College playoffs in a perfect world

By Darrell Laurant  |   Monday, February 06, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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What I'm about to propose as far as a viable college football playoffs scenario is assuming a perfect world. The teams I'm asking to shift conferences, for example, would be happy to do it for the greater good of the game. Notre Dame is able to figure out some way to keep its pricy TV contract and join a conference at the same time.

OK, it's a long-shot. Nor do I have any illusions that I'm the only person to have thought of this. But bear with me.

At the moment, there are 11 Division 1-A football conferences -- the ACC, the SEC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Big East, the Pac-10, the MAC, the WAC, the Mountain West, the Sun Belt and Conference USA.

With a little juggling (maybe Central Florida and UAB from Conference USA to the Sun Belt), all of these leagues could have enough teams to separate into divisions. Or, perhaps more practically, divisional championships could be reserved for the Top Five conferences, those leagues selected through some kind of power rating.

In 2005, for example, the top conferences were unquestionably the Big 12, PAC-10, Big Ten, SEC and ACC. The Big East was down this year, except for West Virginia and Louisville, but more about that later.

What if all of the "Big Five" leagues staged a divisional championship game, much as three are already doing? That would be, in essence, the first cut for a national title chase. Then, suppose the Mountain West regular-season champion played the WAC champion, the Big East champ matched up with the MAC champion, and the Sun Belt and Conference USA played off for the final spot in an Elite Eight.

The rule would be, you have to win your conference to reach that final group. Just as the best team doesn't always win in an NFL playoff game, so you might have an 11-0 juggernaut bumped off by a 6-5 opponent on a freak play. That's just the way it goes.

Once the final eight is decided, some sort of ranking system -- in theory more common-sense and less arcane than the current BCS -- would choose the top four. Most years, it would be relatively obvious.

After that, the normal bowl system would kick in. Of the Final Four survivors, No. 1 would meet No. 4 in one of the BCS bowls, No's 2 and 3 would play in the other. Then, a week after that, the final two teams left standing would face off in whatever BCS bowl is designated that year on a rotating basis.

Is it fool-proof? Of course not. Does the best college basketball team in the country always win that title? No.

But back to the Big East. If Penn State and Notre Dame were added (the former because of geography, the latter because it already plays basketball in that league), the Big East would become immediately viable as a football circuit. And what if South Florida were traded to the ACC for Maryland?

This would also get the Big Ten back to being the Big Ten, giving it an even number of teams for playoff purposes.

Just something to think about on a February day as we wait for college football spring practices to start.
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