Playoffs!

This can’t be right as Texas is no where to be found.

No. 20 Florida International (Sun Belt automatic) at No. 13 Arkansas

No. 19 Northern Illinois (MAC automatic) at No. 14 Missouri (at-large)

Okay. I’m convinced. Five rounds of Florida International and Northern Illinois is what big-time college football is all about!

Fantastic idea, but others similar have been floated. I’m just not convinced that the BCS will go away anytime in the next 20yrs or so. Rational, intelligent options which include the major bowls are out there and yet nothing is changed. Similar to Mack’s inclusion of GDGD. Sure hope I’m wrong the we get a playoff soon. Would love to have y’all rub it in on me.

Okay. I’m convinced. Five rounds of Florida International and Northern Illinois is what big-time college football is all about!

Seriously Brick? You search the hypothetical 1st round match ups and seize upon the 2 that have the least amount of sex appeal, ignoring the other games and future rounds full of exciting contests and project this as the sum total of what a fan can expect from a playoff? That’s intellectually dishonest and you know it. What you just did was akin to saying San Diego has shitty weather because the one day you spent there it was raining.

If you want to make an argument against a playoff state your case and defend it with cogent, logical points. I’ll listen, honest.

No, no, no, no, no. Any realistic plan starts with the bowls and plays off the winners afterward. I love the Rose Bowl, don’t want to see it change a thing. And there’s that little issue of getting the BCS conferences to actually vote for a playoff.

Keep it simple, start with a Plus One played after the BCS bowls. The BCS has already begun discussing this, so it is a viable option. That breaks the playoff barrier and will inevitably evolve into a full scale playoff system of somewhere between 8-16 teams, probably using campus games between the BCS bowls and the title game. Life becomes good.

Further, the non-BCS AQ conference are the beggers not the chosers, and the BCS conferences like it that way. Any proposals that gives those minor conferences an AQ is almost certainly a non-starter. Let the outsiders earn their way in by BCS or similar poll ranking. BCS bowl wildcard slots are sufficient.

Death-
I’m open to your proposal. Personally, I like the 20 team format a bit better, but your point is well made. At this stage of the game I’d take almost anything other than the current system.

Brickhorn- No, the games you mentioned have very little likability to them at all. However, we see a Cinderella every few years in March. Who’s to say it couldn’t happen in Dec and early Jan. I’d love to see a small school from a mid-major lay the wood to a big boy in the SEC or Big 10 sometimes. Can you tell me you didn’t just love the Sugar bowl when Bama got taken to the woodshed by Utah? Hell, I giggled like a school girl and killed a fifth of Turkey in celebration. I’d much rather it be settled on the field rather than lose out like we did in 08 because of a few hundreths of a point.

Agreed on the bowls as the start point. I don’t understand why the FCS does what it does — final exams are kinda integral to the college system, and the FCS quarters and semis are played as student-athletes prepare for and take first-semester finals.

Using the bowls as the early round eliminations both (1) keeps the bowl system, though surely modified somewhat, and (2) lets the FBS student-athletes focus on finals in early and mid-December. From there, all the whining about class time and travel are hokum. THERE ARE NO CLASSES from Dec. 15 to MLK Day, whenever that falls. The travel is paid for by the massive TV and gate income. The cold weather issue is solved by domes and Southern venues.

Did I just write that? I’m a keep-the-bowls guy from the get-go. But both wouldn’t break my heart.

Florida in subzero weather?

I’d pay to see that.

Too many teams in my opinion. I am basically indifferent on the playoff v. BCS (I like BCS, but I’m sure I’d like a playoff), but would be opposed to a 20 team playoff. I’d like 8.

THERE ARE NO CLASSES from Dec. 15 to MLK Day

For some schools, yes. For some schools, no.

The BCS won’t change to any sort of playoff where the money or control shifts away from them if they don’t see a big upside. BCS and AFCA own the BCS bowl system, the rights, and therefore probably the cash. It probably also means the BCS and the AFCA don’t have to share their toys with the NCAA, at least as far as I’ve read.

“the NCAA awards no national championship for Division I FBS football, this trophy does not say NCAA as other NCAA college sports national championship trophies do”

March Madness is an NABC product that is organized by the NCAA, and they seem to have greater control and profit from the arrangement.

I just don’t see the BCS easily believing they can enter an agreement with the NCAA that doesn’t erode their stance somehow. Two organizations like that are like porcupines mating. It’s not about what’s best for football or student athletes, it’s about who gets a seat at the table and how the money is divided. Right now the BCS doesn’t have to share, unless I’ve misconstrued who actually owns, controls, and profits from each system. A playoff probably opens the door for discussions to begin on who else gets a cut. Any other excuse seems like a red herring, but they are still the way most people and media choose to frame the debate on BCS vs. Playoff.

You can’t make the bowls as the starting point of the 1st round of the playoffs. Read Death to the BCS – the bowls that are viable now will still be viable with a playoff system. The crap bowls that are crap now will go away. Home teams really benefit from playing at home during the 1st 3 rounds of the playoff. Lots of happy local businesses and athletic directors. The system now is so horribly broken you cannot fix it. You need to do what every other football league (hell any other sports league) does. Play the games.

t1climb1 -

I’ve posted plenty of rational, fleshed-out arguments against a playoff in the past. I’m not going to rehash them every time SR’s nefarious propaganda machine churns out another editorial extolling the Bolshevik playoff agenda. It’s better to dismiss such absurdities off-hand, lest the mere existence of a serious response contribute to the general public’s misguided belief that the playoff idea has merit.

That said, if SR has his way, I’ll be posting my own thorough anti-playoff screed in the near future. See the strategy here? Bring in a respected expert to advocate your view. Then encourage the least-liked Barker to argue for the opposing position, thus creating the illusion of balance and objectivity while further cementing public opinion in favor of your agenda.

Sailor Ripley is nothing if not a cunning Machiavellian.

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