Aight with the possibility of a full blown playoff that could reach 16 schools someday. Could we see a full blown total realignment. Lets see if a school like Alabama, that could win the SEC from time to time, move to a non bcs conference like CUSA or Sun Belt because why just compete in the SEC when you can win a non BCS and get an auto bid. Or could we see an SEC split because why get just 2 maybe 3 when in 2 seperate conferences you can get 4-5 teams. You could also see a school like PSU go to the Big East because, same reason as an example of Alabama, why wait your turn to win the Big 10 when you can win the Big East(just the perception of those arrogant State Penn fans, not mine). I just see a big realignment in the works. And parity will be a big time high if there is a 16 team tourny and all the conferences get auto-bids. Your thoughts.

animus Wrote:Aight with the possibility of a full blown playoff that could reach 16 schools someday. Could we see a full blown total realignment. Lets see if a school like Alabama, that could win the SEC from time to time, move to a non bcs conference like CUSA or Sun Belt because why just compete in the SEC when you can win a non BCS and get an auto bid. Or could we see an SEC split because why get just 2 maybe 3 when in 2 seperate conferences you can get 4-5 teams. You could also see a school like PSU go to the Big East because, same reason as an example of Alabama, why wait your turn to win the Big 10 when you can win the Big East(just the perception of those arrogant State Penn fans, not mine). I just see a big realignment in the works. And parity will be a big time high if there is a 16 team tourny and all the conferences get auto-bids. Your thoughts.

I think that it will be the exact opposite: any playoff system that has a reasonable chance of being agreed upon will preserve as much of the status quo as possible. There is one thing that needs to be taken into account above all else whenever we discuss playoff scenarios that actually have a reasonable chance of happening: the BCS conferences will NEVER be FORCED to adopt an NCAA Tournament-style playoff for football. They will literally secede from the NCAA before that would happen and the NCAA knows it. Instead, the only type of playoff system that I believe that the BCS conferences would go for (and even then it's a stretch) is simply to take the current 4 BCS bowls, keep their traditional match-ups (i.e. Rose Bowl will always be Big Ten vs. Pac-10), and then make those into the quarterfinals of a playoff. That way, there is a playoff system where the BCS conferences maintain the lion's share of the revenue the same way as they do now. There won't be a straight seeding in the bowls because the Big Ten and Pac-10 will never give up the Rose Bowl, so the keeping of the traditional match-ups is the way to get those conferences to agree to this system.

This type of system isn't "fair" in the sense of having open access for all teams to win the national championship, which is the whole point - the BCS conferences aren't just going to give up the main reason why they have such huge financial advantages over the other conferences. Still, at least a non-BCS team would have a chance to get to the national championship by getting an at-large bid and then winning in the playoffs - as we have already seen, BCS teams with one or two losses will get placed ahead of non-BCS teams that go through the season undefeated in the national championship game. Also, this system still preserves the importance of the college football regular season and, in fact, enhances it in a way since it makes every BCS conference championship race extremely important. Going up to 16 teams in a playoff starts diluting the regular season a lot more and honestly, once the initial excitement of having a playoff system wears off, the casual sports fan (who you need to draw in order to justify rights fees from TV networks) just wants to see the heavyweights of the BCS conferences go up against each other (the NCAA Tournament is about picking the right "Cinderella" for your bracket, but college football played in January is about power teams playing in places like Pasadena and Miami). The 8-team BCS bowl/playoff hybrid would provide all of that without giving open access to the non-BCS schools (which, as I've said, is the whole point why I believe that the BCS conferences would agree to this scenario).

You need eight pretty even conferences for auto-bids. Four at large bids. Set it up like the NFL playoff with byes for top teams. Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, Peach, Tangerine (Citrus), and maybe Gator or Holiday for every year sites. Rotate the others. It's not hard, its just we have to wait for all the dinosaurs to die out so we can make some changes to the system.

Be advised that current NCAA rules require that only half of any tournament field (in any sport) can consist of automatic qualifiers. Maybe the BCS group has the power to make the NCAA change its rules, but at the FCS level we had to expand our playoffs from 16 to 20 to add 2 more AQs, leaving us with the awkward situation of 12 teams out of 20 having first round byes.

But if the rules don't change, in an 8 team field do you give the 4 AQs to the SEC, B10, B12 and Pac-10, and shut the ACC and Big East out? That would probably kill the idea at birth.

Take it from me, a 16 team football tournament is about perfect. It's 4 weeks, we get it done in the FCS before Christmas. Meaningless bowl games have jaded you, people care a lot when the champion of a small conference gets a shot at the #1 team in the country with *everything* on the line. It'd be bigger than Boise St. vs. Oklahoma.

If 16 is too much, go with 12 and follow the NFL pattern. That gives you your 6 AQs for the 6 BCS conferences. The non-BCS members would never have a hope of hosting a playoff game after the first round, so the BCS gets to keep the homefield advantage and almost all the money. The only problem is that you have 4 established BCS bowls, but only 3 big games: the two semifinals and the championship. What do you do with the 4th bowl when they're rotated out of the final 3 games? Maybe they'd just get a traditional bowl game between two non-qualifiers as a lead-in to the championship. Or a consolation game for the semifinal losers, if both are interested in playing.

Screw a playoff. Just give me better match ups during the bowl season. Fix it so that if the BCS 1@2 play for a championship then 3 should play 4 ,5vs6 and so forth. Playoffs sound good but they never will be good in college football too many teams the balanced is screwed. if you want playoffs go watch the pros. and leave the sport that I love to watch alone.

You can still have all those minor Bowls and a playoff! That's the best of both worlds!

hawghiggs Wrote:Screw a playoff. Just give me better match ups during the bowl season. Fix it so that if the BCS 1@2 play for a championship then 3 should play 4 ,5vs6 and so forth. Playoffs sound good but they never will be good in college football too many teams the balanced is screwed. if you want playoffs go watch the pros. and leave the sport that I love to watch alone.

Wilkie01 Wrote:You can still have all those minor Bowls and a playoff! That's the best of both worlds!

No you can't. Once all the teams agree with a playoff they will just keep trying to add mor teams. People don't realize the fact that now smaller programs are rewarded for a good season,but if you had a playoff most will not be rewarded.

Well, to the winners go the spoils.