Written by In The Bleachers
| 17 November 2008
It's that time of the year again...no not the Christmas Holiday season just yet, but it is time where bickering about the BCS starts to reach its peak, and clamoring for a playoff begins. My cousin
Sam Matta is a writer for the Standard Speaker in Hazelton, Pennsylvania and he emailed me a playoff scenario of 16 teams which would start on Thanksgiving.
I will provide you with a “near flawless” playoff that should please (appease) all: Or most anyway? First off we use the BCS. I don’t like it, but we need some criteria for argument sake. Now we take the top 16 teams from the rankings I’m using the current weeks. It will take an opening round of eight games to start the playoffs; it begins Thanksgiving Weekend. All top seeds host the first round games. That’s the bonus for finishing in the Top 8.
We will
preserve the bowl games, as well, as you will see moving down through the playoff system. By the way we will call it
MATTA’S DATA PLAYOFF . Two games are played Thanksgiving Day, one at 5 p.m. the other at 8 p.m. Four teams will have played in this opening game.
The next day, Friday we play three games; 2, 5 and 8 p.m. six more teams have played in this opening round. Saturday, we start it again at 2, 5 and 8 p.m. and the final six teams have played its opening round of games.
1. Alabama plays host to 16. TCU
2. Texas Tech hosts 15. Michigan State
3. Texas hosts 14. BYU
4. Florida hosts 13. Missouri
5. Oklahoma hosts 12. Oklahoma State
6. USC hosts 11. Georgia
7. Utah hosts 10. Ohio State
8. Penn State hosts 9. Boise State
Now after the first round of play ALL LOSERS will be matched up at a Bowl Game somewhere. Round Two will take place December 13; it’s a two-week break, and most colleges are about to go on break. Now let’s say that the top seeds continue to win. We will try and geographically have the teams play close to one and other at neutral sites.
Round two:
Alabama advances to play Penn State somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic
Texas Tech advances to play Utah somewhere in the Mid-West
Texas advances to play USC somewhere in the Mid-West
Florida advances to play Oklahoma somewhere in the South or Mid-West
Now all the losers will get bowl invitations. The winners are now down to all of four teams. They advance to play Saturday, January 3. Keep in mind that no time has been lost from class by this game. And the losers are out after the January 3 game. It’s their bowl game(s).
The Final 2 will then play for the National Championship, January 10 a week later. Bowl games are kept as they are today. Fans don’t have to spend a horde of money flying all over the place – in most cases. And a true champion is crowned on the field.
The TV money would be enormous; and every single team to be eligible for the playoffs MUST be in a conference. That means Notre Dame must find a conference to play in, because they have an advantage of an easy schedule; ie. Army, Navy and don’t have the week-in and-out pressure of playing in a league.
Let’s go have a true playoff………. ON THE FIELD!!!
