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How to fix the BCS


Meat Face
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From ESPN2 website. . . I must admit, this sounds pretty cool. Can you imagine such a huge tournament??? Awesome.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/quickie

 

How to fix the BCS:

 

Creating a new BCS demands a radical solution. The problem with incremental revamp suggestions (i.e., four-team playoff) is that they never satisfactorily answer threelet's-live-in-the-real-worldconcerns:

 

(1) Fairness

Some teams still screwed

 

(2) Academics

Exam/class schedule conflicts

 

(3) Money, Money, MONEY

Appeasing bowls ($$$-engine)

 

With that, here's my proposal:

 

Weeks 1-5 reserved for:

* 3 TV-friendly games

Rivals, conference, national interest

* 2 "Cupcakes"

Powers: Tune-up, Homecoming

Cupcakes: Get paid, get paid

 

After 5 weeks of real results:Playoff committee seeds all 117 DI-A teams into a bracket, giving the top 11 teams a first-round "bye" (creating an even 128-team ladder).

 

Weeks 6-12:

Entire country engaged in one big playoff. As teams lose, they are scheduled against other losing teams, to round out their 12-game schedule. Upshot: Every gamereally counts.

 

Schedule done by Thanksgiving:

No impact on players' exams.

 

Bowls played at usual dates:

Final two teams automatically matched in the title game. And they've earned it. Other bowls filled by remaining eligible teams.

 

As for those concerns?

Fair: Everyone has a chance

No exclusion; Cinderella factor

Academics: No conflict

Schedule done by T'giving

Money: Bowls still make tons

Huge $ for tourney sponsors

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Kevin is right, sounds like the conferences just got blown up, but that was not spelled out in black and white. And if you have no regional component, (which is what conferences do for you)all travel costs just went through the roof for all big schools. How does the extra $ get made to make up for this?

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KevinL:

This does not sound cool to me.  I value a conference schedule much more than an "everybody gets in" tournament.

I agree. A large tourney works for NCAA basketball because a lot more bb-ball games are played, so there's room for a regular conference schedule plus a 64-team field. With only 5 regular-season football games, you're basically looking at the same one or two rivalries every year, plus a few more regular season games. Conferences basically become meaningless. Have to say that I think ol' Sargie was at least on the right track by taking some existing bowl games and converting them to a tourney format, retaining a ranking system such as the BCS to make the seeds. That's probably do-able, but would probably result in an additional 1 to 3 games per season for those teams that advance.
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My solution. I haven't put too much thought into it, but it makes sense to me.

Like it, hate it, change it, talk about it:

 

1) Get rid of the current BCS format.

2) Require each Div. I conference to have a conference championship game.

3) With 12 Div I conferences, we end up with 12 conference champions.

4) The 4 highest ranked conference champions get a first week bye in the tourney, which leaves 8 teams for round 1, or 4 games. The matchups are determined by the rankings. Higher ranked teams play lower ranked teams, just as in any tourney, with home field advantage going to the higher ranked team in the game.

5) After this round of games, we are left with 8 teams (4 teams that were on byes and 4 winners of round 1), or 4 games. Round 2 matchups and home field advantage are based on rankings as before.

6) Repeat until we get the final matchup which is sent to the Championship Bowl, whichever bowl it may be that year. Send the remaining teams to other bowls as necessary.

 

This way, we don't end up with some monster number of teams in the tourney, and only conference winners have a shot at the National Championship. There will be no arguing over who should or shouldn't be in the big game, and we will get a couple more weeks of college football, with the universities and media stations profiting from it. If necessary, cut back the number of regular season games by 1 or 2 to fit it into the schedule. Conference schedules maintain their importance and there is the possibility of a cinderella story coming out of one of the traditionally weaker conferences.

Whatcha think? thinking

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You'd have a hard time getting all Div-1 schools to agree to be a member of some 12 team conference...some conferences (i.e., the Pac-10) probably are not interested in adding UNLV and New Mexico to get them to 12...

 

Here's the approach I think makes some sense...

 

1) REQUIRE ALL BOWLS TO FINISH BEFORE CHRISTMAS DAY.

2) AFTER THE BOWLS ARE OVER...do the following...

3) AVERAGE the AP and the Coach's 'final' poll, and rank the top teams from 1-12. Ties are broken according to some sort of 'tie breaker formula', which is based on strength of schedule.

 

4) Seed the top 12 teams based on a BCS-type methodology...teams 5-12 play on New Years' Day (giving fans four games potentially very good games to watch that day!) while teams 1-4 get a bye...and then all remaining teams are re-seeded, and play out an 8 team 'tournament' over the next three weeks.

 

5) In order to get to play host to one of the eight first or second round 'tournament' games, a team must win their bowl game and play in a conference that didn't send anyone to the 'tournament'.

 

This 5th point would allow teams that had good seasons, went to a bowl game and won it, but, doesn't play for in of the traditional powerhouse conferences, to add some $$s to their coffers due to the tourism, publicity, etc. that would come their way for hosting a game... Specifically, a team like Bowling Green, TCU, etc. that have had great seasons, but, not quite good enough to get into the 'tournament', would get a chance to get a couple of $$s to boost their athletic department (hopefully, thereby increasing their competitiveness down the road).

 

6) The Semi-Finals and the Championship Game is not played at one of these schools...but...is instead played at a NFL-quality stadium.

____________________________

 

So, in a nutshell:

1) Average the final human polls

2) Rank the top 12, using strength of schedule to break ties

3) Play the first round and second round of games at eight schools that (i) don't have a conference member in the year-end tournament, and (ii) won their own bowl game. There would need to be something in place in case there weren't eight such schools, for some reason.

4) Play the semi's and championship game in a 'neutral' NFL-quality stadium.

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muck:

1) REQUIRE ALL BOWLS TO FINISH BEFORE CHRISTMAS DAY.

I see a problem here: final exams.

 

School administrators will object to this, if only to give lip service to academics. (Though some schools like TCU are honest about this and forfeited a bowl bid because of this.) So this provision would not politically pass IMO.

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