Fourth and inches…(week of Nov. 15, 2008)

By Todd Erickson  |   Thursday, November 13, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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The annual BCS or playoff issue
Which team is the most deserving undefeated non-BCS? The New York Times recently posted a blog posing that question to Utah and Boise State fans. Many of the smack-filled posts by Utah and BSU fans are hilarious. Here’s the link: New York Times' The Quad blog

Aside from Pete Carroll’s recent rants about the BCS, things have been pretty quiet on the bash-the-BCS front this season. ESPN is getting close to winning the rights to the BCS back from FOX Sports…the new contract would run from 2011 through 2014…coincidentally, that’s the same year as the 100th anniversary of the Rose Bowl Game—the gridiron spectacle that started the entire bowl game tradition in college football. Regardless of whether ESPN wrestles the new contract away from FOX or it stays with the incumbent, don’t expect a playoff system to emerge under the new BCS contract. It just ain’t gonna happen.

If a playoff is ever going to happen…it will have to maintain conference affiliations with the big four traditional bowl game partners...I came up with a 10-team playoff system a couple years ago that would utilize the major bowls and keep their traditional conference affiliations intact...here's how it would work:

The Cotton Bowl and Holiday Bowl host play-in games to reach the final eight...the four teams playing in these two qualifier bowls would have to be ranked in the top 16 final BCS standings and be a conference champion from the MAC, WAC, MWC, C-USA or Sun Belt. Historically, you will note that there usually wouldn't be more than one team from this pool. However, this year could be different. The other slots are filled by the highest ranking teams remaining in the top 16 BCS standings.

In a season like this year, you could conceivably end up with this type of play-in scenario:

Dec. 25
Holiday Bowl: Texas versus WAC champion Boise State: Winner goes to Sugar Bowl
Dec. 26
Cotton Bowl: Florida versus MWC champion Utah: Winner goes to Fiesta Bowl

The final eight matchups:

Jan. 1
Rose Bowl: Big Ten champion Penn State versus Pac-10 champion USC
Orange Bowl: ACC champion North Carolina versus Big East champion Cincinnati

Jan. 2
Sugar Bowl: SEC champion Alabama versus Holiday Bowl winner, Texas
Fiesta Bowl: Big XII champion Texas Tech versus Cotton Bowl winner, Florida

Final four matchups:

Jan. 8
Rose Bowl winner USC versus Fiesta Bowl winner Florida (with Rose and Fiesta alternating each year as host for the semifinal)
Jan. 9
Orange Bowl winner North Carolina versus Sugar Bowl winner Texas (with Orange and Sugar alternating each year as host for the semifinal)

The host site for the national championship game would alternate between the four sites each year...this means that each major bowl site would host a final four game two of every four years, a national title game once every four years, and have the extra game week off once every four years...

National championship game:

Jan. 16
Winners of the Jan. 8 and 9 games
Florida versus Texas

This only adds a week to the season, and it allows for all the other bowl games to be played...it assures tradition of the bowl games can accommodate a playoff.

BCS Busters still standing: Utah, Boise State and Ball State are still standing with Boise State having the easiest path to remain undefeated. See top segment if you skipped visiting the link to the fun debate between Ute and Bronco fans.

Heisman Thermometer:
Heisman Hot: Graham Harrell, Texas Tech.
Hot, but not quite enough: Colt McCoy, Texas.
Hangin’ in there: Tim Tebow, Florida.
Hot, as in maybe next year: Sam Bradford, Oklahoma.

Conference Power Meter: 1. Big XII. 2. SEC. 3. Big Ten. 4. MWC 5. Pac-10 6. ACC. 7. Big East. 8. C-USA. 9. WAC. 10. Sun Belt.

Top games this weekend and why:
Virginia Tech at Miami (Thursday night). Two decent 6-3 teams square off to see who will remain in contention for ACC Coastal Division title.
Northwestern at Michigan. The Wildcats have put together a solid 7-3 season, so far. Michigan seems like it is just starting to jell under Rich Rodriguez. Can Northwestern prevail?
Notre Dame at Navy. Navy is averaging 308 yards per game on the ground. The Fighting Irish give up an average of 132 per game. The Midshipmen would like to build on their one-game winning streak over the Irish.
California at No. 23 Oregon State. Quite simply, the Beavers are in the Rose Bowl Game for the first time since 1965 if they win their last three Pac-10 games. First up is the Golden Bears.
No. 24 South Carolina at No. 3 Florida. Who can resist watching Steve Spurrier return to the site of his greatest college triumphs, leading the Gamecocks to their slaughter?
Boston College at No. 24 Florida State. These late-season ACC contests are becoming pretty interesting. The conference is up for grabs.
No. 17 North Carolina at Maryland. Ditto.
No. 6 USC at Stanford. The Trojans were 42-point favorites last year versus Stanford and lost at home. Stanford is better this year, and it's playing at home. Wanna bet they do it again? Nah…
No. 25 Tulsa at Houston. If you like seeing teams air it out, count on 90 to 100 passes being thrown this game. And that’s being conservative.
**Game of the Week** No. 16 BYU at Air Force. The Falcons are 8-2 and 15 points short of being perfect. The one-loss Cougars have the passing attack to test the Flyboys in this must-win game.

Upset Specials: I was 1 for 3 last week, correctly picking Virginia Tech over Maryland. This week: Louisville over No. 22 Cincinnati; Maryland over North Carolina; and Houston over No. 25 Tulsa. Bonus upset: Navy over Notre Dame.

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About Todd Erickson

Todd Erickson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and pens the RealFootball365 Top 25 college football power rankings and "Fourth and inches..." weekly columns from August thru January. He is currently working on the second edition of Road to the Rose Bowl ...
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