The Rest of College Football

[Jamie H]

I don't know why anyone WANTS to forestall a full playoff. I only put forward the 8-team model using the existing BcS bowls because it causes the least pain to anyone who doesn't want to change the system (only adding 2 games), yet gives playoff proponents about 90% of what they want.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I don't want a playoff. I like bowls. I don't have any need to crown a tournament champion in football and I don't need to do it at the expense of kids.

(in addition, it provides an uncomfortably repeating scenario where the best teams get anti practice 20% more than anyone else and therefore get 20% better year over year.)

[iam416]

Talent's top 4 ranked conference champions is a really good one, only would work if the SEC, Pac 12 and B12 can guarantee they can keep their Rose/Sugar Bowls.

That's a dream scenario: Rose Bowl winner vs. something else winner. I'll keep dreaming.

It's most likely a "top 4" +1 scenario. I would still insist on conference champs. In that case, Boise would have qualified had they beat TCU.

And when it comes to the SEC, e.g., I think "rematches" ought to be handled in the CCG. If the SEC says that UAT-LSU can't have a rematch for the f'n conference title, then why in god's green earth should we have to eat one? They split it up E/W (not top 2), so F UAT...they lost. If they want to shift to top 2 to ensure UAT or a team like UAT another shot, so be it. But that's on them. It's up to them to figure out which team they want to send to the "pool" for tourney consideration. Same with every other conference. In a perfect world. Well, at least mine.

[Jamie H]

I don't want a playoff. I like bowls. I don't have any need to crown a tournament champion in football and I don't need to do it at the expense of kids.

(in addition, it provides an uncomfortably repeating scenario where the best teams get anti practice 20% more than anyone else and therefore get 20% better year over year.)

But that's the thing--you could easily do a playoff without changing a single bowl game other than the BcS title game.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I don't like the BCS. I think this need to have a "national champion" is both pathological and a fools errand.

[Jamie H]

Why does it work in every other NCAA sport played at every level then? Why is Division 1-A football the ONLY collegiate sport in the country that can't survive having a season ending tournament to crown a national champion?

[Mackenzie]

What happens if folks make air travel arrangements in that scenario and then their team loses?

Buy travel insurance with a cancel for any reason option. Costs a few bucks but could save even more.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I don't know that it does work. I do know there is much less attention and much less money for all involved.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Why does it work in every other NCAA sport played at every level then? Why is Division 1-A football the ONLY collegiate sport in the country that can't survive having a season ending tournament to crown a national champion?

Exactly. Why can players at Grand Valley State and Mount Union somehow manage playoffs and exams at the same time but 1-A players can't?

Why do college basketball, baseball, hockey, lacrosse, and soccer all hold fool's errand tournaments?

[SeattleLionsFan]

Those are different for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a lack of attention.

Wrt basketball it is different because it's easier to play enough games to make the tourney big enough. But in actuality all it establishes is who won a tourney. Not who was the best team on the year.

[Jamie H]

What the hell DOES establish who was the "best team" on the year? Unless everyone plays exactly the same schedule, there is no way to directly compare teams outside of having them play each other in a tournament.

What, you prefer to have a bunch of idiots VOTE on who is the best team? Because outside of a tournament that is what you get.

Tournaments or playoffs are the world standard in pretty much every sport, and at EVERY other level of football in the USA except for Div 1-A football. NFL, all other college football, high school football, Arena football, hell even CANADIAN football all determine champions with a end-of-season playoff. Don't try to tell me Div 1-A football is somehow the only type of football this can't work for.

[UMStan White]

"hell even CANADIAN football all determine champions with a end-of-season playoff."

Boy you would think that if CANADIANS can figure out how to run a football playoff system, good old Yankee ingenuity would be able to come up with a working plan!

[UMStan White]

"If the SEC says that UAT-LSU can't have a rematch for the f'n conference title, then why in god's green earth should we have to eat one? "

My sentiments exactly!

[iam416]

Tournaments don't determine the best team; they determine a tournament winner. Frankly, the current system does as well at determining the best team, and maybe even better. The lack if access, though, is unsatisfying for some.

Personally, I like +1 as I described. 16 team tourney, not so much.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Upsets can and often occur but I think most people prefer to see eliminations for the title of "best team" occur on the field rather than in the mind of Dennis Dodd, AP voter. I wouldn't at all necessarily say that polls do a better job of proving, definitively, who the "best team" is.

Looking for the "best team" is really something like looking for the white whale. I don't think any sport can ever conclusively, 100%, say who is the best team unless everyone has played everyone else, at least more than once, and in some cases a lengthy series. College football will obviously never fulfill those.

You can, however, with 100% certainty say who your tournament winner is and crown them the champion.