An idea for a playoff structure for NCAA football

While the sport of football is too physically demanding for a 64 team playoff structure, as is used in basketball, a three round playoff structure of eight teams is fisable. The plan outlined below would allow a playoff structure to be added to the existing bowl system, allowing bowls to maintain there historic roots, while cooperating to provide an even greator post season experience for the fans of college football.

Allow individual bowls to form amongst themselves tournaments of at most three rounds. All tournaments must end on or befor New Years day, with the exception of the BCS, which will start that day. I would also limit 1 team per conferance in each tournament for a better mix of competition.

The Bowl Championship Series would be the premier tournament in the NCAA, being the alignment of the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls. These bowls would still be able to negotiate contracts with the top conferances in the league, as long as there always remains 2 at large bids available in the tournament. I would also put a limit of 1 team per conferance in order to appease the smaller conferances and to allow smaller schools to have an increased chance at getting invited. I would also guarantee any undefeated division 1 team an at large spot, reguardless of any ratings system, as long as there are less than 3, excluding those teams in a conferance with guaranteed access.

These bowls would maintain there historical traditions and identity. They would be played New Years Day between the traditional rivals. They would retain there abilities to negotiate with various athletic conferances to produce the best possible competition. The only difference is that they are not the last game of the season.

The 4 winners move on to a second round, held on saturday at least 1 week latter. How these matchups are aligned, is unimportant for this discussion, but i can think of four possibilities. The BCS ratings could be used to seed the teams in a 1-4 2-3 fation. The second round could be set such that the winners of the Rose and Fiesta will always meet, for example. The games could be aligned to avoid teams playing opponents they have played recently. Conversely the games could be aligned to produce rematches of previous playoff/bowl games.

However this is decided, the two winners would meet the following saturday to determine the national champion, in a true Bowl Championship Series.

With the BCS ruling the championship, will the rest of the bowls be eliminated? Most likely not. For years the minor bowls have survived, dispite there being meaningless to the championship. For most schools, winning a minor bowl is the best they can legitimately hope for. Even in Basketball, the NIT is a profitable venture.

The real problem is that the other bowls might wish to have the same power to align themselves into tournaments. Infact a Holiday, Cirtus,Outback,Peach bowl alignment would look very attractive to most teams. These could be allowed, but should be limited so they do not conflict with the BCS, especially the final round.

This could be started by 2002, or 2001 if the Rose bowl would be willing to give up its right to the championship game to maintain its traditional rivalries, even that one year. For now, we can only hope.