BSC or Playoff?

Question

Which one should NCAA do?

Answer 1

Playoffs. I actually did a persuasive essay on this topic in language arts in 8th grade (got an A! :P). I personally think it would be more fun watching 16 teams go head to head in a playoff system. It would be as fun and as competitive as March Madness. I understand that the NCAA would like to keep tradition with the bowls, but I believe that a playoff system would be more beneficial to the NCAA. The BCS already has many flaws that are being fixed up, but I think a playoff system wouldn't have as many controversies. It probably will not happen, but it's always fun to think about the chances of a 16-team playoff in college football.

Answer 2

The NCAA should go to a playoff system. Here is a playoff scenario that will keep most of the bowls in tact. There should be 24 teams in the tournament. The top 24 based on the BCS computer would qualify. The top eight would earn a bye in the opening round while nbrs. 9 through 24 would play in this round with 9 playing 24, 10 playing 23, etc. They would play in the minor bowls such as the Texas, Poinsettia, New Mexico, Music City, etc. The winners of the opening round would then play the top eight teams (1 would play the winner of 16 vs. 17, 2 would play the winner of 15 vs. 18, etc.). The would play in some older bowls such as the Motor City, Liberty, Sun, CarQuest, etc. The venues for the quarter, semi and finals would be rotated in which for example the Rose Bowl would host the Championship game the first year, then it would host the quarterfinals for the next four years and the semis for the next two years. The seven bowl games that would host the final three stages would be the Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Gator and Holiday. Try to make it like the basketball tournaments.

Hey if they would have had a playoff system in place last year, wouldn't it been nice to see Boise State play USC or Florida?

Answer 3

Anyone who supports the current bowl system simply hasn't had their team get screwed by it yet. Think about it. Even if we just take the top 4 teams, play 1v4 and 2v3, then winners, you add a single game, and you rest comfortably knowing that if the regular season ends with more than 2 undefeated teams, its guaranteed that only one would be left standing. Thats all those of us who support a playoff want, we want a team crowned because they won on the field, not because a sports writer said so. If the NCAA had used a playoff, we wouldn't have had undefeated teams not getting a chance to play. Boise State could have been Cinderella, Auburn would have at least gotten a chance, Michigan and Nebraska would have played each other in 97 instead of splitting the NC, USC and LSU would have played instead of splitting a NC, Georgia Tech and Colorado would have played instead of splitting an NC, etc. Even if you only took top 4 teams, the NCAA champion would have to beat 2 top 4 teams in 2 consecutive weeks to claim the crown. That would get rid of the pretenders, and the best real team would win. The BCS is only around because it makes a lot of money. Look, I am a Michigan fan. I grew up with the utmost respect for the Rose Bowl, for tradition. I understand that some traditions are hard to change. The BCS however, MUST change for NCAA football to evolve into what it should be. Div IAA has a playoff. Div II has a playoff. Div III has a playoff. I am sick of having nothing but a paper champion in NCAA Div IA football, give me a champion that proved it on field. The NCAA championship is only a hypothetical championship, meaningless, until the NCAA sanctions an official tournament, like they do with EVERY OTHER SINGLE SPORT.

Answer 4

They should never go with the playoffs. BCS Bowls are classic. How can you have a College Football season with out the Rose Bowl? Plus, if you had an 8 game playoff, the winning team would play a total of 3 games. That's 1/4 of the regular season, and I don't think they want to do that jsut for postseason. Also, it's much more fun to watch 4 (well now 5) BCS Bowl Games. It's better to see more big games plus 1 huge game. I'd rather have that than a playoffs, because the way the seeding would work, the "worse" teams wouldnt even have a chance of winning, then all of their hard work for the year goes to nothing.

The only reason I can think of to have a playoff for NCAA Football is that you will know who the champion is no matter what (unless you want to argue with team from the Cotton Bowl) because every few years there will be 3 undefeated team, and there ends up being a co-champion. Regardless to that, the NCAA should never ruin the great BCS tradition.

Answer 5

Of these two choices, I would say the BCS, although they never should have tweaked it so much to give fans the results they wanted. A playoff of 4 or 8 teams would have just as much controversy as the BCS does right now. Take a look at last year...which 4 teams would have been invited if the BCS poll had been used? OSU, UF, Michigan, and LSU. 2 Big Ten schools and 2 SEC schools, with the rest of the conferences unworthy? That especially egregious given how poorly the Big Ten schools did last year. On the other hand, how else can you choose? Take conference champs? I'm a Husker fan, but I can't say that the Big XII champs deserved a shot last year, especially since BSU beat OU in the bowl game. And how would a BSU or Louisville ever get in?

Although if you were going to have a playoff, I would hope that all games would be at neutral sites. There's just way too much of a home field advantage in college football. It's probably the best home field advantage in all of sports.

The BCS has its share of problems (strength of schedule should be more of a factor and only conference champs should be eligible for national championship games), but I don't see how a playoff is the be all end all. If I had my choice, I wouldn't choose either and would go back to the bowl tie ins that were the backbone of the sport for the first 90% of its history. To be honest, I really preferred it back in the day when the championship was more mythical and there wasn't so much emphasis on winning and making money. I suppose those days are past though, so I would stick with the BCS as the lesser of 2 evils.

Answer 6

Depends on what you are trying to do. If you want the team that is playing the best at the end of the year, and probably gets a little lucky, then go with a playoff. If you want the team that has the best overall season, then go with the BCS. There are flaws in both, but I prefer the BCS. Another negative with the playoff, the more teams in the playoff, then the less important the regular season is. I watch every sat during the regular season, but with the NFL, I miss a few because teh games just aren't the same.

Answer 7

I am a Boise Fan and i say playoffs based on the fact that if there was a playoff of 16 teams like in the NFL it would make great championship games. No i don't think that Boise could have been National Champs but i would have loved to see them or any other small school get an chance at becoming the best for one year.

Answer 8

Even though the current system is flawed, I would still oppose a move to playoffs for these reasons -

Tradition - College rivals can sit and talk/argue who woulda won if ... forever and is that really a bad thing?

Money - Ruins everything and once you get a definitave playoff system, think of how the money (boosters, corporate sponsors, etc) would corrupt it.

The Players - Aren't being paid and even if they were, it would never be to a reasonable level given the amount of money generated by a Professional College Football League - which is what this would become. These players don't need extra games in which they could get injured and lose out on the potential of going legit pro and making the big dollar.

More games on the bodies of those not being paid fair compensation - I don't like the smell of that at all. The drive for Playoffs is orchestrated by corporate interest who want to have another Super Bowl to tie their names to.

Answer 9

Will not work. Your plan gives Cincinnati and the eventual Big East champs automatic births while leaving out the SEC and Big East teams that are so much better. The case could be made most years that the Pac 10, Big 10, ACC and Big East are not that much better than many others. It needs to be expanded to take at least 32 teams, start in mid December, take all 11 conference champs and 21 at large teams. That gives you 16 games the first weekend and a real National Champion in the end.

Answer 10

A playoff - 16 teams - determined by the computer and human polls. The first and second rounds at campus sites, and then the Final Four plugged into the Bowls.