College Football Tournament Idea, would it work and who thinks it should happen?

Question

Ok. Me and my dad were pretty mad that our Ohio State Buckeyes lost the big game, so we thought this up, so maybe a better team than them could make it, or just give them some games to play, so they dont have to spend 52 days doing nothing.

Either 32 or 64 teams in the Tournament. Theres 4 divisions, and the division title game will be either the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, or Orange Bowl. The winner of each bowl gets into the Final Four. The Tournament is set up just like College Basketballs March Madness tourney. It would last for 5-6 weeks, with games being played on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of each week. Each Conference and Team would have to make its season start earlier, and end by Thanksgiving Weekend, so the Tournament would start the week after, go through December, and the National Championship would be when is now, early January. It wouldnt interfere with the NFL Playoffs either. Is our idea good or bad? do you see any possible problems/what would you add?

Answer 1

the idea is good as far as excitement yes. but is a completely ridiculous idea in the big picture. there is a multitude of reasons this would not work.

1-like they said, not enough teams in D-1 college football to house a tourney that big (over half the teams go to the tourney? no)

2-this would be WAY TOO BRUTAL on the players physically. there is a reason football teams play one game a week. now you are suggesting that they play 2 games in one weekend? absolutely would not work. by the end of the tournament you would have teams with half their players injured or in the hospital from exhaustion.

3-no one would endorse this because the teams outside of the top 25 cannot compete with the top teams, so the first 2 rounds would be absolutely pointless. why give 50 teams a chance that have no chance of doing anything in the tourney?

i could go on and on. but trust me that the bowls have no significance in this argument except that the old timer football promoters are attached to them. the bowls used to be good before they had all the automatic placements. this last year there were about 2 good matchups outside of the BCS. the bowls are a joke. and the little bowl games do nothing financially for anybody! no one goes to them, so the venues/areas dont make anything due to them. a lot of teams lose money traveling to the smaller bowls because the payout to the school is too low. so anyone that said the bowls make too much money and the schools make too much money need to wake up. the bowl system is terrible! the bcs games make money and the schools in them make money, but outside of that, it is a joke.

they could still have the bowls just the way they are and then have the winners of the 4 BCS bowls play in a playoff after (the 5th bcs bowl is the national championship, so go back to just 4...and then have the playoff). if you dont win a major conference you dont deserve a shot at the title anyway. and these small schools such as boise state and utah that run the table normally make it as an at large bid. this is the way it will be setup if they ever institute a playoff. which all fans are praying for

Answer 2

YES it could work and should begin as soon as possible. You would need a minimum of 16 teams but 32 would work better. 1st there are 11 conferences and each conference champ should get an automatic bid numerically from 1 to 11 then fill the rest of the slots (12-16 or 12-32) with the remaining teams based on their BCS yes I said BCS rankings. The BCS is not 100% worthless, just 90%. This would also mean that each conference would need a Championship game. The Big Ten starts their season in early September and finishes before Thanksgiving. Limit the season to 11 games as before and you could still have a bye week and the Championship game could be the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Games will only be played on Saturday to help with the missing of classes. Most football players don't schedule friday classes in the fall for just that reason. Give a bye week in between the conference championship and the start of the tournament. 16 team tournament requires 4 weeks. National Championship on New Years Day. 32 team tournament requires 5 weeks and the National Championship game is the 2nd weekend in January, as it is now. Non conference teams get a bid if their ranking is good enough like everyone else. Sorry Notre Dame no more overrated and inflated seasons and bowl games you don't deserve. Sorry doctorklove7 their are 119 D-1A teams now and having said that their were 32 bowl games last year. That's rediculous. even with a 32 team tournament their would be 32 other teams that could play in a mini bowl season. As for the money paid to the teams it is actually paid to the conference and the conference splits it ebenly amongst all the teams in the conference. Thus the reason some teams choose not to be in a conference. Take all the money paid to the respective teams and set up a payment schedule comensurate with your finish in the conference. ie... teams losing in the 1st round get an equal share but it is the least amount and so on.

Answer 3

First off, just let me say I support the playoff idea in college football but a tournament like that in college basketball just wouldn't work for the reasons I will list.
First off it would take way to much time away from studies. Think about it, not only would you miss just three weeks like they do in basketball but they would miss six weeks.
Second, it isn't economically feasible to some schools. Most of the small schools would not be able to afford to pay for the teams to be out for as long as they are.
Third the NCAA Football Board and networks wouldn't allow it and this is the big reason. The BCS bowl games would never let themselves get relegated to a second duty. The institutions these bowls represent would hate it. Also what about all the little bowls. They bring in revenue for the local areas as well as schools, the networks and the NCAA. No I just don't see a playoff like your suggesting happening.

I would like to see a eight team format playoff. The games would be by ranking 1 against 8, 2 agains 7 etc. Then you would have the semis and then the championship game. But also you keep all the little bowls. I don't know, probably won't ever happen but a tourney format for NCAA college football just isn't feasible.

Answer 4

This is a great idea with one glitch that most won't like. This would be is to keep the BCS formula but to formulate it differently putting human [sportswriter] and both polls back into it. This point use the BCS to determine the Big "8" including automatic elimination if your conference has not been won. This will bring the lower conferences up to par plus human polls will force mid-level teams to abduct harder programs before conference play.
One more additional suggestion is to move the National Championship to a location near the Super Bowl of that particular year [same state minimal]. Then play on the Saturday before SB Sunday this will make it a "SUPER WEEKEND" for the people at home and definitely the people in the state where this is happening. Playing on Saturday also defines NCAA football to it's fullest it's primarily played on Saturday what a way to end the season with a playoff and championship that ends on a Saturday before Super Bowl. What do you think?

Answer 5

This is too long. I believe that there should be one game after the bowls. Take the top two ranked teams, after the bowls, and have them play. Another option would be to take the top 8 teams, regardless of conference, and have them play in the major bowls, but move them up 2 weeks. Then play down and the championship game could be on New Years Day. All the other divisions have playoffs, so don't give me the "they will miss too much school" arguement.

Answer 6

The thing you need to remember is that there are only 117 teams in D1-A college football. If you've got 64 teams in a tournament you are guarenteed to have about 10 teams with sub-.500 records playing. That just isn't right.

Even a 32 team format doesn't really work because you still have teams playing that just shouldn't be there.

You will never see a tournament of that magnitude played in college football. A 4 or 8 team playoff will most likely be coming in a few years, though, when the contract for the BCS is up.

Answer 7

Well i like you have thought about the whole college play off system.I think its something that needs to happen.I don't think the best team always gets crowned champs in college.I thought that each conference have a championship and the winner of each go to the playoff bracket,this would even give the smaller conferences a shot like the conf. USA,or wac or mac or one of those.Each playoff game would generate huge revenue.They also can still have their bowl games for the teams that dont win the conf. championship.The playoffs would definitely eliminate any debate that the best team won the championship.I think that the NCAA baketball tourney bracket probably would be a bit much for college football,64 teams in a football tournament would be a massacre-lol.Anyway,kudos for thinking about it-the only bad idea is one not mentioned.

Answer 8

A playoff would work but only with the top 8 teams. The bowls could be used as playoff games. That 3-4 week layover between regular season & bowl season can be used to play games so we can have a REAL NATIONAL CHAMPION!

Answer 9

Possible problem......yes one great problem. College football is a way colleges make money. Year after year bowl bound colleges get an invatation to play in a bowl, these colleges see what the pay for an apperance is, and decide weather to go or not. The better the bowl/money a coach gets for his college, the better the Athelitic dept, and college want to keep him around.
I agree a playoff would be nice, but as long as money is a factor, it will never happen.

Answer 10

I don't think a tournament would work too well. Risk of injury is a little too high to have the big schools playing crappy schools just for kicks, even if it brings in some money for those crappy schools. However, I'm not against a playoff system with 8-16 teams being involved.