Wherein I Fix College Football

I need something to take my mind off the fact that my beloved UNC Tar Heels have started out 0-2 in the ACC this morning. Usually, my job would do the trick, but it's an exceedingly slow morning at the office today. So I'll take about 20 minutes to solve the most vexing riddle in sports-- how to decide the college football Division 1-A national championship. I will assume that almost everyone would like a system that: (1) is fair; (2) protects tradition, i.e. the bowl games and the importance of the regular season and conference races; (3) doesn't place too much of a strain on the student-athletes; and (4) protects financial/scheduling interests of the schools, the networks, etc. With this in mind, here's what I've got. Hey, it's gotta start somewhere:

The championship will be decided by a twelve-team playoff. Four teams, all champions of one of the BCS conferences, will receive byes. They will be the top four conference-winning teams as ranked by a formula similar to the BCS (I'll get to this later). These teams will "host" four bowl games, all played on New Year's Day. The teams are subjectively assigned to the bowls based on tradition and geography by an NCAA Bowl Committee: Generally, Pac-10 or Big Ten champion to the Rose Bowl, Big 12 or Pac-10 champion to the Fiesta Bowl. SEC or Big 12 to the Sugar Bowl. SEC, ACC or Big East to the Orange Bowl.

The remaining eight teams will take part in play-in games. These eight teams will be as follows: the remaining two conference champions will host a game on their campus. The other two teams hosting play-in games will be the top two remaining teams according to the BCS formula. The final four teams will be the last four teams according to the BCS formula. However, any BCS Division 1-A team that is undefeated gets an automatic spot in the "bowl play-in" round. This is non-negotiable. If the powers that be think a team's entire conference slate is too weak to warrant inclusion, then they shouldn't be in Division 1-A.

The play-in games will be grouped with a bowl by an NCAA committee in accordance with the following procedure: (1) making sure teams from the same conference do not match up in the bowl games; (2) tradition (e.g. if the Big Ten champ doesn't get a bye, give it a chance to "play in" to the Rose Bowl); and (3) geography. These games take place on Xmas Eve and Xmas Day (two games each). As a Jew, I'll leave it to someone else to figure out the best way to schedule them without interfering with Gentile family bonding time.

All four bowl games happen on New Year's Day. The day starts with the Orange Bowl kicking off at 11:30 AM EST, the Sugar Bowl at 3 PM, the Rose Bowl at 6:30 PM (there's something about the sun still shining out west during the Rose Bowl kickoff, in my opinion), and the Fiesta Bowl at 10PM. Presto: college football's postseason recaptures the New Year's holiday and in one swoop turns it into the greatest single day in the couch potato calendar. As it should be.

National semifinals take place the first full weekend after new year's, i.e. at least seven days after new year's. There's a bit of a scheduling concern here, since this would likely be the NFL's divisional playoff weekend, and those games cover Saturday and Sunday. I'd propose playing one national semifinal on Friday night, and the other on Saturday at 1 PM, before the NFL games kick off. These two games take place at a single neutral site. Semifinal matchups rotate among the bowls every year, i.e. one year Sugar plays Rose and Orange plays Fiesta, next year Sugar plays Orange and Rose plays Fiesta, etc.

The National Championship takes place the following Saturday evening at a different neutral site. It should be in a different region of the country from the semifinal site, ensuring that no team has to travel cross-country twice in consecutive weekends.

The other bowl games remain intact. College basketball has an NIT tourney with its own tradition that has remained viable in the shadow of a much larger and more inclusive tournament, and the same thing would happen here. They'd get what they get now- die-hard backers/people seeking a vacation excuse plus curious locals in the stands, serious fans and gamblers in the TV audience.

Here are the advantages to my system:

* the obvious one is that it gives the fans (and most of the teams) the playoff that they crave while protecting the bowl game traditions they also love.

* By starting the playoff over Xmas weekend, you don't have that full month break after the end of the regular season which results in complete loss of momentum for the sport.

* The finances are still there for both ESPN, which will start broadcasting the BCS in 2011, and the schools and conferences, which can use the same profit-sharing system they currently employ for the BCS, except now there's an additional two games' worth of revenue to add to the kitty (7 instead of the current 5). In fact, you have four extra games (the play-in games) to add to the mix. I don't know what ESPN's agreement is with the NCAA and what contingencies the contract addresses, but either ESPN would have yet another cash cow, or the NCAA would have four new and valuable games that they could auction off to the highest network bidder, depending on who had better lawyers negotiating the BCS broadcast agreement.

* The obvious and significant advantages for quality conference champions, and the automatic spot bestowed upon undefeated non-conference champions, ensure that every team kicks off the year with a shot at the title, and that the college football regular season remains as important and exciting as it is now.

* While there will still be gripes about who gets an at-large bid, arguments about snubs will be forgotten as soon as the bowl play-in games kick off, just as they are in college basketball. Honestly, can you remember who Vitale and Packer were whining about as "snubs" last March? Of course not. Do you know why? Because ultimately, the tourney is about choosing a national champion, and if you are even remotely snub-able, then you don't really belong in the conversation. As opposed to, say, Utah and USC this college football year, who have entirely legitimate gripes.

* No University is in session during Xmas and the New Year. So at most, you will have four schools who have to play "extra" football during the academic year. If they are really that concerned about it, they can opt out of the tournament. Hey, the Ivy League does it every year, so stop whining. If you're really concerned, then put your money where your mouth is.

About the BCS rankings: I'd like to see the computers be a bigger factor, and they need to be permitted to determine the team rankings in any manner they consider fair, including point differentials. Bill James has explained why better and more intelligently than I could. I won't get into it in greater detail here. But he makes some important points.

Finally, there's what the 2008 season playoff might have looked like under my system:

Orange Bowl: Penn State vs. (winner of Alabama at Virginia Tech)

Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. (winner of Texas Tech at Cincinnati)

Rose Bowl: USC vs. (winner of Ohio State at Texas)

Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. (winner of Boise State at Utah)


Sweet Jesus, that would have been awesome. Feel free to tell me why this won't work in the comments. Or, you know, forward it to your favorite sports blog if you can't find a hole. I'd add more commentary, but my phone and inbox are finally starting to get warm.