BCS apologist Bill Hancock was asked to name a legitimate downside of a playoff system during an interview with radio station The Fan in Cleveland.
“Well the contention over No. 4 or No. 5 to me will always be a downside just the contention in the NCAA tournament between 60 and however many they have now and 68 and 69 [teams],” Hancock said. “You also have to think about can fans travel to a quarterfinal in Miami one week, a semifinal in Pasadena the next week and back to Phoenix for a final next week.”
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Host the first games at the home stadium of the highest ranked team
Monopoly…..exactly. First round mid December. Semis in the bowls on NewYears, and final a week or 2 later.
My only caveats are that conference champs are in regardless of ranking, and wild cards can’t host a game. This way the conference games are critical and mean something. Otherwise you might as well be an independent.
I don’t like the way it is but I don’t want a playoff. I want to go back to the way it was.
Nobody finished undefeated. The only one-loss champion from a power conference to win its bowl game was Oklahoma State. Alabama was better than LSU but LSU won the SEC South and the SEC. Oklahoma State, not Alabama, should have played LSU in the BCS NCG. (Actually, Oklahoma State should have played Alabama in the Orange Bowl, and Louisiana State should have played Stanford in the Sugar Bowl!) I don’t ever want to see a rematch like we saw this year again unless the NCAA FBS establishes a 16-team playoff. It makes my head hurt.
But I don’t ever want to see a playoff since that reduces the importance of the regular season. In essence, the major college football season we have is a double-elimination event and I want to keep it that way. Otherwise, I’d watch the NFL.
I want the Pac-12, the Big Ten, and the Rose Bowl to withdraw from the BCS. That would break it. Then I want the SEC to guarantee its champion will play in the Sugar Bowl, the Big XII to guarantee its champion will play in the Cotton Bowl, and the ACC to guarantee it’s champion will play in the Orange Bowl. Other than that, there should be open bidding.
NJ Trojan:
Your words are to my ears like a supermodels cleavage is to my eyes.
Everyone is arguing about the current BCS system, vs a 4-team playoff, vs an “and one”, but none of these will be foolproof year after year. The arguments now are even more loud and annoying as the period before the BCS. As a Trojan I can be pissed about voting in 1978 and Auburn fans the same about 2004 (schedule some OOC strength and I’ll begrudge you), but what is wrong with a shared national crown once every 7-8 years? More bowls used to matter. (And therefore more intriguing to watch.) A team ranked 3rd or 4th going into the bowls might actually be the eventual champ if they take care of business and No. 1 and 2 stumble.
I love your idea of maintaining traditional bowl tie-ins to conference champions, but I would mandate that bowls not be able to offer to teams until the absolute end of the season.
Unfortunately, TV dollars will drive much of this, unless the college presidents make their weight felt. I foresee an extension of the bowl season, the shriveling of importance and prestige of the exhibitions that is the current bowls, and multiple round playoffs stretching into January, played either (unfairly) in front of one team’s home crowd, or in a poorly-attended neutral site. Larry Scott is angling for them to have the playoffs in China I hear.
Bill Hancock is an idiot. A 4 team playoff is not going to have a quarterfinal. If you’re that stupid, you shouldn’t be given a platform to speak.
The idiots are the people who think it’s a good idea to have playoff games in places like Happy Valley, Boulder, Madison or Ann Arbor in mid December. There’s a reason why college football used to start in September and end before Thanksgiving and the bowls were played in warm weather sites. NJ is right as usual.
How about a neutral field such as Cowboy Stadium for the first round of games – two on Saturday and two on Sunday, all the week before the major bowl games? Weather no issue, logistics could be coordinated with the Cowboys as to NFL scheduling.
My concern regarding NJ’s idea is that using this past season as an example, the ACC and Big Least were dreadful, yet made the BCS with no real justifiable logic, other than the BCS rules, which seem archaic in these times.
Sadly, the old bowl system disappeared the day they sold naming rights to corporate sponsors. The BCS are but the tip of the “Kraft Fight Boredom Bowl” iceberg.
A plus one is better than what we have now. A 16 team tournament, chosen by BCS rankings and conference politics, would ruin the sport.
An 8 team tournament, chosen by the AP voters, would be the best playoff, with everyone else in lesser bowls. Even better, after the initial round, have the AP voters choose #1 and #2 for a championship game and finish it that way. The coach’s polls and computer rankings are a joke. Keep the AP voters stocked with some weird views, even like Scott’s, and let those voters fight it out.