May I be the 10,000,000th person to say this....Division 1 College Football needs a freaking playoff system!!

by user Wrestling Beltworld

Tonight, USC defeated Notre Dame 44-24 in a game everyone says will vault them into the National Championship game against Ohio State, unless they lose next week to UCLA.

Florida defeated Florida State 21-14 and will maintain their #4 ranking in the BCS.

Michigan, who's only loss is to Ohio State, has to sit back and watch other teams decide their fate. Not to fear, if Ohio State had lost, they'd be in the same boat.

And once again, I must ask, why can't Division 1 College football have a legit playoff system?

I know the main argument is that these Corporate Sponsored Bowls pay the schools Millions to play what amount to exhibition games except for that one special National Championship Game. Well, there is a simple solution. Take 6 Major Bowls (Fiesta, Rose, Sugar, Orange, Gator and Cotton) and make those bowls PLAYOFF GAMES!!!

It's not that hard, and can keep the legacy of these bowl games alive.

The Rose Bowl can be the Big 10 Champion vs the Pac 10 Champion The Cotton Bowl can be The ACC Champion vs The Big 12 Champion The Gator Bowl can be The SEC Champion vs The Big East Champion The Orange Bowl can be for 2 at large teams.

Now, the semifinals can be the The Fiesta Bowl and The Sugar Bowl with The rankings in the BCS determining who plays who.

The winners play in the BCS Championship game,

Now, the good part is, the bowl games can be interchangeable every year, so each bowl can host different games every year. The Rose Bowl should always be Big 10 vs Pac 10. There can even be stipulations that #1 and #2 can not play each other until the finals no matter what. The bottom line is, this gives Division 1 football a playoff. It's not perfect, but at least a (fill in your favorite words here) computer isn't deciding the Champion. Imagine a Boise State or Rutgers actually getting to see if they can hang with Ohio State. Imagine if there's 3 Undefeated teams there would be no "we should be in the title game" comments. If the BCS can come up with 1vs2, they can come up with a Top 8 for this.

I'll be home watching the Geico Bowl and the Netflix Bowl and the other infomercials impersonating football games like everyone else, wondering if one day someone will actually do a playoff system.

Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

1099 days ago

Score 0

It also needs a promotion and relegation system IMO.

The aim of college football isn't to have a national champion, it's to get players good experience to get into the NFL. That's when you can have playoffs. It's hard to persuade amateurs to play in a team that has to go to Florida from California. Okay, perhaps not a problem for the stars, but for the average College Footballer who will probably end up focusing on the academic side of his life, it is quite a commute and commitment.

High school chess has showed me that you can't get people to play in games 30 miles away - it takes a whole day out of your schedule. And if you want to succeed academically, that makes you need to work a whole lot harder.

College life is about more than just sports.

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False ProphetAll-Star

1098 days ago

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most of the teams consist of players that were recruited to play football, or at least at the IA level, and at all the other levels, which have kids not expected to play pro football, they have a playoff system, and they don't complain about missing school

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

1098 days ago

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No, the aim of college football is to get alumni boosters to contribute $ to the program and ultimately, the university. The way to do that is to do well in season, get more exposure (bowl games) to enable recruiting, to enable booster $ to come in. A vicious cycle.

Relegation systems don't work in all sports and especially not in NCAA, where the divisions are primarily separated by university size.

And wrong again re: academics. These blue-chip div1 recruits could care less about classes or even degrees.

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IcemanvtWaterboy

1097 days ago

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I've been thinking the thing with respect to relegation. There's no freaking way that the Dukes, Temples and Stanfords can just slog their way through season after seasonll season and still be considered a D-1 team.

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The BeastAAA-er

1099 days ago

Score -2

BCS	This user thinks that the BCS is good for College Football.

A playoff that big would ruin the College Football regular season.

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False ProphetAll-Star

1098 days ago

Score 0

No, because as you will see next week when I publish my results from my idea, there is only 3 or so teams with 2 or 3 losses that would make it. The BCS Sucks because they don't even use the best College Football poll out there, the AP poll.

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EstebistecVarsity

1098 days ago

Score 1

I completely agree that for a more pure form of competitiveness, a playoff system should be adopted. However, the way the BCS plays out is very advantageous to marketing. What the hell is there, like 30 bowl games (http://www.b...sfb/schedule)? From the viewpoint of pure competitiveness, this is pretty watered down. But for marketing, many more teams are still "in it" with this scenario. More fans are still interested in what would otherwise be very irrelevant college football near the end of the season. On the other hand, very few NFL fans should care (by the very black-and-white issue of "is your team still in it") at the end of the playoffs because only two teams remain and when you're out, you're really out. However, since they've avoided any "watering" down of the league and it's competitiveness, many people are simply NFL fans and want to see the playoffs. I really wish the NCAA had football playoffs, but with so many more teams to choose from, it's a logistics nightmare and they sort of have a golden goose of their own already, that they might kill with it. I don't think playoffs would ruin college football itself, but it would ruin the money machine that it is for some.

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Dukeboy999Varsity Captain

1098 days ago

Score -2

Going into last week every team in the top 8 of the BCS was scheduled to play at least one other team from the top eight. Isnt that the same thing as a playoff?

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Bball3345Draft Pick

1098 days ago

Score 2

Michigan lost to Ohio State. They already had their shot at the best team and blew it. So, why should Michigan get another chance? As for the playoffs, why does everyone assume that the playoffs will produce the "true National Champion?" Hypothetically, you could make a playoff consisting of the three best teams and some average team. Every so often, that average team will get lucky and end up winning. Everyone will realize that the best team did not win, even though it was a playoff. There is no possible way to give the best team in the nation the championship every single year, not even with a playoff system. Just look at the MLB... no one can convince me that the St. Louis Cardinals were the BEST team in baseball this year. They just happened to get hot at the right time. The 162 games before the playoffs showed they were nothing more than an average team. Playoffs are not the answer.

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EstebistecVarsity

1098 days ago

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This "problem" also exists in the NFL, a weaker team can win any given Sunday. But that's the game of football. The best team has to play their best football, and the coaches have to call their (situationaly) best plays for those 60 minutes.

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Bball3345Draft Pick

1097 days ago

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I agree, but those who support a playoff always say, "this is the only way in which the best team wins." No, no it is not.

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False ProphetAll-Star

1097 days ago

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But they were built for the playoffs, and did hold on to the division title. STL beat the best in the NL and the best team in the AL. I think that any team that beats the best teams out there deserves the title of champions.

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EstebistecVarsity

1097 days ago

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I don't think very many people who know much about football think that the best team winning is *ever* a guarantee, but the more prevalent arguments to face is that we are sick of the loosely strung together series of bowl games with little relevance to anything. The rankings are *polls*, because the playing field is so uneven that there's hardly a way to compare two teams except by common opponents. College football has a LOT to fix for people that just enjoy even-grounded (with respect to roster/recruiting) football. Of course, like I said, they've got it setup perfect for the money machine.

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Bball3345Draft Pick

1096 days ago

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So, if Tampa Bay got hot at some point in the season and won series against the Tigers and Mets, this means the D-Rays are a better team?

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Jgov05All-American

1097 days ago

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I think a football playoff gets it right more often than with some of the other sports. When was the last time you thought a Super Bowl champion was unworthy of a title? I'd greatly enjoy a playoff system, and I'd watch all the games as opposed to the 10-12 bowl games I normally watch, though it wouldn't be without its problems. How many teams would there be, who would get to play who, and what teams would get in? There would still be as many complaining teams as there are with the current system. But if we do stick with the bowl system, my suggestion would be to make the games more interesting. Not even die-hard college football fans want to see the 7th best team in the Big 12 play the third-best team from the MAC.

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TartanVarsity Captain

1096 days ago

Score 0

I want to see the 7th best Big 12 team play the third best MAC team

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JLew1122Varsity

1097 days ago

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At large teams really shouldn't play each other if there was a tournament. They should play the #1 and #2 teams just like they would in basketball, this allows for some good potential upsets. Just imagine Boise State vs. Ohio State.

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