Playoffs? PLAYOFFS!?!?

The BCS Standings came out and a little better picture was painted with just one week to go. Ohio State actually placed 4th in the computer polls and gained some ground (.0087 on Va Tech and .0015 on LSU) on the two teams it would like to catch.

And get this! If USC, Texas, Virginia Tech, and LSU all lose (insert evil laugh here) then the Buckeyes could potentially get a rematch with Penn State for the National Title. Of course, that has about as much chance of happening as me successfully seducing all of my top five. For those that are curious, here are the top five as they currently stand (subject to change within the nanosecond):

1. Elisha Cuthbert - even though she's a silly Canadian, she has been in the top spot for several months now. Hot blonde, loves sports, actually seemed attainable despite playing the role of a porn star in the movie The Girl Next Door.

2. Rachel Bilson - I had never even seen a single episode of The OC until about a month ago, but then I saw this chick and I have been hooked ever since. Her character is slightly insane, but aren't all women?

3. Kate Bosworth - From Blue Crush and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. Absolutely love this girl.

4. Heather Mitts - gained points after doing sideline commentary for TBS during a recent college football game. Role player for the US Women's Soccer Team which is a plus, but she loses some street cred for dating A.J. Feeley. Still, quite adorable, fits into the proper height range (no taller than 5'6") and originally hails from Ohio.

5. Sophia Bush - from the WB show, One Tree Hill. Making her first appearance in the top five...I just think she has an amazing body and a great smile.


And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

So here's the thing: according to Bowl Championship Series rules, if a team from one of the BCS conferences (Big Ten, Big XII, ACC, SEC, Pac-10, and Big East) doesn't earn it's conference's automatic bid but still finishes in the top 4 of the BCS rankings, then it will automatically receive an at large bid to one of the games. We're probably in anyways, but it'd be nice to have Va Tech and LSU lose to guarantee it.

I'll only add a short paragraph here on how the Big East doesn't really deserve to be considered a BCS conference right now because, well, we're stuck with them. Two points. First, it's written into the contract that they are part of the formula until 2008 (I believe) so there's no way out of it now. Second, everyone agrees that they are a joke so there is nobody to argue with about it. How ridiculous would it have been if South Florida received an automatic bid? Honestly. Great for them, but how would like to be Notre Dame or Ohio State and have to play these jokers? I don't know if I would be able to take the game seriously.

Thankfully the Big East crisis solved itself and as long as both teams hold serve, USC will play Texas for the National Championship, but I still feel it's time to drastically overhaul the entire Division 1 postseason. Although there isn't a single person alive that disagrees with me on this, save for maybe the NC double-Assholes, there is much disagreement on how it should be reworked.

We seem to be split into two camps; the current bowl system (with some tweaking) or a playoff system. The presidents of the universities claim that a playoff system would be "detrimental to the education of the student-athlete." Adding weeks to the season, they say, would keep football players out of class longer. However, these are the same presidents who recently agreed to an increase from 11 to 12 regular season games and also allow it’s basketball programs to take week-long road trips to Hawaii for preseason tournaments. I'm calling bullshit here.

I actually somewhat enjoy the opinion of Ohio State's own Kirk Herbstreit. He likes the idea of a "plus one" where we keep the current BCS system, tweak the formula (again) and just simply add another game if there are still two undefeated teams at the end. While this may have solved the problem in some recent years, it wouldn't have last year. After all of the bowl games had been played, there were still an unprecedented FOUR teams with unbeaten records (USC, Auburn, Utah, Boise State.) What do you do then Kirk?

Granted, some of this could have been cleaned up had they allowed Utah to play Auburn in a BCS bowl. Then there would have been two (USC and Boise State.) I say that because I have no doubt that nobody was beating the Trojans last year. However, does that mean that Auburn or Utah shouldn't have gotten a chance to try? The Tigers went unbeaten in the SEC for Pete's Sake!

So, here is my totally far-fetched, yet completely feasible solution (as always, bare with my insanity):

Much like NCAA Basketball, they should form an actual BCS committee. This panel will be made up of experts who are paid to watch football and analyze it for a living. People like Mel Kiper, Jr., Kirk Herbstreit, and Keith Jackson as well as former coaches like Lou Holtz (even though he's a cheater and totally senile at this point) and John Cooper. I also think Ron Jaworski should get involved in the college game, his analysis is tops amung the pro football community. This committee would seed who it feels are the eight teams most deserving of a shot at the National Championship.

Please note: this is not the teams ranked 1-8. It's not the champions of the six BCS conferences plus two at large teams. They would determine the teams and seeds based on strength of schedule, margin of victory, computer rankings, human poll rankings, etc. Basically, anything they can find that might be of use.

I would also include a provision that teams could not meet in the first round if they played against each other in the regular season. This would create new match-ups and exciting games. It would also be completely independent of any bowl games. They would be played in mid-December, around the 15th of the month, and all on the same day. The timing would give teams at least two weeks to prepare and still allow a break for the holidays before returning to prepare for the next round on January 1st.

Just try to imagine these match-ups people; this would create such a great atmosphere in the middle of December when the college football world is basically non-existant. Instead of watching crappy bowl games between 6-5 NC State and 7-4 Michigan, we'd get the USC-Auburn game that we weren’t given in 2004. Try and tell me that the Tigers wouldn’t be fired up for that game. Or in 2004, how about a potential home game for Utah against Texas? Crazy. The first round might look something like this:

2005
1-USC V. 8-Auburn
2-Texas V. 7-Notre Dame
3-Penn State V. 6-LSU
4-Virginia Tech V. 5-Ohio State

2004
1-USC V. 8-Boise State
2-Oklahoma V. 7-Louisville
3-Auburn V. 6-California
4-Utah V. 5-Texas

This would be a logistical nightmare, but if a team was good enough during the regular season to go undefeated and it was one of the top four seeded teams, then they would be allowed to play their first round game at home. If not, such as Penn State and Virginia Tech this year, the game would be played at a regional site near their home. (i.e. PSU would probably try to play at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Va Tech could play at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.)

Following the first round, teams would be re-seeded much like the NHL Playoffs used to be when it still existed. (I'm aware it's back, but as my St. Louis Blues are horrendous, I'm pretending that the lock-out is still on.) The winner of 1-8 wouldn't necessarily play the winner of 4-5 as in a normal bracket. Instead, and this is totally hypothetical, the second round could look like this:

1-Texas
4-Auburn

2-Ohio State
3-LSU

It is during this round that teams would play on New Year's Day in the various BCS bowls. The four bowls (Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar) would maintain a rotation where two would get the big games every year. The other two would then get to choose between the losers of the first round games and any remaining teams that didn't make the committee's top eight. This could create a match-up where we would get to see Notre Dame-Miami (FL) or USC-Penn State. I realize this could be chaotic because the bowls like to know almost a full month in advance who they are getting so it's easier to promote. I'm sure the NCAA could force them to adjust though, just as they did when the whole BCmesS came into existence in the first place.

The final game would then be played about a week after the semi-finals at a neutral site. Personally, I would like to see them build a 100,000-seat stadium in Las Vegas that could host this game every year (and the occasional Super Bowl.)

This seems to me to be the fairest way to create a true national champion in college football. It would allow the little guys like Utah and Boise State from 2004 to have a chance much like Gonzaga does in March Madness every year. It would create a situation where we couldn't possibly have more than one undefeated team.

This is my vision. When I am voted the commissioner of sports someday, this vision will be realized.