So, you want a playoff. ?????????????

Question

Why?

How many teams: Two? Four? Eight? Twelve? Sixteen? More? Less?

Who selects the teams: Polls? Coaches? Writers? Experts? Computers? Fans? Bowl Selection Committees? League Commissioners? S.I.D.'s?

Who ranks the teams: Polls? Coaches? Writers?, etc.

How many teams from each conference: One? Two? Three? Unlimited?

Does Notre Dame get special treatment?

Does a school have to be conference champ to participate?

Where will you play the games: Highest ranked home field advantage? Neutral site? Bowl sites? Cold weather climate? Warm weather climate?

When will you play: Before Christmas? After Christmas? Both? Neither?

What impact will a playoff have on the other bowls: Significant? None? Do you care?

Will a playoff encourage/discourage better non-conference schedules and more inter-sectional games?

I have a lot more questions but that's enough for now.

Answer 1

How many teams? 16

Who selects the teams? All 11 conference champions get in (ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC-10, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC), plus 5 at-large bids. The at-large teams would be selected in much the same way the BCS is set up now.

Who ranks the teams? The AP poll should be used to seed the teams.

How many teams from each conference? There will be atleast one from each conference. The at-large bids go to the five most deserving teams, regardless of conference.

Does Notre Dame get special treatment? No. Unless they join a conference and earn an automatic bid, they will have to compete for one of the 5 at-large bids.

Does a school have to be a conference champ to participate? No, 5 at-large bids are available for non-conference champs.

Where will you play the games? The highest seeded team gets home field, just like in the I-AA playoffs.

When will you play? First round will be played 2 weeks after conference championships. This year, that would put 1st round games on Dec. 15. 2nd round would be the following week (Dec. 22).
Semifinals would be the following week (Dec. 29).
National championship game the next week (Jan 5).

What impact will it have on bowls? The bowls would still exist. They would simply have to pick teams that aren't involved in the playoff. Kind of the same way the NIT and the NCAA tourney work in basketball.

Will a playoff encourage/discourage better non-conference schedules and more inter-sectional games? This system would put more value on conference games, making them more meaningful, kind of like the NFL. But, teams would also have to have a strong non-conference schedule to compete for an at-large bid.

Answer 2

I am sure that if all of the teams in college Football other than Div. 1A can figure it out, it is not too difficult. I would suggest a 16 team playoff. There are now 64 teams playing on bowl games, most are meaningless. I am sure that there can be a two week delay between the final four and the championship game for exams or rest, etc.

Also, the top 16 teams would be determined as the conference champions (11 teams) plus the next five best records with common opponents and/or differential in points scored versus allowed as a tiebreaker. This is not rocket science.

Answer 3

Anything is better than the present system. There would be less problem with the top 4 playing in 2 bowl games on New Years Day and the winners playing on the following Sunday when the present number 1 game is played. There is no problem getting sites for Bowl Games. There is even one in Toronto now. If 4 isn't enough teams. Choose 8 play them in 4 of the New Years Games the winners in 2 games the following week and a new Super game on NFL wild card weekend. Even better do as they do in Canada play the college Championship game on the same weekend as the Gray Cup (Pro Championship) Just think of the price of that Combo Ticket.

Answer 4

4 teams out of 119? Get real. But then again, 16 teams makes too long of a schedule. A playoff would encourage less difficult schedule, because if you want to be #1, you play your conference the best you can and then you play Youngstown State, Akron, and Kent State.

And it's more like, do you play it immediately...through finals (because these are college students we're talking about), or later, through Christmas break.

And how do you justify how you rank seven two-lose teams? Well, now it doesn't matter because they all play in BCS games at the same level. How do you pick 3 out of those 7 teams and send them to a playoff?

You can't.

Answer 5

You can still use the BCS ranking- 4 teams. Keep the major bowl games as the semi-finals and rotate each year for the championship game. The bowls are so watered down that it doesn't matter anyways. You could have the semifinals before New Years and then the final after. Or you could have semis on New years and the final a week later.

All neutral fields.

Answer 6

It sounds like your OK with the bowl selection process. So how about the top 8 teams in the computer/writer/coach/ex-Notre Dame janitor list makes the playoff and they PROVE who the best team is.

Answer 7

Oh dear me. American football is far too complicated. Love the game, although I am not sure how it all works.

I do think there should be a clear and undisputed national champion each year rather than several bowl champions. But tradition matters. On the other hand, there are so very many bowls these days and polls just are not the same.

Answer 8

Even with all those questions, a playoff is still preferable to the guesswork associated with the current BCS championship.

I'm sure those questions could be resolved and something equitable formulated. And I don't believe it would be all that difficult. There would still be complaints about teams left out, but at least you're giving more teams an opportunity. It seems to work very well for college basketball, so why not football?

Answer 9

Never seen so much thought put into such a short sighted question.

Why not have the conference champs play eachother in a play off?

Why not split the conferences into two big ones and create divisions?

Why would ND need special treatment? They are in a conference.

Answer 10

I would say the top 4 & I wouldn't want to be involved in the selection because every year when the 2 teams are picked out for the championship game, fans of other schools moan & groan about there team being selected for the championship game. You can't please everybody.