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The Porch
I've copied the full HTML page below. If it doesn't work, I'll see about getting JD or Lynn to put the page up again. I wrote this in 2000, so realize some of the points may be dated. Note that in my current thread here I've used the approach of playing the playoff games at the home stadium of the higher seeded team while in this system, I'm talking about playing the playoff games through the bowl system. Whichever way works best is fine by me. The Debate of the Playoff System: A Compromise Solution That Should Keep All Parties Happy (c) 11-3-2000 Kenny Moore I will preface this article by saying that I am opposed to a NCAA 1-A playoff system. I am a fan that finds it amazing that so many people want to take the best sports entertainment product in the world and change it's system to emulate the systems of inferior products, i.e.--NFL and other pro sports. It is my opinion that, if not for a skillfully orchestrated, self-serving propaganda/marketing campaign by television on the issue, the clamor for a playoff system among many of the fans would not be anywhere near as loud as it has been recently. That said, I believe I have a solution that will satisfy the concerns of all parties. Before I get to outlining that solution, I will put together a list of all the arguments commonly seen regarding the need for a playoff system along with my rebuttal to each of these from my perspective. After setting the table through outlining the various arguments and rebuttles, I'll unveil the only playoff system that I could support. Argument #1 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #1: Argument #2 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #2: The past two seasons, the BCS has worked to give us matchups of the Top 2 teams in the country. I happen to think that is a very good thing. I have no dispute with Tennessee being national champions after beating FSU. I have no dispute with FSU being their opponent as we earned our way to the #2 slot within this system, and were the most deserving one loss team if you ask anyone except John "We're going to kick their ass" Cooper. I have no dispute with FSU being national champions after beating Virginia Tech, nor do I have a problem with Virginia Tech being our opponent in that game as I do feel they were a very deserving #2. So this system is 2 for 2. If these zealous playoff supporters were really about eliminating injustice, I'd think they'd wait until the current system fails before crying for it's demise, as in my opinion, injustice has been eliminated in the past two seasons at the top of the sport. Argument #3 for a playoff (also ties in with argument #2): Rebuttal to argument #3: To illustrate: With a 16 team format, we will have several 3 and sometimes 4 loss teams still in contention for a championship. These teams are clearly undeserving of a championship when compared with undefeated teams. Say the #16 team that ended the year 8-3 gets hot at the end and gets into a championship game against an 11-0 team. Their records at that point would be 11-3 vs. 14-0. The 11-3 team wins over the 14-0 team who happened to have an untimely injury to a star player in their semi-final matchup. The final records are 12-3 and 14-1. I ask is that a more fair system to crown a champion than what we have now? Is that final champion a truer champion than the champions we have now? The argument that they won it on the field doesn't hold water, because they lost three games ON THE FIELD earlier in the season. Oh, but those games don't matter. Only the playoff games matter. With this logic, those that subscribe to this notion of fairness show the argument that a playoff system takes away the meaning of the regular season games to be absolutely true. IMO, that 12-3 national champion is no more fairly determined than the 11-1 champion that had some controversy surrounding their placement in the #2 position. The whole point is to determine the *best* team in the game, and I don't think that the *best* team in college basketball is crowned champion more often than the *best* team in football will be crowned champion in our current format. The crowning of the champion in the playoff format is merely a crowning of the team that got hot at the right time of the year. I'd venture to say that the crowned champions in college football are just as commonly the ACTUAL BEST teams as frequently as in sports with playoffs, and probably more often since any team that gets hot at the right time can advance in a playoff. Argument #4 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #4: Argument #5 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #5: Also, I certainly can argue that teams won't be fighting as hard once they know they have clinched a playoff berth. There's a big difference between fighting for the survival of your season goals and simply fighting for seeding. The fans will not be dying a thousand deaths with defeat when the penalty for losing is merely losing home field advantage or seeding. Anything that creates an "It's OK, we'll get 'em next time....." atmosphere surrounding a loss will dramatically change the intensity of the game. The risk of those deep valleys and the feeling that you've just been hit by a truck after a loss are what creates the unbelievable peaks and amazing euphoria after a big win. A playoff system would serve to level off the impact of each game in the regular season. With a single loss, fans won't be crying in their beers until 2am any more. They'll leave saying "Hope we play better next week" just like they do after a loss by their favorite NFL team. And because of the lack of that highest level of risk for each game, the exhilaration of victory will be diminished. That's why fans of the college game cheer louder for a 10-yard gain than most pro fans do for a TD (until the pro game gets into the playoffs and they then have the do-or-die atmosphere in their games driving the fans to the level of pandemonium that college fans enjoy all year long). There are those that would say that this do-or-die atmosphere to every regular season game is hogwash when you consider the lack of intensity in the stands in games like FSU vs. Duke, but just let Duke manage to take a second half lead on FSU just one time, and then you'll see that intensity pick up exponentially with each passing minute as fans realize their do-or-die moment might end in dying right there. A playoff system reduces the importance of the regular season to merely playing well enough to get in. Once you're in, the rest is gravy, and not something that will produce the type of sheer drama seen in games where it's "win or your title hopes are gone". The pinnacle of drama in sports is when teams at the top of the sport are playing games that they either win or their season is either over or greatly damaged. College football has that drama every week. I'm not saying other sports should abandon their playoffs (though I do think the number of teams that make the playoffs should be reduced across the board in pro sports to give the achievement of making the playoffs more meaning). I'm saying college football has a unique situation where their regular season IS the playoff system and that shouldn't be abandoned out of a desire to structure the game just like every other sport, when other sports are inferior in their entertainment value to the game that we all live and breathe with as die-hard fans. Argument #6 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #6: Argument #7 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #7: Also as many playoff detractors have pointed out the fans of the participating teams won't be the ones in the seats at the playoff games at neutral sites as very few people are going to be able to bounce all over the country on consecutive weeks, paying jacked up hotel rates and absurd ticket prices in each city in support of their team. Most of the thousands of people that would love to support their team but couldn't afford to do so under those circumstances will be watching the games on TV (read: more advertising revenue for the networks). The majority of the people in the stands will be the corporate types that get their tickets through the seating blocks their companies buy and through the sponsorship of the games. It's largely getting that way even now with the biggest of the bowl games pricing the average fan out of the picture. With the playoff, you would accelerate that trend IMO. You'd have 11 comparitively meaningless games that one set of fans attend, and then 3-4 games that mean everything that only a small % of the fans that went to the first 11 could get to (unless you played the playoff games in the home stadiums of the participating teams, which would not be in the cards if the desire is to use the existing bowls as games in the playoff format). While I do agree that the lesser bowls do not carry the excitement of a playoff game, the real intent of the bowl system is to provide a reward for a quality season in the form of a nice trip and one more chance to "show your stuff" against a team you wouldn't ordinarily face. College football is the only sport where 25 or so teams can end their season with a smile on their faces and I don't think that's a bad thing. Argument #8 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #8: Argument #9 for a playoff: Rebuttal to argument #9: If you have the luxury of being able to start slow, then obviously the pressure to win is not as great. There are those that would point to that as a good thing. But my attitude as a fan has it that I thrive on that intensity and think that it's what makes the game the best there is. To eliminate that is to eliminate what attracts me to college football above all other sports. Argument #10 for a playoff system: Rebuttal to argument #10: THE SOLUTION And now, drum roll please, my solution to save college football for fans of every opinion on this issue. Here is a playoff format that would maintain the importance of the regular season, maintain the quest for perfection as the game currently is, maintain the do-or-die atmosphere for all games, maintain the heavy penalty for losing just once, maintain the system where there is no chance of an undeserving team remaining in the hunt for a title, but also improve on the current system by removing any potential for unfairness to eliminate a team deserving of a shot to prove their worthiness for a title, by settling the championship on the field between all deserving teams, and by accomplishing all this within the framework of the current bowl system. The only playoff system I could support would be one that doesn't have a fixed number of teams every year and can be molded to fit whatever scenario develops during the course of the year to allow only the teams meeting a clearly defined criteria to participate that would ensure that no truly deserving team would be shut out of a legitimate chance. The criteria would work as follows: Two classes of teams would have a chance at making the playoff. Class 1 would consist of undefeated teams that have met a level of scheduling as decided prior to the season that would put them in the upper 50% of all college football teams. Class 2 would consist of undefeated teams whose strength of schedules put them in the lower 50% of all college football teams. This class would also consist of all one loss teams whose loss came to a team ranked higher than any opponent faced by the undefeated teams as one criteria by which a one-loss team could enter the post-season. That way a team that loses to a tough opponent will not be ousted by any team that has played nobody all year. The only other way a one-loss team should enter the playoff format would be to have faced an overall schedule a certain percent higher than any of the Class 2 undefeateds, with that percentage amount agreed upon by all of college football in advance of the season. Personally, I would start this percentage as only allowing those one-loss teams in the upper 10% of college football in strength of schedule and adjust from there after giving it 2-3 years to see how fair that works out. In the event we have a season where there are no undefeated teams at the end of the regular season, then everything detailed above slides down one notch. The Class 1 teams would be the cream of the crop with one loss and the Class 2 teams would be the lesser one loss teams and the cream of the crop of the two loss pool. After determining the teams participating and which class each team is in, the teams would then take their ranking for determining who they play, with all Class 1 teams to be ranked above all Class 2 teams. Ok, with Class 1 and Class 2 teams defined and ranked, we can then proceed to the flexible format that can take into account every possibility. The first thing that would need to be done in setting up the format is to designate each bowl with a number in the rotation. Given that it is unlikely that there will be more than 2-8 teams that will end up meeting the criteria to become a Class 1 or Class 2 team at the end of the season, we are looking at a likelihood of needing a maximum of 6-7 Bowl games participating in this system, but sometimes as few as one or three. Prior to each year, the bowls can jostle for their positions in the rotation or a system can be set up like the current BCS whereby bowls will rotate as to what number they will be in each given year. After defining the seven bowl games that will participate, then some alternate bowls can be named in the event the number of teams ever exceeds expectations and further formats beyond the ones laid out here can be set up so everyone will know how it will work in advance. All the teams play out the regular season and, in the end, the number of teams that meet the defined criteria will be the number of teams that participate in this playoff format. The #1 bowl game will be the designated bowl for the championship, the #2 and the #3 bowl game would be for the semi-finals (if needed), the #4, 5, 6 and 7 bowl games would be for quarter finals (if needed), depending on how many games are needed to suit the number of qualified teams as defined below: Format #1: Only two teams meet either the Class 1 or Class 2 criteria. These two teams meet in Bowl #1 for the championship. Basically what we have now. This bracket would look like this: #1 Team --- Format #2: Three teams meet either the Class 1 or Class 2 criteria. --In the event that two of the teams are Class 2, those two teams would play each other in Bowl #2, and bowl #1 would be scheduled for the following week to decide the championship between the winner of Bowl #2 and the single Class 1 team that would not have to play the extra game. This way, you can see the tough penalty given for falling to Class 2 status in that you'll likely have to play additional games to prove your worthiness. So nobody is going to skate by without earning this baby. This bracket would look like this: #1 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that two of the teams are Class 1, then the Class 1 team with the lower ranking (defined as the current BCS formula is devised) must face the Class 2 team in Bowl #2 for the right to take on the higher ranked Class 1 team for the championship in Bowl #1. Unfortunately this will penalize the lower ranked Class 1 team at the same level as if they were a Class 2 team, but there is no fairer way to do it with a three team format. The fact that this is possible will serve to further encourage strong scheduling in the regular season. This bracket would look like this: #2 Class 1 Team --- Format #3: Four teams meet either the Class 1 or Class 2 criteria. --In the event that four Class 1 or Class 2 teams make the field, then a Final Four is played with the #1 and #4 ranked teams playing in Bowl #2 and the #2 and #3 ranked teams playing in Bowl #3 with the winners then advancing to play for the championship in Bowl #1, scheduled one week later. That way the Class 2 teams will have to beat one and maybe both of the Top 2 teams in the country to earn their title. This bracket would look like this: #1 Team --- Format #4: Five teams meet either the Class 1 or Class 2 criteria. --In the event that five Class 1 or five Class 2 teams make the field, then the #5 ranked team plays the #4 ranked team in Bowl #4, then the #1 ranked team plays the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #3 scheduled the following week, the #2 ranked team plays the #3 ranked team in Bowl #2 scheduled the same week as Bowl #3, and then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 face each other for the championship in Bowl #1 scheduled the week after the previous bowls. That way the two lower ranked teams will have to play one extra game in the format, again a penalty for soft scheduling, low computer rankings, or whatever criteria is used in the rankings. This bracket would look like this: #5 Team --- --In the event that four Class 1 teams and one Class 2 team makes the field, then the Class 2 team faces the #4 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #4, then the #1 ranked team faces the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #3 scheduled the following week, the #2 ranked Class 1 team plays the #3 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #2 scheduled the same week as Bowl #3, and then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 face each other for the championship in Bowl #1 scheduled the week after the previous bowls. That way, again, the two lower ranked teams must play an extra game. This bracket would look like this: Class 2 Team --- --In the event that three Class 1 teams and two Class 2 teams make the field, then the two Class 2 teams meet in Bowl #4, then the #1 ranked team faces the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #3 scheduled the following week, the #2 ranked team plays the #3 ranked team in Bowl #2 scheduled the same week as Bowl #3, and then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 face each other for the championship in Bowl #1 scheduled the week after the previous bowls. That way, the Class 2 teams must play an extra game. This bracket would look like this: #1 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that two Class 1 teams and three Class 2 teams make the field, the two lowest ranked of the Class 2 teams meet in Bowl #4, the winner of Bowl #4 meets the higher ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #3 a week later, the lower ranked Class 1 team meets the highest ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #2 that same week, then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 meet a week later for the championship. This bracket would look like this: #2 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that one Class 1 team and four Class 2 teams make the field, then the Class 1 team gets a bye to Bowl #1 and the Class 2 teams have a four team tournament to determine which of the Class 2 teams gets a shot at the championship. The highest ranked of the Class 2 teams would meet the lowest ranked of the Class 2 teams in Bowl #4, the second ranked of the Class 2 teams would meet the third ranked of the Class 2 teams in Bowl #3, the winners of Bowl #4 and Bowl #3 would meet one week later in Bowl #2, and the winner of Bowl #2 would meet the lone Class 1 team in Bowl #1 for the championship one week after Bowl #2. This bracket would look like this: #1 Class 2 Team --- Format #5: Six teams meet either the Class 1 or Class 2 criteria. --In the event that six Class 1 or six Class 2 teams make the field, then the #6 ranked team faces the #5 ranked team in Bowl #5, the #4 ranked team faces the #3 ranked team in Bowl #4 the same week, then the winner of Bowl #5 faces the #1 ranked team in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #4 faces the #2 ranked team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 meet to decide the championship in Bowl #1 one week later. That way the top two teams get byes while the four lower rated teams fight for the right to play them. This bracket would look like this: #6 Team --- --In the event that five Class 1 and one Class 2 team makes the field, then the Class 2 team meets the #3 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #5, the #4 ranked Class 1 team meets the #5 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #4 the same week, then the winner of Bowl #5 faces the #1 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #4 faces the #2 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 meet to decide the championship in Bowl #1 one week later. That way the top two teams get byes while the four lower rated teams fight for the right to play them and the lone Class 2 team is forced to beat the #3 and #1 teams in the country to get to the championship. This bracket would look like this: Class 2 Team --- --In the event that four Class 1 and two Class 2 teams make the field, then the two Class 2 teams meet in Bowl #5, the #3 ranked Class 1 team meets the #4 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #4 the same week, then the winner of Bowl #5 faces the #1 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #4 faces the #2 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 meet to decide the championship in Bowl #1 one week later. That way the top two teams get byes while the four lower rated teams fight for the right to play them with the winner of the Class 2 game having to defeat the #1 team in the nation to get to the championship. This bracket would look like this: #1 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that three Class 1 and three Class 2 teams make the field, then the two lower ranked Class 2 teams meet in Bowl #5, the highest ranked Class 2 team meets the lowest ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #4 the same week, then the winner of Bowl #5 faces the #1 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #4 faces the #2 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 meet to decide the championship in Bowl #1 one week later. That way the top two teams get byes while the four lower rated teams fight for the right to play them and the two lower rated Class 2 teams would have to defeat the #1 team in the nation to get to the championship. This bracket would look like this: #2 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that two Class 1 and four Class 2 teams make the field, then the two lower ranked Class 2 teams meet in Bowl #5, the higher two ranked Class 2 teams meet in Bowl #4 the same week, then the winner of Bowl #5 faces the #1 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #4 faces the #2 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 meet to decide the championship in Bowl #1 one week later. That way the top two teams get byes while the four lower rated teams fight for the right to play them and the four Class 2 teams will have to first beat a Top 6 team, then a Top 2 team to get to the championship. This bracket would look like this: #3 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that one Class 1 and five Class 2 teams make the field, then the #5 ranked Class 2 team and the #4 ranked Class 2 team meet in Bowl #5, the #3 ranked Class 2 team and the #2 ranked Class 2 team meet in Bowl #4 the same week, then the winner of Bowl #5 faces the lone Class 1 team in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #4 faces the #1 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winners of Bowl #3 and Bowl #2 meet to decide the championship in Bowl #1 one week later. That way the top two teams get byes while the four lower rated teams fight for the right to play them with only the highest rated Class 2 team enjoying the bye and the other four Class 2 teams will have to first beat a Top 6 team, then a Top 2 team to get to the championship. This bracket would look like this: #5 Class 2 Team --- Format #6: Seven teams meet either the Class 1 or Class 2 criteria. --In the event that seven Class 1 or seven Class 2 teams make the field, then the #7 ranked team plays the #2 ranked team in Bowl #6, the #6 ranked team plays the #3 ranked team in Bowl #5, the #5 ranked team plays the #4 ranked team in Bowl #4, then the #1 ranked team plays the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #6 plays the winner of Bowl #5 in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winner of Bowl #3 plays the winner of Bowl #2 for the championship the following week. That way the #1 team gets a bye before having to face the #4 or #5 team in the country and cannot face the #2 team until the championship. This bracket would look like this: #7 Team --- --In the event that six Class 1 and one Class 2 team makes the field, then the Class 2 team team plays the #2 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #6, the #6 ranked Class 1 team plays the #3 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #5, the #5 ranked Class 1 team plays the #4 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #4, then the #1 ranked Class 1 team plays the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #6 plays the winner of Bowl #5 in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winner of Bowl #3 plays the winner of Bowl #2 for the championship the following week. That way the #1 team gets a bye before having to face the #4 or #5 team in the country and cannot face the #2 team until the championship. This bracket would look like this: Class 2 Team --- --In the event that five Class 1 and two Class 2 teams make the field, then the #2 ranked Class 2 team plays the #1 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #6, the winner of Bowl #6 plays the #5 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #5 the following week, the #4 ranked Class 1 team plays the #3 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #4, then the #1 ranked Class 1 team plays the winner of Bowl #5 in Bowl #3 the following week, the #2 ranked Class 1 team plays the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winner of Bowl #3 plays the winner of Bowl #2 for the championship the following week. That way the Class 2 teams have to play an additional game to get into a 6-team format, and the #1 and #2 teams get byes while the remaining four teams fight for the right to play them. This bracket would look like this: #2 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that four Class 1 and three Class 2 teams make the field, then the #3 ranked Class 2 team plays the #2 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #6, the #2 ranked Class 2 team plays the #3 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #5, the #1 ranked Class 2 team plays the #4 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #4, then the #1 ranked Class 1 team plays the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #6 plays the winner of Bowl #5 in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winner of Bowl #3 plays the winner of Bowl #2 for the championship the following week. That way the #1 team gets a bye before having to face the #4 ranked Class 1 team or the #1 ranked Class 2 team in the country and cannot face the #2 Class 1 team until the championship. This bracket would look like this: #3 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that three Class 1 and four Class 2 teams make the field, then the #1 ranked Class 2 team plays the #4 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #6, the #2 ranked Class 2 team plays the #3 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #5, the winner of Bowl #6 plays the winner of Bowl #5 the following week in Bowl #4, the winner of Bowl #4 plays the #1 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #3 the following week, the #3 ranked Class 1 team plays the #2 ranked Class 1 team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, then the winner of Bowl #3 plays the winner of Bowl #2 for the championship the following week. That way the 4 Class 2 teams have a tournament with the winner advancing to the Final 4. This might be too big a penalty for the Class 2 teams in this scenario though, so I'd have to also consider running this one in the same basic format as the scenario just above this. This bracket would look like this: #1 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that two Class 1 and five Class 2 teams make the field, then the #5 ranked Class 2 team plays the #4 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #6, the winner of Bowl #6 plays the #1 ranked Class 2 team the following week in Bowl #5, the #2 Class 2 Team would play the #3 Class 2 Team in Bowl #4 the same week as Bowl #5, the winner of Bowl #5 would play the #2 Class 1 Team in Bowl #3 the following week, the winner of Bowl #4 would play the #1 Class 1 Team in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, the winner of Bowl #2 would play the winner of Bowl #3 for the championship. With this bracket, you'd have the last two Class 2 teams playing an extra game to get into a 6 team format. This bracket would look like this: #4 Class 2 Team --- --In the event that one Class 1 and six Class 2 teams make the field, then the #1 ranked Class 2 team plays the #6 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #6, the #2 ranked Class 2 team plays the #5 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #5, the #3 ranked Class 2 team plays the #4 ranked Class 2 team in Bowl #4, the winner of Bowl #6 meets the winner of Bowl #5 the following week in Bowl #3, the lone Class 1 team meets the winner of Bowl #4 in Bowl #2 the same week as Bowl #3, the Winner of Bowl #3 meets the winner of Bowl #2 for the championship the following week. That way the 6 Class 2 teams have an extra game to play to narrow the field to four teams with the lone Class 1 team getting a bye week. This bracket would look like this: #1 Class 2 Team --- As soon as it is determined how many teams in each Class made the field, the people running the playoff system could release whatever bracket corresponds with that system on bowl pairing day. If it's more than seven teams that meet the criteria for getting in, then the formats are expanded beyond what I've set up here. I could have set up formats for all the possibilities of an eight team field, nine team field, etc., but I thought seven would be enough to fully illustrate my point of how things could work. The NCAA would just have to have the expanded brackets for larger fields already made in advance of the season, so nobody will be able to gripe about the format when it is released. With brackets for all possbilities already created, there will be no surprises and it will just be a matter of plugging the team names into the proper bracket to correspond with the circumstances generated by the season. The teams that are in the playoff would participate in the specified bowls corresponding to the bracket for that amount of teams. The dates of each of these bowls would be announced at the same time that the brackets are released. All other bowl eligible teams will fill the rest of the bowl slots and those games would continue as usual on their normally planned dates. So this way, the only thing that will change is that some of the bowls that are high up on the chain of the playoff system in each year will have to remain flexible enough to have the date of the game scheduled on the bowl selection day once it's determined how many games will be needed in the playoff system. At most, this will likely mean that these venues simply won't be able to schedule other events for the days falling exactly one week and two weeks from New Year's Day (or on the Saturday's following New Year's Day if fans would understandably prefer for these later games to be played on weekends). One drawback I can see to this plan may be that the venues won't be able to be as flexible as needed to accomodate such a system. The other drawback is that in years where a high number of teams make the field, we still have the problem of fan attendance with people having to criss-cross the country to follow their team through the playoffs. However, IMO, those years would be the exceptions, and smaller playoff formats of 2-5 teams would be more the norm. So, since compromise means each side gives up something out of what they want, I'd say that the risk of having occasional years where fans might have to travel to 3-4 games would be what the playoff opponents will have to conceed to get this situation settled to everyone's satisfaction. Again, I'm very confident that most years will work out to produce one of the smaller formats so long as the powers that be don't mess with the criteria with a goal of letting more teams in. If, and only if, a system such as this could be adopted, I'd be all for it. But that support would only come with a stipulation that if such a deal were signed, that TV would not intervene later to try to expand the format or change it's basic premise in any way. The basic premise being that we only want teams meeting a strict criteria for reaching the post-season to get in, regardless of the number of teams that meet this, but that any teams not meeting this criteria are rightfully deemed undeserving of a shot at a championship, and that we want it to remain that way for as long as the system is in place. Yes it's very complicated how I have this structured, but it pales in comparison to the complication of the BCS formula. I think the full BCS formula is more fair than just the human polls, so complicated doesn't have to mean bad. Under this system, there is NO chance of a team winning a championship with more losses on their final record than the team they beat to win that championship and the importance of the regular season games is very much maintained, since losing a game more often than not means a much more difficult path to the championship in the flexible format, and possible elimination depending on your strength of schedule and caliber of your performance in relation to other teams in the hunt. I prefer the status quo over any system that will allow a 2 or 3 loss team to still have a shot when 0 or 1 loss teams are present because IMO, that "someone just kicked me in the gut--the season could well be over" feeling you get when we lose is what makes the big wins that much sweeter and is what makes fans of college football the most rabid of any sport and this will be lost with a fixed team playoff format. Currently, we will yell our heads off and go completely nuts at every big game because we know the horrible feeling that awaits us if we lose. Take away t This message was edited by the author on 2006-12-03 10:37:48.
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