College football absurdities

With the recent announcement that the MWC might be able to “guarantee” themselves an automatic BCS spot, it is interesting to revisit the reasons why we do not have a college football playoff in the first place.  There are no compelling reasons NOT to have a playoff. The arguments presented are weak and at best: disingenuous.  From now on, this will be the patented Thomas Erb Jr. playoff system ®. (Yes, I just registered that as a copyrighted material.)

Out of Conference Schedule

Eliminate all out of conference games and go to a straight conference schedule.   Proponents  of the BCS system cry foul at the thought of eliminating out of conference schedules because we, the college football fans, are going to miss those traditional early “powerhouse” games.  There are 120 FCS teams.  Each team plays an average of 4 out of conference games.  That is 480 games a year. How many of those are can’t miss? 5? 10? You can’t even count Notre Dame v Michigan anymore.  If you ask most true college football fans, if they had to trade 10 good early season matchups for a playoff, the answer would be a resounding yes.

Fairness

Two divisions in every conference with a mandatory championship game.  I am a Big Ten guy, but even I admit that the Big Ten has been skating by in recent years as the Big 12 and SEC’s two best teams butchered each other in their respective games.  When the Big Ten expands to 14 (or more) they will have two divisions but the only way a playoff works is if every team plays a championship game.

Every conference champion gets in.  There are 11 conferences.  Every conference champion gets a spot in the playoffs.  Yes, even the MAC and the Sun Belt. Remember, we have to ensure fairness.   (This also assumes that the independents would get gobbled up into conferences.)  That leaves 5 at large bids for a four game playoff system.  The 5 at large bids can still be determined by using the BCS formula. And unlike now, as many teams from a conference can get in as deserve it.

How it would work

Eliminating out of conference would mean most teams would have 8 games. Expand it to 10 conference games and the championship game – a total of 11 weeks.

The playoffs would be set up with the highest seeds getting the first round home game and just like the NFL, being able to control home field at least down to the final two.  To see just how easy this would work, let us take a look at how my 2009 playoffs would have worked:

Oregon, Troy, Boise State, Ohio State, Alabama, TCU, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Texas, East Carolina, and Central Michigan are your automatic qualifiers.  Florida, Iowa, Virginia Tech, LSU, and Penn State are your next five seeds not already qualified.

Give each of them a ranking and your first round games look like this:

1 Alabama v 16 Penn State at Alabama

2 Texas v 15 LSU at Texas

3 Cincinnati v 14 Virginia Tech at Cin.

4 TCU v 13 Iowa at TCU

5 Boise State v 12 Florida at Boise

6 Oregon v 11 Central Michigan at Oregon

7 Ohio State v 10 East Carolina at OSU

8 Georgia Tech v 9 Troy at Georgia Tech

Note: Since Troy, Central Michigan, and East Carolina are not in the BCS system, I guessed at what they would have been.

Can you imagine week 12 of college football with these games? How about week 13 with potential matchups?

Alabama v Georgia Teach at Alabama, Texas v OSU at Texas, Cincinatti v Oregon at Cincinatti, TCU v Boise State at TCU.

I am salivating.  Week 14 – highest seeds host again.  Now you are left with two teams.

Bowl games

BCS people argue that playoffs would ruin bowl games.  What? This is their most ludicrous argument. Did you sit down at watch the Meinke Car Care Bowl last year on ESPN Ocho? How about the New Mexico Bowl? Hard core college football fans and the fans of the teams in the bowls watched these games.  That will not change.  This is why you play the playoff games immediately after the season and before the bowls.  Yes, if you put them both on at the same time, nobody is watching the NM bowl. Duh!

Oh, it ruins the BCS Championship series! Oh, contraire my friends.  Nothing changes in the BCS series! The last 8 teams all get a slot in the BCS games. The BCS sites just chose their games. No tie ins, no bull crap. In our previous scenario, you can pick from OSU, CIN, OREGON, BSU, AND TCU.

BCS people would argue that look, those are already the teams that got in. The system works. Um, did you notice that this assumes that ALL the higher seeds win…ALL the time!

Money

Without a doubt, eliminating four games reduces revenue. But, what about the four weeks of televised playoff games? There is no TV contract for this.  Boom. Worth millions. Divide it up equally among the teams. Sure, teams like Ohio State would lose a little, but isn’t it worth it to crown a true national champion? I think so.

The Tom Erb Jr. playoff system. ® Never duplicated and hopefully replicated.

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About Thomas Erb

Thomas L. Erb Jr. is a native of Canton, OH and now resides in the dreaded state up north. Tom is a lifelong fan of The Ohio State University, Browns, Indians, Cavs and Penguins. Tom will offer insight into all things Ohio and beyond