The Inferno: You Sure You Want a College Football Playoff?

Skillfully composed by One-Eyed Willy.

Recently I sat down and figured out what I thought was the best formula for a college football playoff. Without going into too much detail, it included 12 teams – the six major conference champions and the next six best teams in the country based on the final BCS standings. The top four teams got byes and there were home games for the first couple of rounds. Sound familiar? Yeah, I basically stole the NFL model for playoffs and massaged it in such a way that it fit for college football. After all, what better format for a playoff to use than the model which is currently used by maybe the most successful sports league in the world?

Plugging the 2008 season into my scenario, the four top seeds that would have received first-round byes would have been the top four conference champs – Oklahoma, Florida, USC, and Penn State. The other teams in would have been the remaining conference champs – Cincinnati and Virginia Tech – and the six best non-conference champs in Texas, Alabama, Utah, Texas Tech, Boise State, and Ohio State.

This type of playoff system works wonderfully given that the favored teams win out and we are left with a who’s who of final four teams in Oklahoma, UF, USC, and, let’s say, Texas for discussion purposes (Sub in Utah for Texas for those of you who mistakenly believe that the Utes are one of the best teams in the country.). But what if that isn’t the case? What if there are upsets along the way and you are left with Cincy, VT, Boise State, and Ohio State in the end? Is anyone going to really care who gets to the BCS Championship Game in this case? Is anyone going to even watch the BCS Championship when the Bearcats take on the Broncos? In other words, what happens if the college football playoff mimics what is currently happening in the NFL playoffs? Two words come to mind…OH CRAP!

Let’s take a look at this year’s NFL playoffs. Besides the Pittsburgh Steelers, does any NFL fan who doesn’t live in Baltimore, Arizona, or Philadelphia really believe the other three teams deserve to be there? Sure, they did what they had to do. They won the first two games of the playoffs and won at least one game on the road – something that is extremely hard to do in the NFL during playoff time. But with that said, if I told you two weeks ago that you could see the New York Giants vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers or maybe the Carolina Panthers vs. the Tennessee Titans wouldn’t you be more interested in seeing that than watching the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals take on the irrelevant Baltimore Ravens? I think most would. And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? They barely even made it into the playoffs (thank you Tampa Bay). And they have a tie for goodness sake. Are you even allowed to make it to the Super Bowl with a tie? The rules committee should think about looking into that one because ties are just weak. Or maybe we could ask Donovan McNabb. I’m sure he knows.

So as I look at what is about to take place this weekend in the conference championships in the NFL, it frightens me that this same thing could be taking place at the Rose Bowl a few years down the road. Let me say this though, I still think the BCS is garbage and should be abolished as soon as possible. But maybe a four-team playoff is all that we really need. Screw the conference champions! Screw the mid-majors! Screw everyone!!! The top four teams get in and that’s it. At least that’s my thought today – check back though tomorrow as it may have changed yet again.

And I almost forgot, no matter what system you use, it is really irrelevant these days because we all know that Florida would win! Go Gators!