Basketball

How would a playoff system work for NCAA football?

There are 11 conferences and four independent teams. It would be difficult to have a 64 team field like in basketball. (Football is much more physically grueling than basketball is.) There would inevitably be some teams left out who feel that they should be there. For example, what if the runners up in the PAC 10, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, Big East, or ACC each had only one or two losses, on the year, and those were to top 25 teams, but the champion of the Conference USA or Sun Belt conference were undefeated. Who would be left out? This is a dilemma that I haven't heard anything about. What would be a fair way of deciding who gets to play in the playoffs and who stays home?

Public Comments

1. the top 16 teams could play in the playoffs. 1 v 16 2 v 15 3 v 14 4 v 13 5 v 12 6 v 11 7 v 10 8 v 9 this way everyone will have a chance to show what they got. this way would also keep the AP pollers and hardcore BCS guys feel like they have maintained their way of doing business. All the games could be ranked after each one and each week the new standings will decide the next game. Once you get down to two teams, it will be the BCS championship game. All the other games could be th bowl games. this would be perfect. You could even throw in some spice and give wildcards to the two best teams in Div2. And if they pull upsets then that would be cool too. It has been shown that a wildcard could pull an upset. Especially this season. that's how I would do it.
2. Idk, but do you go to AWest? In Colorado? Your pic looks like their masscot!
3. Imagine a playoff system which takes weeks to complete -- you can't play football games on Saturday and Monday like NCAA basketball. You need at least a week off between games. A field of 64 would take 7 weeks of games. Actually, football playoffs are somehow less interesting than playoffs where teams match up for a series of games like basketball or baseball. One game simply does not tell which team is better. The top 10 rankings actually stimulate a lot of interest and discussion in college football and the top 5 teams all have legitimate claims to being the best. That system seems to work fine -- college football is more exciting and has more fans than pro football just as it is.
4. it would be really hard to do because football players take a lot of wear and tear. college basketball tourneys have 64 teams. the champion plays 6 games, which is like half of the college football season. they would have to start early, so the title game can still be played like jan. 3. i say a 16 team playoff, and then bowl games for the rest of the .500 teams
5. First, Division I-A conferences needs to be reorganized based on geography with no independent teams. Each conference champion (12?) and wild card teams (4?) go into a 16 team playoff format. Each wild card team is chosen based on their records and actual performance (total offense and defense and scoring offense and defense). No more I-A teams play I-AA teams. No more bowl games. The season starts the first weekend of September and goes until mid-November. Playoffs start the week after and go throughout December and the National Championship game is played on New Year's Day.
6. I'd say start with 32 teams, divided into 4 regions of 8 teams each, and play first seeds against worst seeds, etc, like in NCAA basketball. Every conference has at least one guaranteed spot in the playoff tourney, so the little conferences can't complain. After that, no guaranteed conference spots, to free up selection.
7. Look, we can do it right now using the existing bowls (not all the bowls, just 15 of them) and the existing conferences and it won't take any longer. The top two teams of the existing BCS conferences. That makes 12 and will eliminate any favoritism of teams being ranked just when they are in a certain conference and doesn't hurt conferences where teams beat each other up. You have 4 at large bids to include the one year wonders and independents. this is what the poll can be used for, because we would never get away from that. That makes a "Sweet Sixteen" tournament. You divide the money earned by the competing teams among all the teams in their conference. You use the other existing bowls as exhibition type bowls to award other teams that have had good years. This tournament would take four weeks to complete. Ohio State had a well publicized 50 some day layoff, what is the difference? The season wouldn't go any longer. EVERY other sport has a playoff system. Why do college football fans put up with never really being sure who the best team in the country is at the end of the year?!
8. Here is what I would do. A 16 team playoff, the 11 conference winners, plus 5 at large bids which will be determined by the polls. Each of the 16 teams would then be seated in to a bowl game. The bowl games have to much tradition to be just discarded. So each bowl game would become a playoff game. If there are some bowl games left out have some play in games for the lowest tier bowl games. The current BCS bowls would serve as the final 4 games, the third place game, and the national title game. Those bowls would rotate to each year as well. To the idiot that said a playoff system would ruin the rivalries like the Red River Shootout, they must think Duke and UNC love each other in college hoops.
9. If you are going to have a playoff, just start at the conference level, and go through the teams that way. Should take about ten games that way, with 3 meaningless games before the tourney to get teams warmed up. If you have 16 teams why bother having a regular season. Teams like USC last year can lose to two unranked teams, and get into the playoff. You can forget about things like the red river rivalry and OSU michigan, because teams will no longer care about anything but the playoffs. So if you want to ruin college football, go ahead and have your playoff.