Getting Fixed

There's been some buzz about the BC$ lately- Congress has been in "hearings", but the one conference who feels jilted has signed on for another 4 years of the same thing.

So, since it's the offseason, folks have been trying to "fix" the system. Two ideas floating out there recently hold to the need for overhaul and re-alignment:

Option A- Cutting some dead weight and moving to 8 team leagues and a 16 team playoff
Option B- Realigning everything and moving to super conferences (Oohhh!! Maps!)

Again, good to see the creative juices flowing during the "dead period", but the solution to this problem has already been created.

Can't blame them for trying, though...

Playoff Wrap Up

Thoughts from watching the games last night and today...

• Hey, remember when the Big 12 used to play defense? Yeah, me too.
• I wonder how Chase Daniel's family is feeling during his bowl game- Are they there? Oh, that's right.
• Man, what I wouldn't give to have a constant update on the ESPN ticker about Brett Favre's current situation- You mean he's going to think about returning for a while before letting us know? Whatever will I do in the meantime...

And now, let the totally imaginary games that will never happen in real life because money and television are too much of a factor begin!

One glitch has emerged: The NFL is considering moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl (when our hypothetical National Championship Game was to take place). Personally, I don't think this will work out, especially when none of the players from the Super Bowl teams participate. So there's still a chance for our plan.

Here's where we left it:
First Round: January 2-3, 2009

• West Region: Fiesta Bowl (Arizona)- Boise State and U$C
  
• South Region: Sugar Bowl (Louisiana)- Virginia Tech and Florida
  
• Central Region: Cotton Bowl (Dallas)- Texas and Oklahoma
  
• North Region: Bailout Bowl (Detroit)- Cincinnati and Penn State
  

Second round: January 9-10, 2009

• Rose Bowl (Pasadena): West verses Central
  
• Orange Bowl (Miami): North verses South
  

National Championship Game : January 24, 2009

• Indianapolis

As I look at this, there may not be many surprises. Let's go game by game:

NORTH (Bailout Bowl)- Penn State and Cinci would be a great game against two regional teams that don't typically face each other. But it wouldn't get any more interesting than that- Penn State in a blowout.

WEST (Fiesta Bowl)- The darlings of the NCAA against the only true power on the West Coast. Guess who wins? U$C by two touchdowns.

SOUTH (Sugar Bowl)- Florida has to travel to hostile territory in N'Awlin's to face the Hokies. It will be more difficult for Coach Meyer to keep the Gators off of Bourbon Street than it will be to keep Va Tech out of the endzone. Florida wins big.

CENTRAL (Cotton Bowl)- This is where things get interesting. First, it's the rematch of the Red River Shootout, on the same field in Dallas. Second, it would address the "neutral field"/"neutral computer" debate that was all over the place prior to the Big 12 Conference championship. You don't often get a "do over", in life or in college football- but I can guarantee that the tickets and ratings for this game would be insane.

I still believe that Oklahoma wins a close one- they seemed to be playing better at the end of the season, and I think they will have figured out how to stop Texas from running (something that cost them the first match up), but the ramifications are interesting. Mostly because:

SEMIFINAL 1 (Rose Bowl)- U$C versues the "Red River Rematch" winner- and that's the interesting part. As good as the Trojan's defense is, I don't think that they could beat Oklahoma (even in a home game), but I've thought that before. But if Texas happens to beat OU in the first round, I see a U$C victory here (in part because Vince Young has no more elligibility) . I'm not the only person who sees these results as probable.

SEMIFINAL 2 (Orange Bowl)- Florida and Penn State meet in Miami. The Gators win, and Joe Pa can stay in state for his retirement, if he so choses.

FINALS (NC Game- Indianapolis)- Either Oklahoma or U$C versus Florida. Some guys who gamble on things (something I bet I would never do) say that the odds would favor a Trojan victory. In my opinion, OU beats Texas and then U$C, but loses to the Gators.

At least that's the result I've got in my picks league- and we all know how well that is going.

Tomorrow: CC update, with promising news.

Playoffs, continued

Before we get back to our discussion of Jim Mora's favorite topic, here are just a couple of observations:

• Remember me saying that bowls were and are about tourism and money and not sports? I told you so.
• The ESPN ticker statistics like "Oklahoma State has been to 3 consecutive bowl games, after not going to any from 1968 to 1998" or whatever are worthless. Now, there are opportunities for more than 50% of Division 1 teams go to bowls. Then, there were 5 bowls, and we liked it, dadgummit. Although, it does make it a lot funnier if you can't make a bowl and break a long bowl streak.
  
• Watched the Papajohns.com bowl today, and realized three things. First, this is one of those bowls that ESPN owns and televises; Second, it seemed like a good crowd, but it could also be that they moved everyone around for TV purposes; Third, PJ's does not deliver to my house, no mater how often I order online. Jerks.

Now, back to the topic at hand. In our last post, we wrote:

Look, anytime there's any sort of ranking there's going to be some controversy. Think of March Madness- even with 65 teams there are others who feel shunned unfairly. And there are often others who end up in a really easy bracket or a really difficult one. It's a part of the nature of the game- The Patriots only lost one game last year, but it was in the Super Bowl to an allegedly inferior opponent. In football and college basketball, it's not "best of..." series- it's one and done.And you have to draw a line somewhere- my line is that national champions should also be conference champions.

And so it is that in the NFL we have the 8-8 Chargers hosting the 12-4 Colts while the 11-5 Patriots sit at home. Yes, it seems unfair, but the No Fun League's rules also value conference championships, and it seems as if America has accepted those parameters pretty well. You're not going to have anyone from the Office of the President Elect talking about redoing the NFL playoffs, now are you?

Ahem. Where were we? When last we left our intrepid challengers, we had eight worthy adversaries: Florida, Oklahoma, U$C, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Texas, and Boise State.

Remembering one of our other directives, the playoffs have got to involve the current bowls as best as possible (money and tourism, remember?), while working to remove automatic home field advantage for teams in the south and west AND thinking regionally so fans can go and tailgate appropriately. This meant creating two extra bowls (sanctioned by the NCAA), one for the first round and one for the final game.

The location of this final game would rotate between Dallas (new Cowboys stadium- it's not like they're going to have any playoff games there), Indianapolis (Indy is home of the NCAA, which is why the Final Four is there so frequently), and St. Louis (see earlier Cowboy comments). These locations are central to every college fanbase, and as neutral as possible without leaving the country.

Last year's bracket looked like this
Playoff first round: January 1-4, 2008

• West Region: Fiesta Bowl (Arizona)- U$C and Hawaii
  
• South Region: Sugar Bowl (Louisiana)- LSU and Georgia
  
• Central Region: Cotton Bowl (Dallas)- Oklahoma and WVa
  
• North Region: Bratwurst Bowl (Minneapolis)- tOSU and BC

Playoff second round: January 15, 16, 2008

• Rose Bowl (Pasadena)- U$C and WVa
  
• Orange Bowl (Miami)- LSU and tOSU

National Championship Game : January 25, 2008

• Indianapolis- U$C and LSU

Given what we know, here's how 2008-09 would play out:
First Round: January 2-3, 2009

• West Region: Fiesta Bowl (Arizona)- Boise State and U$C
  
• South Region: Sugar Bowl (Louisiana)- Virginia Tech and Florida
  
• Central Region: Cotton Bowl (Dallas)- Texas and Oklahoma (Same conference- required to play each other)
  
• North Region: Bailout Bowl (Detroit)- Cincinnati and Penn State
  

Second round: January 9-10, 2009

• Rose Bowl (Pasadena): West verses Central
  
• Orange Bowl (Miami): North verses South
  

National Championship Game : January 24, 2009 (week between NFL Conference Championships and Super Bowl)

• Indianapolis

Thoughts? All of these would be games that I would want to watch (better than the current BcS).

Tomorrow, I'll talk through the individual matchups and see where we would end.

Playoffs?

A wise man once said- "Anyone can smell a rotten egg; it takes someone special to lay a golden one".

Folks a lot smarter than me have offered their solutions, but even those have flaws- The Old School Plus One would either leave two teams who won their bowl games arguing that they deserved a shot; Brian's plan takes away from conference championships and current bowl tie ins (unrealistic, given the money involved).

Consider this my golden egg. First, a review of the rules:

1. Colleges cannot play more than 11 regular season games (one less than current numbers)
2. First poll is not released until the end of September (after teams have played); Coaches and AP polls abolished for conflict of interest (or if continued, cannot be used in televised commentary)
   
3. 6 wins needed to be bowl eligible, games against non division 1 schools do not count towards total
4. The major 6 conferences will need to adjust their membership to include 12 teams
   
5. Each conference decides their champion by a championship game; how they determine who plays there is up to them
6. This CCG should be considered the first round of the playoffs; a team who loses is eliminated from the postseason tourney, but may still play in one of the many other bowls
   
7. The six conference champions will be matched up into a playoff; number one seeds determined by a ranking formula similar to current BCS (including schedule strength, margin of victory,etc.)
8. The last two spots will be filled by the highest ranked two teams remaining, as long as neither team played for their conference championship . This allows for teams who are in a stronger division within their conference (Big 12 South, SEC East) or are not within a power conference (Boise State, Tulane) to be involved, preventing any ridiculous legal action.
9. No more than two teams from any one conference in the final eight, and teams from the same conference must play in the first round; the final four will consist only of one team per conference
   

So today, we'll start with rules 4 and 5 (since the first three are not really relevant here): Conferences and Champions.

The Big 12, SEC, and ACC are already good, so we need to tweak the PAC 10, the Big T1e1n, and the Big lEast.

To me, the PAC 12 is easy: Add BYU and Utah, and you've got two really good divisions- North (UW/WSU/UofO/toOSU/BYU/Utah) and South (U$C/UCLA/Cal/Stanford/UofA/ASU).

This year, U$C and Utah would square off in Tempe for the championship, with U$C emerging as the PAC 12 champ.

The Big T1e2n gets a bit more complicated: Ntre Ame is the logical addition, but the divisions are more challenging. For the sake of rivalries and splitting up the traditional powers, let's go with this: Corn (tOSU/UM/MSU/Indiana/Purdue/Iowa) and Cheese (Penn State/Notre Dame/Minnesota/Wisconsin/Northwestern/Illinois).

This year, Soldier Field would see Penn State defeat Ohio State for the championship (and yes, it hurt to type that.)

The Big lEast is even more confusing, mostly because I don't care. They need to add four teams to get to 12, so let's raid the mid majors and independants: Army, Navy, East Carolina, and Buffalo, come on down. Here's the divisions- Rivers (WVa/Pitt/Syracuse/Buffalo/UC/UofL) Oceans (South Florida/Army/Navy/UConn/Rutgers/ECU).

At Giants Stadium, West Virginia beats East Carolina for the automatic bid.

Our 6 champions, then: Virginia Tech, Florida, Oklahoma, U$C, Penn State, and West Virginia. So, who else gets in? Last year, it would have been Georgia and Hawaii; 2008 sees Texas and Boise State as at large candidates.

And this is where the controversy begins- Are Texas Tech (one loss, ranked higher), Alabama (ditto), Ohio State (personal favorite), etc. better than Boise State or one of the teams from the ACC/Big lEast? Sure, but they didn't win their conference championship game (rule 6), or had another conference at large team ranked higher (rule 9).

Look, anytime there's any sort of ranking there's going to be some controversy. Think of March Madness- even with 65 teams there are others who feel shunned unfairly. And there are often others who end up in a really easy bracket or a really difficult one. It's a part of the nature of the game- The Patriots only lost one game last year, but it was in the Super Bowl to an allegedly inferior opponent. In football and college basketball, it's not "best of..." series- it's one and done.

And you have to draw a line somewhere- my line is that national champions should also be conference champions. It keeps the regular season meaningful, and will reward (or at least not penalize) teams for playing difficult out of conference games- you can lose one, win your conference, and still be dancing at the end. Also, if you're in a difficult conference and "beat up on each other every week", your record won't matter if you win your CCG.

Now that we've got the teams, tomorrow we'll look at how this would all come together.

Finishing Touches

Sorry it's been so long in updating here- but we're one week away from kickoff, so it's a good of a time as any to jump back in the fray.

First, catching up with the "news": Seems that the winners of the USC/tOSU and Georgia/Florida games will have the inside track to the Mythical National Championship Game that's held in a warm state. USC has been fighting some injuries of late, but I wouldn't scratch them off my list just yet. Reggie Bu$h still hasn't been held accountable by the No Clue At All, but they're getting closer. Fewer NCAA Division 1 head coaches of African American heritage this year, and that may drop even lower depending on the "Revenge in Seattle" game.

So- where were we? Oh yes, the BC$ System and how to fix it.

Well, you remember that we first started the discussion with the history of bowls and the National Championship ideology. We then covered the financial implications- that you're actually better off being in a BCS conference and not going to a bowl game. Last time, I talked about what "champion" means, and if it's even important and relevant.

To summarize- The old bowl system (PreCS) was flawed in it's ability to create a national champion, since it didn't exist for that purpose. The original purpose was money; tourism, money for sponsors, etc. It will be impossible to lose this system and start from scratch because of the "tradition", the money, and the fact that the NCAA has been told in federal court that they cannot legislate post-season activity. So, we may always have a debate about who's best, but my opinion is that this is good for the game and part of the experience.

But- Let's say we COULD change things? How would we do this, and under what criterion? Like a friend of mine says, "Anyone can smell a rotten egg, but it takes someone special to lay a golden one".

First, the ground rules.

We have to keep money in mind; both for the sponsors and for the institutions. As such, a lengthy playoff won't work- most schools don't have the resources for a long post season like they do at other levels of NCAA Football, and the fans (true fans, not rich boosters or hangers on like you see at the Super Bowl) don't have the funds either.

Second, we need to keep the bowls around and use them as best as possible. They do have great tradition, and (as a mid-western guy) provide ideal vacation spots in January. But, we should also seek to remove the home field advantages that occur, as best as possible. This means that, while the bowls would still be an important part of this discussion, conference ties would need to be dissolves (and yes, I'm looking at you Pasadena).

A third major change would be the end of the pre-season poll. Other people have said this much better than I could (Heisenberg principal? Wow...), and even point out that the BCS numbers use the Harris poll which does not release rankings until late September, after teams have actually played. Pre-season AP polling impacts national opinion, and takes away from the "win it on the field" idea that a playoff would allegedly correct.

Fourth major change: Conferences. There would need to be six 12 team conferences, meaning that the Big T1e1n, Big East, and Pac-10 would need to add members. These could chose to do so from the smaller conferences (WAC, Conference USA, etc.) around them. As a corollary, major independents would need to join a conference. While this would kill Notre Dame (who would finish in the middle of the Big 10 most years), it would level the playing field and give us a chance to compare similar schedules. These conferences would need to add a championship game as well; if that means scheduling like the Big 12 and SEC does (east/west, north/south), so be it.

Also, conferences could change memberships once every five years, but only by adding teams that are not in another BCS conference. For instance, the SEC could drop Vandy (and see their academics tumble) and add a Conference USA team; the Big 12 could dump Iowa State and pick up someone from the WAC or Mountain West. The advantage would be that these teams could make the conference stronger, and might impact ranking and seeding later on.

Yes, I know that this screws with tradition and schedules that are set for 20 years- you wanted me to be creative; here you go.

Fifth, schools would need to go back to only playing 11 games a season. Again, this hits the pocketbook; most institutions have used the extra games to schedule cupcakes at h0me for the ticket revenue (which is funny when it backfires). Scheduling changes should also be made to ensure that seasons start and end at the same time, and that schools only have one bye week a year (unlike some folks).

So- with those things in mind, here's what we do:

On the first weekend of December, the 6 major conferences play their conference championship games. Winners will be placed in a playoff along with two additional teams based on some sort of polling/statistical data. These would either be the champions of the 'lesser' conferences or would be another team from a major conference, if there was good cause. For instance, the SEC might lobby to have Georgia be an "at large" team last year based on their record and the fact that scheduling kept them from playing in their title game. Two caveats: only two teams per conference, and no team that loses it's championship game can go to the "tournament". Consider the conference championship the first round of a single elimination tourney- but they can go to any of the other 8 billion bowls. Additionally, if a conference sends two teams to the playoff, those teams are required to play in the first round.

These eight teams would play four games during "Bowl week", and would include three "traditional" bowls and a new one rotated between Minneapolis, Detroit, and St. Louis (to eliminate home field disadvantage for the Big T1e1n, half of the Big 12, most of the Big East, and some of the ACC). Rankings would be used for seeding purposes in regions for this first round- North, West, Central, and South.

Two weeks later, the winners would face off in Pasadena and Miami, and two weeks after that the winner would be crowned at a new bowl in either Dallas or Indy's new stadium. The "Championship" is played during the week before the Super Bowl.

What might this look like? Let's use the rankings and the end of the 2007 season as a guide.

Championship weekend: December 6th, 2008

• SEC (Atlanta): Tennessee and LSU
  
• ACC (Tampa): Boston College and Va Tech
  
• Big 12 (St.Louis): Oklahoma and Missouri
• Pac 10 (Candlestick Park): USC and Arizona State
  
• Big T1e1n (RCA Dome): Ohio State and Illinois (not going to happen again)
  
• Big East (Giants Stadium): WVa and UConn
  

The two at large teams would be Georgia and Hawaii, based on their final ranking

Playoff first round: January 1-4, 2008

• West Region: Fiesta Bowl (Arizona)- USC and Hawaii
  
• South Region: Sugar Bowl (Louisiana)- LSU and Georgia (LSU has a home advantage, but must play Georgia first)
  
• Central Region: Cotton Bowl (Dallas)- Oklahoma and WVa
  
• North Region: Corn Bowl (Minneapolis)- tOSU and BC

Playoff second round: January 15, 16, 2008

• Rose Bowl (Pasadena)- USC and WVa
  
• Orange Bowl (Miami)- LSU and tOSU

National Championship Game : January 25, 2008

• Indianapolis- USC and LSU (NCAA created, sanctioned, and sponsored- if you can't beat 'em, join 'em)

Those are my thoughts- it ends up adding one extra game for some teams (currently, LSU, Tennesse, Missouri, and Oklahoma played 14 last year), gives the NCAA some regulatory ability, uses the current bowls, takes away some of the home field advantage issues.

It would still be a problem for fans to travel to these extra events, would also impact academics (going an additional month into spring semester/quarter), and would not totally remove the debate aspect (who's the at-large teams? Are seedings and regions fair?). But, these issues seem to not be much of a concern during basketball season, so I'm sure we'd get over it. Plus, it allows for other teams to still be involved in the pagentry of December/January football.

Like I said, though, this requires a lot of change, and I like the old system better.

And the fun begins on Saturday!