Top Three NCAA Football Playoff Plans - What's Yours? - RaychelSnr's Blog

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Top Three NCAA Football Playoff Plans - What's Yours? Stuck

Posted on June 19, 2012 at 03:10 PM.

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BCS Presidents, Commissioners, really all the smug old rich men of college football will be in the same room multiple times over the coming ten days debating on the merits of a playoff system.

And with all the different agendas, it's no wonder that getting a four team playoff is actually proving harder than it should be. However, if I had my way and my choice these would be the plans I'd go with:

1. The conference champions + wild card model - I personally love this model. Why? Because it is the best mix of everyone's wants and desires within the college football universe. It preserves the regular season in a big way (losing conference games is a huge deal), it lets different regions get in on the action with a more diverse conference method, and it also allows for some of the more big money matchups. People don't want to watch the same game twice, college football is built upon new matchups each week. This model would almost certainly guarantee that.

Last Years Playoff Matchups Under This Model: LSU vs. Oregon, Oklahoma State vs. Alabama

2. The Plus-One Model - With the recently announced 'Champions Bowl' between the Big XII and SEC, I for one really like the thought of just playing the Bowls all by January 1 and then having the National Championship Game on January 9 or 10 after a selection show on January 2. In theory, let's think about this one in regards to last year with future Bowl Matchups.

You would have had the Champions Bowl of LSU vs. Oklahoma State. The Rose Bowl was Oregon vs. Wisconsin. Maybe a Sugar Bowl of Alabama vs. Kansas State. Stanford vs. Baylor in the Alamo. Orange of Clemson vs. West Vrigina. Arkansas would've played someone like Oklahoma in the Cotton. The bowl matchups get all wonky without BCS tie-ins again...and there's great chance for this system to really get wonky if upsets happen on New Years Day....but to me the allure of New Years Day being the gateway to a National Championship will do nothing but bring huge money and millions of eyes to multiple bowl games. A lot of rich people will be very happy about that.

3. The Straight Up, Top 4 Model - The SEC favors this model, understandably so -- but I'm pretty cold on this model. There are several instances in history of a conference having 3 of the Top 4 teams, and let's face it -- NO ONE wants that outside of the conference in question. For instance, in 1971 Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado finished 1, 2, 3 in the final AP Poll. Last year's would've been particularly scandalous. Two teams who didn't win their conference (Alabama, Stanford) would've played in the playoff.

Last Year's Matchups Under This Model: LSU vs. Stanford, Alabama vs. Oklahoma State

So what about you? What four team model do you prefer if any? Do you like the status quo? How many teams would you want in your playoff?

Comments

# 1 Jadakiss88 @ Jun 19

I like the Top 4 model because it makes every game even more important and would actually add pressure for SEC to play tougher OOC schedules. Rankings would matter more. In a Conference Champion model it doesn't give the best teams the opportunity to play just the Conference Champion so if a 2 or 3 lose team win's their Conference then they get in over a 1 lose team that lose in the Conference Championship game.

Also, how are they going to decided which conference champion deserves to be in the playoff's? It's 6 Major Conferences so that means regardless two will still get left out. The top four ranked teams would be better imo.

# 2 bigsmallwood @ Jun 19

I think there should be a play-off model featuring the Top 16 teams, 8 on each side...let them decide a true national champion. The 4 model is only favorable to power conferences.

# 3 yoyoma @ Jun 19

I prefer conference champions only but it seems like that is unlikely so I will go with conference champs plus 1 wildcard. I dream tournament would be 16 teams every conference gets an automatic bid plus 5 at large...I believe there is still 11 conferences

# 4 dodgerblue @ Jun 20

Kind of a radical idea with plenty of conference realignment but here goes....
120 teams in all, have 12 conferences of 10 teams. Take the 12 conference champions and the 4 highest ranked non conference winners. That way the conference championship matters most but you allow some at large teams like SEC or other major conference runner up types to get in. Then a
16 team playoff that takes 4 weekends or approximately 1 month to sort out a champion.

# 5 tril @ Jun 20

shorten the season to 10 games, weigh in the strength of schedule. the #1 and #2 teams get a one week by while teams 3 through 6 play each other.
#3 vs #6
#4 vs #5
then the #1 team plays the lowest ranked team left
the #2 team plays the other team.

make the playoff games a part of the major bowl games also.

with this formula youc an still preserve alot of the bowl games, and still have a playoff format.

# 6 Feldman011teen @ Jun 20

Sixteen team playoff. I do like the idea of the conference champions and wild card. What would determine the wild card? This would include all FBS conferences such as Sun Belt and the WAC. But I like the idea to keep the bowls as neutral locations, and have a sixteen team playoff for the national title, but teams with six wins can still do a bowl game and not be part of the title chase.