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OK, I was going to save this until after the conference championship games in 2 weeks, but what the hell. I could use some good sports chatter about now.

I have long been a proponent of a playoff system for Div. 1A (errr FBS, sorry) college football. I have long thought an 8 team playoff, utilizing the conference champions and 2 at-large teams would work just fine. My answer to those teams 9-16 that cried foul was….SHUT UP you are teams 9-16, NOT good enough. By the way I still think that.

However, this year has me re-thinking the conference champion tie-in to the 8 team playoff. Let me set this “dream” scenario for you and the BCS folks. OK State beats OU on Sat. night, Oregon St. beats Oregon Saturday, and FSU beats UF (never, but dumber things have happened). Think about that for a minute. Texas Tech then goes to the Big 12 Champ. Game after having their jocks handed to them last Sat. night (wait, yes, OU just scored AGAIN!). So if they win, they get a ticket to the BCS champ. game? In my scenario, UF losing, then beating Alabama takes the winner of the SEC out. And Oregon St. winning means they go to the Rose Bowl and USC is 2nd place in a weak Pac-10 and they get to play for the crystal?? WTF? Same for Texas, they get 3rd place in the Big 12 (remember that the loser of the champ. game gets 2nd!) and they get a spot in Miami? WTF?

For me, this is turning into an incredible season, if only because I hope the BCS blows up into a million little pieces. I didn’t even get into the scenario for OU beating OK State! You are telling me there are people voting OU ahead of Texas?! After Texas beat them by 10 pts., ON A NEUTRAL FIELD, no less, sorry I can’t buy that.

Now the BCS might get lucky and both Alabama and UF win this weekend, with the winner of the SEC game playing for the title. UF has been drilling people lately, BUT is their 1 loss resume THAT much better than USC’s? Don’t even try to convince me that it is better than Texas’. A bad home loss to Ole Miss can’t compare to a road loss to a then unbeaten Texas Tech team on the last play of the game. A game, by the way, that was the last in a 4 game stretch where UT played 4 consecutive teams in the top 8.

Lastly, there has been some momentum for some sort of “Plus 1” system the past year or so. Let me set this up for the “Plus 1” proponents. Alabama wins out and is the only undefeated team from a BCS conference. (Sorry Utah and Boise St., play better competition) Is Alabama supposed to win their Bowl game, remaining the only unbeaten team, then be forced to win ANOTHER game against another once or even twice beaten opponent. Again, WTF?

My solution is to have a selection committee, much like for basketball, and pick the top 8 teams after the conference champ. games. They play the next week (2nd weekend of Dec.), then play on New Year’s Day for the National Semifinals. Then play the Championship the week after that.

Before you flame me for schilling for Texas, I have no ties to the Longhorns at all. Just calling it like I see it. Truth be told, I am an FSU alum.

Cry all you want for a playoff, but it ain't happening for a long time, if ever. Certainly not before 2014, when Disney/ESPN's BCS contract and ABC's current Rose Bowl contract expire. The bowl system is too deeply entrenched and the college presidents of the BCS conferences too addicted to the money for a playoff to be adopted. An additional obstacle is the Rose Bowl and the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences. These two conferences are extemely stubborn when it comes to tradition, and to them the Rose Bowl is all that matters. Both of the current commissioners are on record as being against even a "Plus 1" system, i.e. they wouldn't take part in it and would send their respective champions to the Rose Bowl no matter what.

Since we don't have a playoff, we have to deal with the BCS. The simplest solution to the Big 12 South situation is to tell Missouri (the North winner) to sit the phuck down and have Texas face Oklahoma for the conf. title (assuming both win out). You'd then have another "semifinal" game to go along with Florida-Alabama.

Obviously that won't happen, so the scenarios are these:

1) TX, OK and TT all win their last game (TX: A&M, TT: Baylor, OK: OK St.) and finish in a 3-way tie. A Big 12 rule has it that 3-way ties in a division will be decided by highest BCS ranking, NOT herad-to-head matchups. OK should end up above TX due to the victory over OK St. Yes, TX did beat OK but that is essentially ancient history now; 2/3 of the BCS are the two human polls, and humans go by "what have you done for me lately". OK's demolition of then-#2 TT and a road victory over ranked OK St. would push aside that loss to TX. If OK then wins the conf. title game they're in the NC.

2) TX and TT win, OK loses; TX and TT in a 2-way tie, which IS decided by head-to-head, which means TT wins the South and goes to the conf. title game. If they win, they might not go to the NC. They'll have a strong case to be put above TX, despite that demolition by OK (it'll still be their only loss) but would the voters rank them high enough? They actually might not, and TX would go to the NC.

3) TX and OK win, TT loses (improbable, yup), TX and OK in a 2-way tie, TX goes to the conf. title game due to their victory over OK; TX wins that game they go to the NC.

4) Mizzou actually beats whatever South team they face in the title game, which means they go to a BCS bowl but not the NC (they're ranked too low for that). Whover was second in line probably WILL go to the NC game, even though they didn't go to the conf. title game.


What's really needed is some furthur conference reallignment and expansion. Mizzou should be put in the Big Ten (actually 11 teams now, it would be 12, call it the "Big Midwest") so that conf. can have a championship game. OK then should be moved to the Big 12 North, it may not make much geographical sense but it would provide balance to TX in the South and this way TX and OK can face each other in the conf. title game. Bring in TCU to fill the vacated spot in the South. Going furthur, move Utah and BYU to the Pac 10 (or maybe Nevada and UNLV; the Pac 10 loves in-state rivalry pairs) so that conf. can also can have a title game. All this makes as much sense as having a playoff, so of course it isn't going to happen either.

Good stuff Tom. While I am more inclined to agree with you about 2014, the new deal for ESPN DOES allow for all the parties to "be under the same network unbrella". MAYBE ESPN can swing some influence to at least get the parties to talk about it. Not to mention, you have to believe that at least a good percentage of corporate money is going to be drying up starting next bowl season.

Nothing will swing the Pac 10 or Big 10 faster to a playoff, then to have one of their teams to get screwed. USC is already moaning about having to play in the Rose Bowl if Ore. St. loses. Pete Carroll says his team wants a different challenge. Even if you hate Pete, you gotta love him. The guy is honest to a fault, and has the best job in the country.

As for the Big 10 and Missouri, that almost happened last time when they took in Penn St. But look for one other name to surface....NOTRE DAME. The NBC contract is safe whether they 3-8 or 11-0, BUT the Big 10 Network is sucking high t*t. NBC just might be able to package the lot together to sweeten the deal. Just a thought.

I'd like to see ESPN try, but the college presidents hold most if not all of the cards, and they like the bowl system just the way it is. The BCS originally came about because the "Big 6" conferences wanted to create a very big money pie that they could carve up among only themselves, it was NOT to create a system to decide a true national champion or to be fair. Pressure from the non-BCS conferences and elsewhere eventually forced them to create a 5th game and to make it easier to let a non-BCS conference school into the BCS, but still most of the money goes to the Big 6.

Pete Carroll may complain all he wants (and I support him for it) but the Big 10 and Pac 10 college presidents, commissioners and Rose Bowl officials will resist and block anything that would disrupt the traditional Big 10-Pac 10 matchup in the Rose Bowl. The "Plus 1" system was put to a vote earlier this year, it failed, and guess who voted against it? I do know that before the 5th BCS game was added, with the NC rotating among the four BCS bowls, the Rose Bowl officals were pretty pissed off when it was the Rose's turn to host the NC (unless by chance the teams involved were from the B10 and P10). Now that the NC is a separate game the Rose Bowl is happy again, and it always tries to maintain the B10-P10 matchup, even if it loses the B10 or P10 champion. Look at the last Rose Bowl, Ohio St. went to the NC, so the Rose takes...Illinois, the #2 B10 team and who were ranked something like 10th or so, declining higher ranked teams just so they could preserve the B10-P10 matchup. Nothing will change until the current sticks-in-the-mud who are in charge are replaced with more progressive types.

Yeah, the B10 has been chasing Notre Dame for a long time, but ND has no need for the B10. Not until NBC bails on them at least. Mizzou has been suggested as an alternate, and they would be a good choice. They're in the same region, and the state is bordered by Illinois and Iowa.

OU wont go to the NC or Big twelve championship int the event of a three way tie and the answer is simple ..... they take big dumps in the post season...every BCS game they play in the post season they lay an egg in centerfield, the networks and the colleges want more viewers and tickets a sold and interest, OU is just the grand choker.......even though I think they have fielded great teams including this years but I have no interest watching them fall apart in Jan... must be the three weeks off or something. Not a UT big fan....I want USC to go but that isnt going to happen but I really think people do not want to watch OU play for the NC they just are known to implode on game dates after December 26
big game Bob is implode bob in the championship games

Again, agreed on everything Tom. My scenarios are pure fantasy, I realize that. I just want a big mess to make another step closer.

Plus if corporate money continues to dry up, this might be a HUGE sell to the networks. ABC has gotten monster ratings with their games on Sat. night. My guess is we will see half the bowls we have now for next year, further depleting the money pool. I guess we can only hope if they continue to lose slices of the pie, the presidents will look for a new pie!

AND, Obama is on record since the election to show a willingness to "exert some influence" to make a playoff happen! He gets my vote in 4 years if he can. Im kidding, obviously, MAYBE

Surf, nice take on OU, and I agree I don't want to see them again. BUT if they win this week, and then blow out Mizzou in the B12 champ. game, they would have enough to get in I think. Sucks, but reality usually does.

Tstef, chaos can still happen. Weird things can happen with rivalry games, and then you add voter shenanigans to the mix....Remember how Florida got to the NC against Ohio St over Michigan? Yeah, Florida may have been in fact the better team, but it sure looked like the voters deliberately kept Michigan out since few wanted to see an Ohio St-Mich rematch.

This brings up the one way TX can come out of a 3-way tie with TT and OK: if enough voters do remember the TX win over OK and change their votes, ranking TX back above OK. If that happens TX would have the highest BCS ranking despite those big wins by OK and would go to the conf. title game. Expect coaches Mack Brown and Bob Stoops to engage in a lot of politicking at a level that rivals the Democratic primaries.

Everyone seems to be dissatisfied with the BCS. Even President Elect Obama said that he would like to see it reformed and a national college championship game instituted.

The Super Bowl is the most watched sports event usually gaining approximately 70 percent of the TV viewership. It has become the pageant in American culture. The revenue generated by The Game is incredible.

The BCS and the entire national championship selection system could be changed but, as HikerTom noted, first the contracts with ABC, Disney and ESPN, would have to be considered. The only way they would do that is to sweeten the pot. Sweeten the pie for the ABC, Disney and ESPN family and watch it change.

If the Super Bowl is a guide and model, then the potential economic benefit of a college super bowl is very real. Changes could easily be made to the system; contracts could and would be revisited when the principles believe they can improve their financial positions.

The objections will come from the bowl games organizations which would stand to lose money.