Hey sports fans. As political as the BCS selection is getting, I think this is a perfectly appropriate place to showcase an idea I've been working on. A new and improved BCS system for college football. One that will please the fans, the players, the coaches, and the people counting their money after it is all over.
To start off, we're under a few constraints. The major bowls and the major conferences are never going to give up the money and power they currently posses, and the NCAA doesn't seem interested in stepping in to change anything. So we have to work through the current system, doing something the conferences and the bowls will endorse. In order to be fair, we must leave room for non-BCS schools, however. Taking those things into mind, I came up with a system that I think would no only make the game more fair, but would also make more money for the big bowls, ensuring their cooperation.
My system will use a 12-team playoff that does NOT replace any of the bowls. Rather, it will serve as a play-in to the BCS championship game. The season will be shortened back to 11 games, and the playoff will begin the first weekend of December (when conference championships currently are played). The semi-finals will occur the weekend before Christmas. The first two rounds will be held at the home of the higher ranked team (with seeds 1-4 getting a first round bye) and the semifinals will be held at rotating BCS sites as the championship is now.
The six BCS conference champions will receive an automatic bid. The highest ranked mid-major champion will also receive an automatic bid, with a second receiving a bid if they rank higher than any BCS conference champ. The remaining slots will be filed by the 5 highest ranked remaining teams, using the BCS ranking system, with the constraint of a 3 team per-conference limit. Seedings will be based upon BCS rank. After the tournament, 5 BCS bowls consisting of the current four plus the Cotton Bowl will select their teams from the 10 losers, exactly as they do now. Current conference tie-ins will be maintained, so the Rose Bowl still gets their precious Big-10/Pac-10 match up.
With the tournament ending before Christmas, the minor bowls will then play on the same dates they do now. The BCS games will be played starting January 1, with the Championship, hosted at a rotating BCS site, occurring late in the first week of January.
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So what do you think? Questions? Comments? Improvements?
We add one more bowl, and two bowl sites get to host an extra game (money). The tournament will draw big revenue for the home team and their conference (more money). And at the end of the year, there is no arguing. Whoever wins IS the champion. Regardless of the fact that I can't walk into the offices of the conference chairmen and tell them hey I have a new idea, I had fun coming up with it.