Gotta love the mess that is NCAA Football

In 2003 the LSU Tigers defeated the Oklahoma Sooners to win the BCS Championship. Many beforehand thought USC deserved to be in the game more than the Tigers, and after the Trojans won the Rose bowl handily, the AP Awarded them their Championship causing a split National Championship.

Well okay that's bad for the BCS, but that was the most acceptable of the 3 nightmares. It was a fluke, BCS Still in good shape.

Then came 2004. When there was not 3, but 4 undefeated teams, with USC Trojans, Oklahoma Sooners, Auburn Tigers, and a mid major Utah Utes team. The Utes also became the first non-BCS team to play in a BCS Bowl. Since the BCS Only allows two teams to play in a championship game, USC demolished the Oklahoma Sooners, leaving Auburn, and the Utes without even the opportunity. The BCS didn't even match up the two undefeated teams against each other in one of the other bowl games, meaning at the end of the season their were 3 undefeated team, each with a legitimate claim on the national championship. Though since USC was impressive in it's dismantling of Oklahoma, the Trojans not only won the BCS Championship on the field, but was awarded the AP Championship as well. Meanwhile we here at The Homestarmy, awarded the Utes with the Homestarmy National Championship in our polls.

The calls for a playoff system became louder than ever, after the debacle. I myself also created, what was at the time, the only 16 teams playoff proposal.

2005 and was relatively quiet, and the only noise in 2006 was Boise State busting into the BCS, and defeating the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl, in one of the best college football games ever.

BCS Pundits were feeling good, entering '07.

13 weeks later nightmare scenario 3 came to be, When BCS #1. 1 loss Missouri Tigers lost to Oklahoma, and BCS #2. West Virginia lost in the final week, to conclude what had been a wild and crazy season that opened with #5 Michigan blowing off Hawaii, in order to play Div. II Appalachian State. App. State won. The season saw 6 BCS #2 Teams lose. 3 BCS #1's lose including USC losing to 40 point underdog Stanford.

So when Missouri Lost it's second game, both losses were to Oklahoma, it went for the BCS #1, to completely out of the BCS bowls. To further the argument that when you lose matters most, LSU, who had lost it's second game the week before, jumped from 7th to 2nd to play in the National Championship. #3 Ohio State jumped to #1 after #1 and #2 lost. Georgia who was sitting at #4 in the BCS in the second to last week, didn't play in the final week and dropped to #5. Meanwhile 1 loss Kansas, who was undefeated before playing Mizzou the second to last week of the year, finished 7th. Oh and to top off matters, there was an Undefeated team, as Hawaii, became the 3rd non BCS Team in 4 years to crack the BCS, but of course since they weren't from a BCS Conference, they never had a legit shot at the championship.

Here's the thing though, despite what fans of the BCS will tell you, this season is not the aberration it seems. These crazy years are happening more frequently, and will probably begin to happen more and more often. The days of the one powerhouse team controlling the whole season has been on it's last legs, and was probably killed when Florida destroyed Ohio State in '06. It's becoming more and more obvious that BCS cannot handle today's college football. We need a playoff system.

So with that in mind, and do to the fact that my original plan is beginning to gain media support, I figured it was time to dust off and update my College Football proposal.

The premise behind my playoff proposal is that all 119 teams (117 back in '04) deserve a chance at becoming college football's champion. Back in '04 the only playoff proposals that were being talked about were 4 team proposals based off BCS standings, or 8 teams that awarded the 6 BCS Champions an automatic berth and the other 2 going to BCS at-larges. The majority of proposals today are still based on these premises. This still eliminates the majority of the teams before the season even starts. For example, 12-0 Hawaii this year, still would have been left out of the playoffs.

To solve this problem I propose 12 Automatic Bids, 1 to each of the 11 conference champions, and 1 to the best Independent teams (Notre Dame, Nave, Army, or Western Kentucky) This means that every team only has to win their conference to make it to the playoffs.

So this year's automatic bids would go to Virignia Tech (ACC), Oklahoma (Big-12), West Virginia (Big East), Ohio State (Big Ten), UCF (Conference USA), Navy (I-A Independent), Bowling Green (MAC), BYU (MWC), USC (Pac-10), LSU (SEC), Troy (Sun-Belt), Hawaii (Wac).

Now to the remaining 4 teams. I still claim that the BCS has it's value. The BCS could be used to award the 4 remaining spots, to the highest ranked teams not already in the playoffs. This has a few benefits, including making the AP want to once again be involved in the BCS. This would also give the major conferences the feeling that they have the majority of the power, because they do.

So using this season's final BCS Standings the 4 at-large would be Georgia (BCS #5), Missouri (BCS #6), Kansas (BCS #8), And Arizona State (BCS #11). The really rewards the Big-12 who would have 3 teams in the playoffs, as opposed to the current rules that state unless a team in in the Championship game a conference can't have 3 teams in the BCS.

A quick couple notes, in my system the BCS wouldn't be released until week 9, and all voting would be open to the public.

Now how to seed the teams. Again we could use the BCS here, and award seeding based on BCS Rank. This would mean that the BCS Rankings would have to extend past 25 for some of the smaller teams. So for this year's we'll go with a combination of BCS and overall records.

The seeds would be as follows:

1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Va. Tech
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. USC
8. Kansas
9. West Virginia
10. Hawaii
11. Arizona State
12. BYU
13. UCF
14. Bowling Green
15. Navy
16. Troy

For major conferences this means that winning a championship is guaranteed entry, and don't have be stuck fighting for one of those 4 at-large teams. For the smaller schools the extra revenue generated by making the playoffs will be a big bonush.

Now as for location of the games. Higher seeds will get an extra home game, except in the cases were an at-large is going up against a conference winner (Again another reason to win your conference.)

So Round one now is looking like this:

Bracket 1
16 Troy @ 1 Ohio State
8 Kansas @ 9 West Virginia

5 Georgia @ 12 BYU
13 UCF @ 4 Oklahoma

Bracket 2
15 Navy @ 2 LSU
10 Hawaii @ 7 USC

11 Arizona State @ 6 Missouri
14 Bowling Green @ 3 Va. Tech

Now for rounds 2, 3, and 4, we can use the lesser bowls, and the major bowls as the locations. So your holiday bowls, and Vegas bowls and now become relevant again as their games mean something. Also in this scenario we wack the. In order to appease the 4 current BCS Bowls, they would get to rotate between 2 games of round 3, and the Final Four round. Each year the 2 of the Sugar, Orange, Rose, or Fiesta Bowl, that is hosting a 2nd round game would get to choose which of that rounds games they wanted. Of course the current BCS Championship game would still be the BCS Championship game. Bowl payouts would remain the same for the conferences as it is now.

As for the Rest of the lesser known bowls that aren't part of the playoffs, they could still be held. But now their choices of teams are greater. Imagine an MPC Computers bowl excited to have Florida play. And in all honesty, it's not like most of those bowls mean anything except to the fans of the teams that play there.

Now as for scheduling, which of course is the Big Conference big ace in the hole. "Ooh these poor Student Athletes already miss too much time from school as it is. But hey let's go ahead and add a mandatory 12th game to the season."

To that I say BS. First things first 12th game, gone. Get rid of it.

The BCS Championship will always always always always be held January 1st in the Evening, with the many non-playoff bowl games also being held that day. This is how it's supposed to be. New Years Day = College Football. Plain and simple, no arguing with that math.

So in order to determine when the games we will need at least 3 full weeks before New Years. Since it does no good to have less than 7 days of preparation before The Championship game, so the Final four weekend will be the weekend that gives at least 7 days before new Years, (So the Saturday before Xmas) will be the third round. Go back 2 weeks and you have the opening round games. This year would be December 8, with 15, and 22 the first 3 rounds. You can spread the games out over that Thursday Friday and Saturday.

So why doesn't this happen, what could possibly be keeping the NCAA from acting on it? Well let's way the pros and cons.

Cons

Some scheduling trickery would be required, and fans wouldn't be able to buy their tickets 20 some odd days in advance.

Non-playoff bowl games could become less meaningful then they are now.

Some first round games will be uneven, until talent spreads out.

Pros

Every team has a chance at the Championship

Talent level will begin to spread out throughout all of College football. Blue chip prospects want to show their stuff on the biggest stages. The biggest stage of course in the National Championship playoffs. It will take awhile, but soon prospects will start weight the option of going to a Top School like a OSU, Michigan, USC, etc. Where they probably won't get to play for 2 years, then they'll be in a conference with plenty of other powerful schools, so there's no guarantee they'll get to the playoffs. Or they'll look at say a Conference USA, or Mountain West team, where just 1 or 2 players of their caliber can make a huge difference in the conference. And they'll play right away. 3 or 4 shots at the tournament is better than just 1 or 2. And after awhile more and more recruits will think that way, and it will roll down to the even lesser confereces like the Sun-Belt.

This will also cause less coach jumping in College Football, since an Urban Meyer won't feel the need to go to a powerhouse to have a legitimate chance at a Championship. In fact a coach can become a legend for leading a lower conference team through the tournament.

New Year's day Means something again.

Money, from advertisements, will go through the roof the first time a Sun-Belt team pulls that major upset. Look at the NCAA Basketball tournaments. It lives off of the Cinderella teams. It will happen in football.

Most importantly the championship will be decided on the field, and the teams that play for the championship will be decided on the field. Right now it's based on who a bunch of old coaches, writers, and computers think deserve it. Money will be spread out more.

So not only does a playoff system benefit the fans who get to see a real champion crowned, and will get to eventualy see Cinderella rise from the ashes in Football, but the product as a whole will get better.

About the only people who this would possibly hurt are those Presidents of the BCS Schools who are barely hanging onto to the BCS guaranteed spots right now (ACC, Big East), and the clearly stuck in the Old Days guys like Trev Alberts and Barry Switzer who foolishly still believe that being in a BCS Conference automatically makes you better than a Non BCS School.