Objectively speaking...

I say that because we can be objective this year as UGA would not be considered for any hypothetical playoff system. Let’s take a look at an 8 team playoff scenario with conference champions automatic and 2 at large teams, seeds based on the BCS standings. Tourney games to be incorporated into bowl schedule with Citrus, Peach, and Cotton as the new first round bowls. The current BCS bowls will rotate. You get the championship one year, you go to a first round game the next.

December 22/23
Fiesta/Rose/Sugar/Orange (rotate) – gets first pick of games
Citrus
Peach
Cotton

1 Ohio State (Big 10)
8 Wake Forest (ACC)

4 LSU (at large)
5 USC (Pac 10)


3 Michigan (at large)
6 Louisville (Big East)

2 Florida
7 Oklahoma (Big 12)


December 29/30

Fiesta/Rose/Sugar/Orange (rotate)
OSU
LSU

Fiesta/Rose/Sugar/Orange (rotate)
Michigan
FL

January 6

Championship Fiesta/Rose/Sugar/Orange (rotate)
OSU
FL

Can you imagine the hype? How about the potential for a Michigan/FL second round game? Louisville/Michigan? LSU/USC? Like March Madness on steroids, and it would be fun to compare conferences also, if you had two SEC teams meet in the championship, the dominance is indesputable, or two Big 10?

Now I'm not saying I can't live with the current system because college football is the best thing going, and I think these guys need to be careful they don't screw it up (March Madness is great but it has really dilluted the regular season. I'd personally rather see 32 - the NBA is also messed up. 16 teams too many. Plus, once they realized no one cared about the season, they made the playoffs even longer, even managing to make that boring)

Back to football, the main issue is you can't tailor the system (because of $, bowls, TV, and logistics) to meet every scenario. And the system now, forcing elimination of all but 2 teams, will work if there are two clear cut teams, but other than that, its too restrictive. If you could tailor it, you would need to come up with a scenario according to how many teams are considered viable NC contenders. This year, to be honest, Ohio State would already be the National Champ and the bowls would be a formality. In years where there are 3, the 2&3 would play in to a national championship. In years there are 4, two rounds...and so on.

Since that could never happen (waiting for the season to play out and then deciding what will determine) the best option is to come up with an inclusive system, allowing for reasonable teams to get in, but not so many that you over-dillute the season and render the conference championship immaterial. (16 would do this to the SEC, for example) In my mind, that number is 8 because any less requires too much subjectivity related to conference strength, etc.

Cons:
2 extra game for 2 teams, 2 extra games for 2 teams.
Mitigant: They keep harping on that extra game argument but thought nothing of taxing the kids during the regular season by putting a 12th regular season game out there. Do away with the 12th game and give the kids a week off during the season.

$$$
Another farce. This would make so much more TV money as ratings would be sky high. There might be a problem with the bowls arguing schools won't travel to the early round and bring in tourism money, but I think the underdog schools would really travel well and the locals would fill the stadium. For the BCS bowl, they may have to pay out less but the schools will more than make up for that with TV $$$. I would hope the bowls would agree to this for the good of the game, even if the travel would somewhat be lessened. What we have now is one game and 15 meaningless exhibitions.

The current system makes every week important
Well, true and to date, the best con out there. But, Florida aside, these conference championships have eliminated a bunch of schools from NC games but not often have they resulted in a team playing its way in (Florida being an exception and that is rare). This would heighten the conference championship and you would require a conference championship if a conference wants an automatic. Put ND in the Big 10 and solve that 12 team thing (not going to happen, I know, unless you make it strict on them saying the 6 conference champs get in AND the two highest ranked BCS teams get the at-large. I think ND would sign up pretty darn quickly. Pac can add Boise, maybe BYU or somebody or you get left out. Big East is looking better than people thought and should be able to get 12, just raid USA. Add any four of these: S Miss, ECU, Marshall, UCF, UAB, Memphis.

So, knowing that winning your conference championship is required to be in the NC picture, that game will improve, even for the ACC. It should also improve out of conference scheduling, knowing you can lose OOC and still win your conference and be NC. The conference additions would mean 72 teams are in the picture and if ND went Big 10, no significant independents.

The importance of going undefeated would go away, but not many can lose more than two and still win their conference. Think about this. We have more rivalry games than anyone in the country. USC, FL, UT, SC, Tech, AU. The Tech game stands alone - this year shows how big that game can be even if UGA is out of the picture. The rest are critical (lose 2 and you're likely out) to getting to the SEC game. Plus, the system should naturally find a team that does not win the conference but was still excellent (LSU)

At that point, the writing on the wall is clear, that the other guys just aren't D1A programs. But, You could tinker with the idea that to be an at large team, you have to be IN the conference championship. That would hurt the power conferences and I don't think that's the way to go, but it would heighten still that conference championship and get around the "LSU didn't finish ahead of Arkansas but got in the BCS". Yet you could still get an undefeated in, who lost their conference championship, if the pollsters think they still belong in ... the Michigan scenario, or Tennessee a few years ago. Taking LSU out, that would have Boise in there this year and answer the mid-major problem. Typically though, they would have to schedule. A team like Boise would have to run the table and play at least 2 BCS quality teams to get in that BCS mix.

Or, just do away with pretense and say that only BCS conferences are eligible for NC consideration. You could really have some fun with this, if the NCAA could take charge. Granting an 8 game conference slate and a rivalry game for other schools, you could pick two weeks a year as inter-conference weekends. In January, have a lottery drawing and line the conferences up.

SEC
Big 10
Big 12
Pac 10
Big East
ACC

So, everyone plays 4 confernce games, then you have inter-confernce weekend. Say SEC draws the ACC and Pac 10. So the first weekend, you draw an opponent from that conference. (Can't draw someone on your schedule already and can't draw the same team more than once in a 5 year period) After that, you play the rest of your conference schedule and then you have another weekend in November where you do the same. Imagine an entire weekend of SEC vs Big 10! At the end, the conferences with the best inter-conference record (other game not included in these computations) earn an at-large bid into the championship game. If there is a tie between 2 and 3 or everyone goes 12-12, it goes back to the BCS standings. Suddenly, the argument that the regular season doesn't count is totally out the window because you have to either win your conference or do well in the inter-conference and finish 2nd. And there would be very few meaningless weekends left. A crazy idea maybe, but the hype would be tremendous. It would not lower the regular season, in fact it would raise the importance, it would make 7 bowls relevant instead of one, and it would raise the importance of the conference championship game.

Thoughts?