Death to the BCS: Mattare Converts

It's time for installment three of our Death to the BCS review series. I won't lie, I've never been in support of a playoff simply because I've been against anything that would diminish the intensity of the greatest regular season in any sport. Every single week is like a playoff as the season rolls on and I love the do-or-die feel to each game.

(Allow me to get into Stephen A. Smith Mode for a moment)

HOW-EVAHHH, I would be completely on-board with this for a couple reasons due to a shift in thinking due mainly to how Wetzel presents his argument. I love the non-conference games and how much they mean even though it's early in the season (PSU-Bama, OSU-Texas, USC-OSU, etc). A playoff would avoid those types of games at all costs because teams wouldn't want to risk an early loss that would put them behind the 8-ball in an at-large situation...

BUT, Wetzel does a really good job of painting the picture of Oklahoma going to Autzen, Florida heading to Happy Valley, etc. Essentially we'd be flipping when those non-conference games would happen from September to December. I'd be all for this--in fact it would be indescribably awesome to see the SEC schools squirm in the cold. The Gators coming to South Bend in December!?!?!? Someone get me a change of pants.

My concerns would still be:

1. How much would teams water down their OOC schedules? I mean you want to talk about playing the Little Sisters of the Poor. A way to fix this is eliminate the option of schedule I-AA schools and cap the number of home games you can play at 7. I don't see either happening.

2. This would make scheduling for Notre Dame very, VERY difficult. The way the current system is set up Notre Dame will always be able to find opponents easily as long as we're reasonable with our tradeoffs (ex: being willing to play a home game at the opposing team's home stadium as opposed to a neutral site). Who the hell is going to want to schedule ND OOC in this playoff situation if the Irish are good? The Akrons, Ohios, and New Mexico State's of the world are going to have their doors blown off by requests to play. Notre Dame will still be a guaranteed sellout for whatever school we play, but the appeal will definitely be curtailed a bit I would think. I hope I'm wrong.

3. Rematches. I loathe them in college football, I think they're terrible. In this situation there's a chance teams could play THREE TIMES!!!!! If this would actually to come to fruition in this specific format there'd need to be some sort of finagling like there is in the NCAA basketball tournament to avoid two teams from the same conference being in the same pod (in the NCAA's no two teams from a conference can ever meet before the Sweet 16). In the bracket they have laid out Arkansas and Auburn could play in round two. I don't like that. I'm not sure how to fix it exactly, but it'd need to be somehow.

4. This isn't so much a concern as it is an acknowledgement of reality: there's no chance in hell that this would be how it was implemented. The cynical reason is it makes to much sense, the real reason is that the bowl lobby and the so-called "cartel" as Wetzel describes them in his book are incredibly powerful--like tobacco lobby in the 80's powerful.

All in all it's a fascinating argument and I think far and away the most well-articulated and well-thought out proposal I've ever seen. I would get behind this if it were the route they chose. Unfortunately I think you're much more likely to see the stupid "Plus One" implemented than this.

Death to the BCS: Hinkle's Take

Today Hinkle gives his two cents on the Dan Wetzel's playoff proposal detailed in the book Death to the BCS.

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I think that Dan Wetzel is on to something with his proposed playoff system. I love the idea of all conferences being represented, but I feel there needs to be certain rules in place to make it fair to the big conferences. The first thing that would need to happen is the following.

In order to have your conference represented automatically, the conference champion must meet either of the following criteria.

A. They have had a 10 win season

OR

B. They have 2 losses or less

One of those need to be met in order to qualify. This way, no conference can feel they were shafted such as the MAC, WAC, C-USA, or Sun Belt. If your conference feels it has a shot top play with the "Big Boys", then they need to show something to get into this elite field of 16. In the proposed format, there is now way UConn, Florida International, or Miami (OH) deserve to be in this field. Here is my problem with automatic bids for all conference. Suppose Nebraska, South Carolina, and Florida State all won in their respective conference championships. That would have left the following teams for 5 spots.

BCS RANK

1. Auburn

4. Stanford

6. Ohio State

7. Oklahoma

8.Arkansas

9. Michigan State

10. Boise State

11. LSU

13. Virginia Tech

Now I understand that it is simple, win your conference and you are in, but look at these teams we would have to choose from! This would be a worst case scenario for the proposed playoff format. So instead, I would say you have an automatic bid for all conference champions with 10+ wins or 2- losses. I would then use the current BCS formula to determine the remaining at-large bids for the remaining 5 teams. Seedings would be given in order of BCS rankings to Conference champions first. After all conference champions meeting the criteria are seeded, the remaining teams would be seeded according to their BCS rankings. Indy teams ranked in the top 15 would get the same love as a conference champion. Outside if the top 15 they would have to go through the same process as the rest. With that being said, here would be the seeds for this years playoff according to what I would do.

1. Auburn

2. Oregon

3. TCU

4. Wisconsin (Higher BCS Ranking than OSU and MSU)

5. Oklahoma

6. Boise State (Higher BCS ranking than Nevada and Hawaii)

7. Virginia Tech

8. Central Florida

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Big East, Sunbelt, MAC forfeit automatic seeds so now the following 8 slots are filled with the next 8 highest BCS teams

9. Stanford

10. Ohio State

11. Arkansas

12. Michigan State

13. LSU

14. Missouri

15. Oklahoma State

16. Nevada

With this formula, Alabama would be the 1st team out and Texas A&M would be the 2nd team. There could be no complaining from these two schools because they simply failed to get it done. Alabama had 3 losses. One was blowing a 24 point lead vs Auburn and 1 was not being able to stop LSU on 4th down. Throw in South Carolina loss and they failed to win one more game. Look yourself in the mirror and head to a different bowl game.

Texas A&M has 3 losses. All 3 of those losses came to teams in their conference that will make the field of 16 this year. Again, look yourself in the mirror because you do not belong.

All games would be played at the higher seeds field except for the "Final Four" and National Championship. The BCS Bowls could rotate the "Final Four" games to keep their name and profit in it. Therefore, say on odd number years there would be the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl and even years the Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.

I think this system is fair to all deserving automatic bids because it gives the top 8 a home game. Teams that play weaker schedule such as a Boise or maybe an LSU one year by scheduling four cupcakes to be certain of wins would then face the risk of winning a conference but not getting an automatic home game for the first round. This is the risk you would take with who you schedule and give the "power" conferences an upper hand a they should have because of who they play week in and week out.

As far as the other bowl eligible teams, they can play in the other bowls that still exist now. Some of the lesser or newer bowls can go by the wasteland for all anyone cares. Who would cry if the Humanitarian Bowl left...or the Papa Johns Bowl. All people would care about it the 16 team field. Money could be made for all schools involved, TV ratings would soar because of the importance of all games, people would sellout stadiums. I won't go into the economics and BCS Presidents and all that because this is getting long enough and people only care about the format proposed. Pick it apart....what do you guys think? Lord of the Shots, I'M LOOKING AT YOU.

Death to the BCS: WNG Weighs In

Year in and year out analysts, coaches, and fans alike debate whether or not college football needs to junk the current bowl system in favor of a playoff format. Most arguments and proposals are overly simplistic and ignore certain intricacies unique to college football. Perhaps the biggest hurdle to getting everyone on-board with a playoff has been the fact that most scenarios do not find a way to preserve the intensity of what is without a doubt the most riveting and exciting regular season in sports.

Last fall Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports released a book called Death to the BCS that provided the most in-depth and detailed analysis I've ever seen as to why the bowl system needs to be junked and a playoff adopted. He published this article a couple weeks ago that essentially adapted this season's results into his playoff proposal. It's a worthwhile read (as is the book...though if you want the CliffNotes they're right here).

I forwarded the article and the CliffNotes to guys who contribute to WNG and asked for their input and opinions on Wetzel's proposal and where they stand on the issue in general. The next couple days I'll post them one-by-one leading up to Christmas. Today Mikey weighs in, tomorrow Hinkle, and I'll put my thoughts up on Wednesday.

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Death to the BCS? Mikey's On Board

It's obvious that the best thing for college football and its fans is a playoff system, most have been screaming for it since Day 1 of the BCS. The good news for them is that the proposal laid out by Wetzel and Co. is a very viable option and seems to be gaining popularity.

Every team in the country would have a legitimate shot at the national championship and that's all anyone is really asking for. The idea of including all conference champions and then selecting some wild cards is a great one. I thought if a playoff was to be formed it would simply be about 4 or 8 teams chosen by a BCS-like points system. Wetzel's plan is formed more like college basketball's postseason though, aiming for more inclusion than exclusion. I'm very much in favor of anything that tries to imitate the greatest postseason tournament that's currently in place.

This change could mean the end of the bowl system (sorry Beef O' Brady), but certain bowls will still remain even with the playoff system in place. The Rose Bowl and other significant bowls in major cities/markets will certainly survive as many other teams will still be a part of the college football postseason.

The regular season will be just as exciting as well. Teams play their whole season to try and land in 1 of the 2 championship spots at the end of the year, so people look at the whole season essentially as a playoff. Teams go through this regular season playoff undefeated, though, and still don't get a chance at a championship spot. How is it even remotely fair that some college football squads are dropped in a maze and all they have to look forward to is a dead end?

The regular season would be more fair and still have the feel of a playoff as teams try to grab their conference title or one of the wild card spots. It seems it would be better if there were more relevant games on the last week of the season other than having to watch Auburn smack South Carolina and trying to care about it.

The money debate is a non-issue because time and time again the playoff system is shown to be more profitable as well for conferences and schools when compared to the BCS. In the current system the revenues from bowls aren't exactly trickling down as they should to benefit universities so the financial system is in need of an overhaul anyway, isn't it?

Even though I can't find any I'm sure there are some flaws with the playoff system, but compared to the BCS it would be complete perfection. I'm going to stop rooting for the revival of Xavier football if they don't do this in the next few years.