Welcome Back Ohio State!!!!

Now I'm no big Buckeyes fan, but I love to see my BCS playoff system working perfectly.  Ohio State lost two games early in the season but managed to climb their way back into the playoff picture by winning the conference.  It all goes back to my earlier statements about teams ranked high in the BCS rankings but failing to make my playoff... if you don't win your division, you have nothing to complain about.

The days of huge playoff shake ups seem long gone with very little changing this week in the seeding.  I think we have the ten teams identified which will ultimately finish the season in our playoff.  Now we just await the exact match ups.  Our only snub within the BCS Top 10 is #9 Pittsburgh who lost a spot to #11 Oregon as the PAC-10 champion.  This will only be a minor hiccup in the system with a matchup between Pitt and Cinci still to come to determine the Big East Champion.  If Pitt loses, then they'll drop out of the BCS top ten and it won't be a problem.  If they were to pull off the upset over Cincinnati, Cinci may be the team ranked #9 complaining about not making the playoff.

Without further ado.... I give you the Week 12 BCS Playoff.

Feel free to leave your comments here or email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Concept:

A hybrid system that incorporates the current bowl system with an expanded playoff.  Taking only 4 weeks to comlete, the playoff would utilize the same amount of time to complete as the current bowl system.

Background:

Anyone even remotely interested in college football knows there is a problem with the current way in which the nation crowns the NCAA football champion. While most major websites and analysts vote for a complete revamp of the BCS system, we believe that the pieces and parts of the solution have already been created waiting for someone to put them together. We have done that and what you see above is the result: A 10 team playoff which incorporates

1. BCS Rankings
2. Current BCS Bowl layout
3. BCS Conference Champions with At-large Bids
4. Maintains the tradition of bowl season

We think it is a solid assumption that the current BCS ranking system can identify the top 10 teams in the country, but no amount of human input and computer analysis can pinpoint the top two teams in the nation. It’s this belief that pointed us to a 10 team playoff.

Additional Bowl Location Selection:

The four BCS Bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and Rose) are on center stage and the current BCS Bowls plus National Championship format will be maintained. BCS Bowls will have rights to Semi-Final games and 2 of the 4 regional games.

The BCS Bowl which hosts the national championship, will be required to host a regional round game to facilitate preparations for the National Championship.

In order to fill the bracket, the BCS will host a "BCS Playoff Bowl Location Selection Show" where they will invite four non-BCS bowls to participate. These "smaller" bowls will be required to provided their payouts to the BCS payout pot in order to facilitate a graduated payout system which is addressed later.

New Bowl Schedule:

After rescheduling, only two bowls (not involved in the playoff) will have to move the date in which they play:

Hawaii Bowl will move from 24 DEC at 8:00pm to 23 DEC at 5:00pm

Emerald Bowl will move from 26 DEC at 8:00pm to 27 DEC at 5:00pm

GMAC Bowl would have the option of moving to 04 JAN at 8:00pm to accommodate a 3 day, bowl game free period before the National Championship

Team Selection:

6 BCS Conference Champions seeded 1 through 6 according to their BCS ranking. (AP Rank if too early in the season). If a BCS conference championship does not rank in the BCS rankings they will forfeit their guaranteed bid.

4 Non Conference Champions will be seeded 7-10 and will be required to play into the playoff. These will be the 4 highest ranked teams in the BCS rankings that did not win a BCS conference.

There is no limit to the number of teams any one conference can have in the playoff

Seed assignment is preset and permanent in the bracket. It cannot be altered to make for "better matchups" in the playoff.

Payout:

Payout will be graduated and will be determined by the round in which you lose and exit the playoff. A graduated system allows for the increased cost of sending teams to an increased number of games as well as paying for fan incentives to attend.

2009 Payout totals $186,260,000.00

Benefits and Drawbacks of the System:

As with any proposal for change, there must be benefits clearly defined and they must out weigh the drawbacks.

Benefits:

1. National Championship will be decided on the field by the players
2. Increased viewership of smaller, "early bowl season" bowls
3. Increased BCS exposure adding Bowl Location Selection Show
4. Current system of ranking remains in place
5. Favors BCS conference champions while still allowing for at-large bids

Drawbacks:

1. Lengthened Season   Solution:  Eliminate weak early season games
2. Reduction in number of automatic bowl bids for conferences.  Non-issue:  Payout increased using a graduate system.