By Pete Quint
With as exciting of a finish as you can have, another March
Madness wraps up leaving everybody satisfied that the #1 team in the country
has cut down the nets. NCAA basketball
proves year in and year out that it has the best and most exciting way to crown
a champion; a play-off. College football
is as controversial as it gets when it comes to declaring a champion. With the exception of the 2002 OSU v Miami
(Fla) and 2006 Texas v USC (every team entered the game as the only undefeated
teams that season), the BCS has endured heavy criticism for one or both of the
teams playing for the championship since it’s in 1998 inception.
Play-off scenarios such as 8-16 team tournament style and
the “Plus-One” have been tossed around for several years but most have obvious
flaws. Locations, what to do with the
bowls, playing games well into January and financial strain on the alumni and
fans are all good arguments against the current ideas popping up around the
talk shows. The following is a
compellation of the best ideas I have heard formulated into one bright idea for
the powers that be so they can make the change, sooner rather than later.
Tournament
First of all it has to be in a tournament style format. No “plus one” garbage. I recommend an eight team play-off. There shouldn’t be too much bellyaching with
eight teams; one playing eight, two playing seven and so on. If you’re number nine, too bad, you probably
have two or more losses.
Selection
How do we pick the teams?
Two ways make sense to me.
- The champion
of each major conference plus two at large births.
Assigning the Big Ten, Pac10, SEC,
ACC, Big East and Big 12 as the major conferences shouldn’t cause too much
debate and then have a committee chose the remaining two teams depending on
record and strength of schedule. This
way you could still have two teams from the same conference or a hot mid-major
squad in the tournament if they deserve it.
- Straight
BCS ranking.
You have to go with the polls and
the computers will decide using their crazy formula. Once again, if you are number nine, too bad.
My preference would be the first scenario since it rewards
the conference champions while allowing opportunities for teams like the recently
shunned Georgia (2007), Hawaii (2007), Boise
State (2006) and Auburn (2004) a shot at the title.
Time
One of the biggest “concerns” university presidents have
with a play-off is that they claim it will cut into class time. To alleviate this problem the tournament will
start early in December say a week or two after the season wraps up. This would put the first round games around a
week before Christmas thusly eliminating the ridiculous layoff that teams
without a conference championship game endure every year. Teams would then play the final four in the
existing BCS bowls on New Years Day and the championship game would happen a
week later. Most schools would be off
for winter break during most of that time and the championship game would only
affect two teams during the first week of the semester or quarter.
Next week…
Location
Final Four/Championship Game
Other Bowls