College Football Playoff Team Selection
The following is a simple list of the details of our college football playoff proposal. Implementing this system will not require changing anything about the game or how it is played. This is to make the transition into a playoff as seamless as possible.
1. The conference champions of all 11 FBS conferences will qualify for the playoffs. Conferences are still free to determine how their champion is chosen, be it a championship game or some other kind of tie-breaker. This means that there will be at least one representative from each conference and will create a situation in which winning your conference actually means something.
2. The remaining five at-large bids will be given to the five highest ranked teams in the BCS rankings who did not win their conferences. This is how Notre Dame and other independents can qualify for the playoff. There is another critical step here and that is how the BCS rankings are determined. Currently, the Harris Interactive Poll, USA Today Coaches Poll and computer rankings determine the BCS rankings. The Harris Interactive Poll is “a panel of former players, coaches, administrators and current and former media who are committed to ranking the college teams each week” according to their website. The USA Today poll is a poll of 61 current coaches at FBS institutions. To their credit, many coaches come from non-BCS conferences.
The obvious problem here lies in the human bias. With only five at-large bids available being determined by BCS rankings, voters will know which teams have automatic bids to the tournament and simply not vote for them anymore in order to get their team into the playoff. For example, if Florida wins the SEC, and they are undefeated, why would I vote for Florida as an SEC fan? I would vote for the runner up to be No. 1 in my poll in order to move them higher up in the rankings. You can see an obvious problem here.
That’s beside the obvious problem that a coach would have a vested interest in seeing his own team in the playoff and would vote how he needed to in order to make that happen. With that in mind, the USA Today Coaches poll needs to be throw out. The Harris Interactive can stay, and it can be 1/3 of the BCS score. The computer rankings average can be the other 2/3. This change must happen in order for the at-large bids to be awarded fairly.
3. Once all sixteen teams have been determined, the BCS will use their rankings and a committee to seed the teams 1-16. Matchups will then be made with 1-16, 2-15, 3-14, etc. until 8-9. The higher ranked team will host the game on their home field. However, no conference matchups will be allowed to occur in the first round. If two teams are slated to play from the same conference, then the lower ranked team will be dropped one spot so that they do not play. For example, if Florida is No. 6, LSU is No. 11 and Utah is No. 12, then LSU and Utah will switch seeds so that the two SEC teams do not play each other in the first round. It is inconceivable to avoid conference matchups through the whole playoff, so this accommodation will only be made for the first round. A bracket is made just like it would look in a Sweet Sixteen matchup in basketball.
4. Higher ranked teams will host games on their home field for the first two rounds. The first two rounds will take place during the first two weekends of December.
5. The semi-finals, or last two games, will be played on January 1, unless that falls on a Sunday, then December 31. The site of these games will rotate between the current BCS bowls: Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange. If the two games take place on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, then the winners will play in the championship the following Saturday of the next week. If the semi-finals take place on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, then the championship game will be on Monday of the week following next. This gives teams a minimum of 8 days of preparation for the national championship. The site of the title game will also be one of the current BCS bowls. So each year, three of the four BCS bowls will host a playoff game. The one that doesn’t will get the championship game the following year.
6. Teams eliminated in the first two rounds (12 of the 16) will be eligible for traditional bowl games during the last two weeks of December. Now bowl game will be played after December 30. All other bowl games will be played as usual.
This sums it up pretty well. Again, credit to Joe Rozsa for his ideas that contributed to this proposal. I do believe that aside from our timelines, we now have near identical proposals. But hey, that’s how you get the best ideas, by combining the best ones you can find. Well, this is the best playoff proposal in existence right now. It would increase the integrity of the game, the credibility and fairness of the game, and best of all, the revenues generated by the game. College football stands only to gain by implementing this sixteen team playoff.
- Why is a playoff necessary?
- How it works
- Bowl games and timeline
- Share your thoughts on a college football playoff
