now) and this system will give them a shot.

Is this system perfect? No. Is it far better than what we currently have? In my opinion, yes. Are there other ideas that are better than what we currently have? Again, yes, but I haven't heard one that works better than this one, yet.

[Easy Mac]

But are there deserving teams left out this year?

[MJ4H]

Is college football ending after this year?

[Dutch]

Anything is better than a split title where ESPN says, "USC wins the championship!!!!......along with LSU."

That won't happen this year but it will again soon.

[waltwal]

8 leagues - 16 teams you can have all the bowl games you want. there is nothing in my suggestion that says bowl games can't be played but the playoff bowls would certainly create the most interest. why would anyone want to suggest a system that is an improvement but not perfect? the perfect system is a playoff in which every div 1-a team is eligible to win the championship.

[MJ4H]

There is no perfect system. Your system requires extreme restructuring (not going to happen), unequal scheduling (no way to play that many games in season + playoffs), and offers FAR less reward for the top teams, thus devaluing some games in the regular season.

[Easy Mac]

My favorite potential format:

Top 6 bcs teams, top 2 get first round bye. I think the argument that you would then have an argument over the 7th best team being left out is a silly one because the goal is to IMPROVE the current situation in which a clearly deserving team does not get EVEN A CHANCE to play for the national championship. The chances of that happening with 6 teams are DRAMATICALLY (exponentially) smaller than with 2 teams.

When you think about it, we really already have a playoff system, it is just with only 2 teams. Since the flaw in this system is that deserving teams are being left out, it seems only natural to expand the number of teams in the playoffs. I think 6 teams with top 2 getting a bye retains the importance of the regular season (of course you want that first round bye, and it is a very big reward for going undefeated or being at the top of the BCS heap. Still, there may be more teams that deserve a shot (as we have seen several times now) and this system will give them a shot.

Is this system perfect? No. Is it far better than what we currently have? In my opinion, yes. Are there other ideas that are better than what we currently have? Again, yes, but I haven't heard one that works better than this one, yet.Psuedola

So this is your bracket:

Quarters:
5 Oregon (10-1, USC) vs. 6 Notre Dame (9-2, USC/MSU) (G1)
3 Penn State (10-1 Mich) vs. 4 Ohio State (9-2 TX, PSU) (G2)

Semis:
1 USC (12-0) vs G1 winner (G3)
2. Texas vs. (12-0) G2 Winner (G4)

Finals:
G3 winner vs. G4 winner

Well, left out of the equation:
Georgia (10-2)
Miami (9-2)
Auburn (9-2)
VT (10-2)
West Virginia (10-1)
LSU (10-2)
Alabama (9-2)
TCU (10-1)
UCLA (9-2)


You'd think that at least West Virginia (VT) and TCU (SMU) have as much of an argument as ND (less losses, as many quality wins). Surely Georgia (TN/FLA), Miami (NC/FSU), Auburn (LSU/UGA), VT (MIA/FSU), LSU (UGA/TN) and Bama (AUB/LSU) have as strong an argument if not stronger. Why should ND have a shot at the national title while those 9 teams are out in the cold?

[MJ4H]

Because you have to draw the line SOMEWHERE. Do you not understand that leaving out some 9-2 teams is FAR LESS OF A PROBLEM than leaving out UNDEFEATED teams?

See, if the 9-2 teams complain, they could have always not lost one or two games during the season and they would have made it. If the 11-0 team(s!) don't make it, then they could always...what? Wish they had a playoff system.

[Easy Mac]

Not really, especially if the 9-2 team wins the championship... isn't that even worse?

edit: especially when 3 of the 4 extra teams already lost to the #1 and #2 teams? And one of the teams even lost to the #3 team.

[MJ4H]

No. If they did, they beat the other deserving teams. Why shouldn't they be champions? Again, this is FAR better than having an undefeated team with NO shot at the championship.

[waltwal]

so i guess the playoffs in all other sports (basketball etc) are not perfect systems. is there a problem with the nfl playoffs. i am not talking about what will happen rather what should happen. restructuring league does happen. look at the big east and the acc. restructuring into 8 leagues would actually be rather easy. playing an unbalanced schedule or too many games- ridiculous! doesn't every other division in college football already do exactly that. there is an imperfect system because the existing bowls want it that way. so play the existing bowl games in addition to the playoff games. if a school is defeated in the playoffs that school can decide if they want to go to a bowl game. also the present bcs bowls would be playoff bowls.

[Buccaneer]

Why would have them prepare for a game during finals week? Shows where the priority should be, huh?

[MJ4H]

That's correct, the playoffs in most major sports are not perfect systems. They WAY undervalue the regular season.

Yes restructuring leagues on a small scale happens all the time. A league here or there changes members by one or two teams in a season. You are talking about a MASSIVE scale.

I don't know if you get what I mean by an unbalanced schedule. In a 16 team league, you will not get to play every other team in your league. Therefore some teams will have a tougher schedule than others. Also, there will not be time to play anyone outside your league. This will get stale and boring playing the same teams every year. Yes there are already unbalanced schedules, in a few leagues, but most leagues do not have too many teams to play every one. You are suggesting to move ALL leagues to this system.

edit: baseball comes closest to getting it right, with a small playoff after a very meaningful regular season. The problem with baseball to me is that there is too much of a random element in each game requiring extremely long seasons and playoff series for meaningful results. This is a problem with the game, not with the playoff system or anything else though (note that this isn't a problem for everyone, just me).

[Easy Mac]

Why would have them prepare for a game during finals week? Shows where the priority should be, huh?They do that in the other divisions and no one complains there.

[ice4277]

Anything is better than a split title...
Until the 9-3 #8 seed, which shouldn't have gotten in ahead of the 10-2 team ranked #9, beats the #1 ranked, previously undefeated team in the final. There would likely be just as much controversy then.

[MJ4H]

I can't imagine how you people think there will be more controversy when a team WINS ON THE FIELD than when it is just decided by impartial people and computer polls.

[Buccaneer]

I can't imagine how you people think there will be more controversy when a team WINS ON THE FIELD than when it is just decided by impartial people and computer polls.
WIN against whom? The #2 seed? #4? #8? #16?

Football is unlike basketball where you can play a hoops game for 5 days a week. Football you have much more limited chances, thus the less ability to compare apples to apples (i.e., RPI) which is critical in deciding playoffs seedings.

[MJ4H]

huh? I was replying to the fact that he said there would be more (or as much) controversy when a lower seeded team won the NC than when an undefeated team gets no shot at the title. It doesn't matter what seed they win against in my statement.

[ice4277]

huh? I was replying to the fact that he said there would be more (or as much) controversy when a lower seeded team won the NC than when an undefeated team gets no shot at the title. It doesn't matter what seed they win against in my statement.
That's not what I said. I was pointing out that a potentially controversial 'at-large' #8 seed winning a title would probably cause just as much controversy. You are trying to take the human element out of selecting the teams, but that just isn't going to happen. No matter what the format, there is ALWAYS going to be controversy in the selection process. A playoff wouldn't change that.

[MrBigglesworth]

Until the 9-3 #8 seed, which shouldn't have gotten in ahead of the 10-2 team ranked #9, beats the #1 ranked, previously undefeated team in the final. There would likely be just as much controversy then.
So the number 8 seed comes in and beats the #1, #4, and #2 teams in the country in consecutive weeks and they wouldn't be deserving of the National Title?

[ice4277]

So the number 8 seed comes in and beats the #1, #4, and #2 teams in the country in consecutive weeks and they wouldn't be deserving of the National Title?
Not any more so than the #2 defeating the #1 this year.

[MJ4H]

That's not what I said. I was pointing out that a potentially controversial 'at-large' #8 seed winning a title would probably cause just as much controversy. You are trying to take the human element out of selecting the teams, but that just isn't going to happen. No matter what the format, there is ALWAYS going to be controversy in the selection process. A playoff wouldn't change that.No but it is FAR LESS controversial for a team to win the championship on the field than to have one or more denied even a shot at it nearly arbitrarily.

[MrBigglesworth]

I would love a system like in NCAA basketball: every conference winner gets in, then the top 5 at-large teans. We'd have Cinderella's and collapses. That would make the bracket for this year:

1 USC
16 Arkansas St

8 Miami
9 Auburn

4 Ohio St
13 Boise St

5 Oregon
12 FSU

2 Texas
15 Akron

7 Georgia
10 West Virginia

3 Penn St
14 Tulsa

6 Notre Dame
11 TCU

Bowl games are teh suck.

[cthomer5000]

Which is why I like you a lot (despite your questionable tastes in music). :)
Good to see I've got something going for me. http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Dutch]

Until the 9-3 #8 seed, which shouldn't have gotten in ahead of the 10-2 team ranked #9, beats the #1 ranked, previously undefeated team in the final. There would likely be just as much controversy then.


I don't think the #8 seed can be in a 4 team playoff featuring #4 @ #1 and #3 @ #2.

[streetballer22]

I would love a system like in NCAA basketball: every conference winner gets in, then the top 5 at-large teans. We'd have Cinderella's and collapses. That would make the bracket for this year:

1 USC
16 Arkansas St

8 Miami
9 Auburn

4 Ohio St
13 Boise St

5 Oregon
12 FSU

2 Texas
15 Akron

7 Georgia
10 West Virginia

3 Penn St
14 Tulsa

6 Notre Dame
11 TCU

Bowl games are teh suck.

I wouldn't mind seeing a playoff but not in this fashion. Teams like Akron and Tulsa were good enough to win their conferences but if you are going to have 16 teams why not have the 16 most deserving?

[KWhit]

Bowl games are boring, meaningless exhibition games. The most many teams can say about the benefit of their bowl games is "It gives us 3 extra weeks of practice to get ready for next year and it helps recruiting!" Who gives a shit!? The college football season loses all momentum after the conference championship games (even before that for the conferences that don't have them).

A college football playoff would be the biggest, most exciting event in all of sports next to the Super Bowl.

[larrymcg421]

If a 9-2 team won the playoff, they would deserve it because they won it on the field of play.

Once again, the playoffs are not about determining the "best" team. They are about settling it on the field.

Sure, no matter what system you will have disagreements. But what would you rather have? The 11-0 3rd place team? the 10-1 5th place team? the 9-2 9th place team? the 8-3 17th place team?

No system is perfect, but there are certainly better systems out there than the current one. Just because we have two undefeated teams does not prove the BCS works. Both teams would have likely been in this position in a playoff system as well.

[Dutch]

No system is perfect, but there are certainly better systems out there than the current one. Just because we have two undefeated teams does not prove the BCS works. Both teams would have likely been in this position in a playoff system as well.

I agree. Obviously, if a playoff were in place, the chances of us seeing USC vs Texas are diminished somewhat, but I don't see anybody who could challenge them on their own turf this year in front of a playoff caliber "winner take all" crowd.

The odds would be so great that if a #3 or #4 team did beat one of those teams, at home, they would prove that for whatever reason they did have the right stuff to be in a championship game.

The real problems would be the #2 vs #3 game. A controversial polling could throw dispute into which team "deserves" to play at home.

So yeah, no system is perfect, that's why I like some sort of computer poll (over a coaches poll that I now agree would not work) and your job as head of a football program is to work your schedule before the season to give you the best possible strenght of schedule at the end.

[st.cronin]

So yeah, no system is perfect, that's why I like some sort of computer poll (over a coaches poll that I now agree would not work) and your job as head of a football program is to work your schedule before the season to give you the best possible strenght of schedule at the end.

I would definitely like to see some sort of incentive put back in for teams to schedule good teams instead D1AA warm-ups.

[sterlingice]

I would love a system like in NCAA basketball: every conference winner gets in, then the top 5 at-large teans. We'd have Cinderella's and collapses. That would make the bracket for this year:

1 USC
16 Arkansas St

8 Miami
9 Auburn

4 Ohio St
13 Boise St

5 Oregon
12 FSU

2 Texas
15 Akron

7 Georgia
10 West Virginia

3 Penn St
14 Tulsa

6 Notre Dame
11 TCU

Bowl games are teh suck.(shameless plug) I have an article coming out on SGS Tuesday talking about the BCS and other possible playoff formats coming out on Tuesday with this exact bracket, I think :)

SI

[MrBigglesworth]

(shameless plug) I have an article coming out on SGS Tuesday talking about the BCS and other possible playoff formats coming out on Tuesday with this exact bracket, I think :)

SI
Great minds think alike...

[sterlingice]

Great minds think alike...Yeah, I've heard that, too. So what's our excuse ;)

SI

[33sherman]

I would love a system like in NCAA basketball: every conference winner gets in, then the top 5 at-large teans. We'd have Cinderella's and collapses. That would make the bracket for this year:

1 USC
16 Arkansas St

8 Miami
9 Auburn

4 Ohio St
13 Boise St

5 Oregon
12 FSU

2 Texas
15 Akron

7 Georgia
10 West Virginia

3 Penn St
14 Tulsa

6 Notre Dame
11 TCU

Bowl games are teh suck.


I've heard good arguments for and against, but man--that's a sweet lookin' bracket.

[Airhog]

personally I think that the 1 and 2 seed should get a by round.

One thing I will say though, is no matter what you do, people will complain. If you create a 4 team playoff, people with complain, if you leave things the way they are people will complain. If you have a 16 team playoff people will complain. If Texas wins a national title, people will complain.

[sterlingice]

personally I think that the 1 and 2 seed should get a by round.

One thing I will say though, is no matter what you do, people will complain. If you create a 4 team playoff, people with complain, if you leave things the way they are people will complain. If you have a 16 team playoff people will complain. If Texas wins a national title, people will complain.That's actually another of my propsed brackets- a 12 team playoff like the NFL with 4 byes for the top 4 teams (rewarding a top 4 regular season).

SI

[Butter]

It's the same old tired argument... we shouldn't mess with the Bowl Games because "that's how things have always been done". I remember how much of an uproar there was when the Rose Bowl went away from having the Big Ten v. Pac 10 champs meet.

There will be an adjustment period... but there will be a playoff system in my lifetime. It's just too lucrative NOT to happen.

[st.cronin]

One thing I will say though, is no matter what you do, people will complain.

You should have your user title changed to 'Captain Obvious' ... oh, wait, never mind...

[Samdari]

The BCS works great when you have exactly two unbeaten teams. Happens every 3 years or so.

The playoffs would work every year, and produce many meaningful postseason games, instead of one. Its a no-brainer.