Undefeated Thoughts

[Wook]

If Tulsa, Ball St. and Boise St. all finish the regular season undefeated, and they all look pretty good to get there, that's going to start up the playoff talk. If they then win all their bowl games that's going to put it into full swing.

I want a real playoff in football where:

The top 8 teams get in.
Any undefeated teams get in.
Round it out to 16 teams.

So I'm hoping some version of this happens.

[Brother Brian]

Even if there were 8 teams, there would be controversy, because at least one of those teams will be left out.

Strength of schedule matters.

[Wook]

L2 read. Top 8 + All undefeated teams. Given the current system strength of schedule is based upon so many assumptions as to be useless. (Never minding that the current system actually discourages sportsmanship.) Ohio State would be a good example.

[Kalzazz]

Make it like college basketball, 64 teams

[Wook]

Make it like college basketball, 64 teams

That's a 7 *week* playoff process Kalzazz. You'd have every team involved spending an extra 2 months playing ball. While I would *love* to see that happen one of the main roadblocks right now to a playoff system are college presidents saying they don't want their athletes spending that much time on sports. (Which is dumb to a certain extent but it would gain a lot of validity under that kind of system.)

I would love to see a solid 16 team bracket every year. Put the top 8 in, any undefeated teams, and then fill it out with at large seeds. 99.99% of all national championship controversies for the last 50 years go *poof* in the first year of such a system.

[Kalzazz]

What? The colleges should love the extra revenue

What kind of warped individuals are college presidents?

[Brother Brian]

The problem is your Tulsa's, Ball States, etc, are not at the same level as the big schools.

Yes, there will be occasional upsets, and everyone will proclaim how the outlier proves something other than the fact that outliers exist. At least until the next round, where the universe reclaims it's equalibrium and LSU puts a beat down on them.

For what it's worth, I don't disagree that a playoff is needed. I don't think you'll ever get a 16 team playoff though. 8 is more likely. I'd do it like this:

Champions of the top 5 conferences get in. These conferences will be determined by comparison of their records against the other conferences. This year it would be:

ACC
SEC
Big 12
Big 10
PAC-10

There would be 3 "at large" bids covering the last few independants, and 2nd place teams.

The "January 1" bowl games will alternate years as being the National Championship game. The preliminary rounds will be played at the home field of the team with the better winning percentage. (A tie break system would be created.) The minor bowl games would continue as they currently do, allowing lesser teams to still have a post season. The remaining January 1 games not getting the NC game, would get "consolation games" from the tourny.

[Wook]

I didn't say schedule strength was worthless as a measure BB. But the current concept of "schedule strength" is based upon some seriously bad assumptions about which divisions are "major" divisions. 16 teams is the ideal number for a playoff because it's a 4 week playoff regimine which means you can play the first 3 weeks of december, take a week off for the holidays, and then have the national championship on new years day. it's also a large enough number that you can make sure all the teams that seem to have merit get a crack at it. An 8 team playoff is just going to generate a different set of controversies. At 16 all of the "Major" conference teams get in, any undefeated teams from weaker conferences can get in, and you have room for at large bids for other teams from major conferences that seem to have merit as well.

[Brother Brian]

I didn't say schedule strength was worthless as a measure BB. But the current concept of "schedule strength" is based upon some seriously bad assumptions about which divisions are "major" divisions. 16 teams is the ideal number for a playoff because it's a 4 week playoff regimine which means you can play the first 3 weeks of december, take a week off for the holidays, and then have the national championship on new years day. it's also a large enough number that you can make sure all the teams that seem to have merit get a crack at it. An 8 team playoff is just going to generate a different set of controversies. At 16 all of the "Major" conference teams get in, any undefeated teams from weaker conferences can get in, and you have room for at large bids for other teams from major conferences that seem to have merit as well.

At 16 teams, any bowl other than the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta get's hosed, which is why they don't want any playoff at all.

By limiting it to 8 teams, with guaranteed seating in the other 3 major bowls for the top 8 teams, all the other bowls pretty much get a crack at decent teams.

Also, realize that at this point, you're looking at a 16 or 17 game season for your champ, plus exams in December.

[Wook]

At 16 teams, any bowl other than the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta get's hosed, which is why they don't want any playoff at all.

By limiting it to 8 teams, with guaranteed seating in the other 3 major bowls for the top 8 teams, all the other bowls pretty much get a crack at decent teams.

Also, realize that at this point, you're looking at a 16 or 17 game season for your champ, plus exams in December.

Not really. The big bowls rotate through the later brackets and take yearly turns at being the championship, semi finals, quarter finals, with the minor bowl games getting the 1st round games. You're 4 major bowls take turns through the order and all get a good shot at having marquee matchups at every level.

And it would totally require an adjustment to how and when the games are scheduled. Personally I would love to standardize the number of regular season games at 11, trimming out some of the patse cake games schools schedule, and have a 15 week season. (And frankly it's only 2 schools that would go that long with only 16 having more than the 11+playoff. That's pretty damn tolerable.) Everyone else would play their 11 and a minor bowl game if they qualified. And even then as long as you defined the regular season window fairly well and set the playoff window at a week or two more than the 4 needed.

It's totally workable if the NCAA could grow a pair and make it happen.