We are halfway through live-blogging the Rose Bowl at http://twitter.com/indsports
(We even covered the marching bands. We got it all.)
Tune in now. The Ohio State Buckeyes lead the Oregon Ducks 16-10 at the half.
January 1, 2010
What about an NCAAF Div. 1A 16-team playoff?
Here is my proposal for a playoff alternative to the BCS:
16 teams play for the national championship, including the winner of every Div. 1-A (FBS) conferences (11) and five at-large bids. The first round would be played at the higher seeded team, and the remaining rounds would be played at the former of the BCS series and other major bowls.
I used this year’s BCS standings to determine the seedings. I had to switch Penn St. and LSU between the 12 and 13 seeds to avoid a first round match-up between conference rivals Florida and LSU. Seeds 14-16 are conference champions from the MAC, Sun Belt, and C-USA. These were the only conference champions not in the BCS top 16. That leaves BYU, Miami (FL), and WVU as the last three teams out.
Take a look at those first round matchups. Ohio St.-Georgia Tech, Florida-Penn St., TCU-LSU, Boise St.-VTech, Oregon-Iowa. And in the quarterfinals you might see Alabama-OSU, Florida-TCU, Boise-Cinci, and Oregon-Texas. This would make for some fantastic football games, and everybody who deserves a shot at the national championship would get to play for it.
In the current system, Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise St. all went undefeated and don’t get to play for a championship. Cinci and TCU would be especially exciting to watch in a playoff. The current system is not fair, and I personally don’t know a single fan who doesn’t want to replace it with a playoff. My 16-team playoff system allows every conference champion and in most years every top 10 team a shot at the national championship. It also allows for three weeks of very exciting football match-ups leading up to the big game. Every fan, school, and conference has something to gain from this system.
