Bison's idea, if you tweak it a bit, sounds like English Football... at least the Worthington Cup and league play. The cup has nothing to do with the league whatsoever.

All the D-3 and D-2 programs MIGHT pine for an equivalent to the FA Cup if the cup idea got off the ground. Just imagine Slippery Rock versus Penn State... or maybe not.

[/BLATANT ATTEMPT TO BRING GUNNER BACK INTO DISCUSSION]

How about this:

The NCAA creates more divisions. Say at max 64 teams can be in a division.

That makes for a 6 game playoff which would be possible if you brought the regular season down to 8 or so games.

I don't know who all notices this, but Oklahoma sure does peak early in the season, maintains enough to make the championship game, and crumbles at the end game.
While USC was indeed impressive, Auburn, Utah, or even VA Tech or Miami would have given the Trojans a closer game. The Orange Bowl got boring quickly and it was evident from the onset that USC was dominating. A playoff is needed. Maybe Auburn would not have beaten USC, but their defense with USC's passing attack would have performed much better than the disappointing Sooners.

The MSHSL (Minnesota High School Sports Association) does this exact thing. It has 6 divisions each with 8 "sections" and each section has at most 8 teams. Every team plays 8 regular season games. Points are given based on regular season wins. The section seeds are then based on those points. The points are based on how many divisions there are. If there are "x" divisions then you get x points for beating a team from your division, 1 point if you're a highest division team and you beat a team from the lowest division, 2x points if you're a lowest division team and you beat a team from the highest divisions, and everything inbetween. So, for example, 2 minneapolis teams that are from Division 6 play with the winner getting 6 points. Or a D6 team from Minneapolis plays a rural D1 team. If the Mpls. team wins they only get 1 point. If the rural team wins they get 12 points. If a d2 team plays a d4 team and the D4 team wins they get 4 points (since D2 is 2 divisions lower than them) or if the D2 team wins they get 8 points (since D4 is 2 divisions higher than them).

They base their divisions on enrollment, though, so It'd be interesting to see what you'd base the new divisions on. Athletic budgets, perhaps?

Then, of course, after the sections are seeded the team to win 3 games is the section champion. Then the 8 section champions are simply paired on a predetermined bracket. The state champion then is the team to win the last 3 games.


It's truely the fairest system I've ever heard of. The state champion has the oppertunity to go 14-0.

There were 18 Saturdays between Sept. 4th 04 and Jan 1st 05.

Seems like ample time to me.


As far as the "purpose" of the regular season, there are many purpose. 1st it assures that every team is going to get at least 9 games. 2nd it sets up the play offs. There are many good games and story lines that develop during the regular season just like any sport where there is a regular season followed by a playoff.


Just for kicks, this might be the highest division make up:

Pac 10
Big XXI
SEC
ACC
Big 10
Big East minus Temple

then the next highest division could be:

MWC
WAC
MAC
CUSA
SBC
Temple

I think there are some really good teams that might get left out from that 2nd division that deserve to be in the 1st division more than some teams in it (IE Duke, Baylor, Vandy should get replaced with Louisville, Utah, BYU).

16 is too many and 8 is not enough - how about 12.

The selection committee gives out bids to the Division One Conference Champions. Selection Sunday is the Sunday night after the first Saturday in December. To be eligible for consideration schools must have completed their season including conference championships.

12 TEAM PLAYOFF

9 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS (IF CHAMPION IS RANKED IN BCS TOP 25)

3 TOP AT-LARGE TEAMS IN BCS POLL (IF A CHAMPION IS NOT RANKED, THEIR BID GOES TO ANOTHER AT LARGE TEAM)

The top four teams in the BCS poll gets a bye in the first round. The others play on the third Saturday in December at the homes of the higher seeds. The BCS would get naming sponsors for each game.

THIRD WEEK IN DECEMBER
GAME 1 - 12TH SEED @ 5TH SEED
GAME 2 - 11TH SEED @ 6TH SEED
GAME 3 - 10TH SEED @ 7TH SEED
GAME 4 - 9TH SEED @ 8TH SEED

NEW YEARS EVE
>Fiesta Bowl - Tempe AZ
#2 seed Vs. Game 3 winner
NEW YEARS DAY
>Cotton Bowl - Dallas, TX
#3 seed Vs. Game 2 winner
>Rose Bowl - Pasadena, CA
#4 seed Vs. Game 1 winner
>Orange Bowl - Miami, FL
#1 seed Vs. Game 4 winner

1ST SATURDAY IN JANUARY (that is on or after the 7th)
SUGAR BOWL DOUBLEHEADER - New Orleans, LA
GAME 1 - FIESTA BOWL WINNER VS. COTTON BOWL WINNER
GAME 2 - ROSE BOWL WINNER VS. ORANGE BOWL WINNER

*******fans speed a week in The Big Easy*******

2ND SATURDAY IN JANUARY (that is on or after the 14th)
BCS CHAMPIONSHIP -
LOUISIANA SUPERDOME
NEW ORLEANS, LA

Why should a conference champion get to go to a playoff if there is a non conference champion that is ranked higher than them?

It's called "rank" for a reason.

Win your conference, go on. Simple, and acceptably performance-based. Anything else brings on another Mack Brown cry-fest.

Now, we can talk about standards for "football conferences" in order to even qualify. I'll make this an 8-team affair yet!!

So North Texas should get to get in over Texas if Texas is 10 and NT is 25?

How about this: auto bids to conference winners IF they're in the top 16. That I'll buy.

that correct - if Texas is #10 it won't make it. The Conference champion and the regular season must not be compromised (ala the NBA).

I would use nefarious and unethical means to disband the Sun Belt, remove chaff in the MWC - WAC combination, allow the MAC to thrive in 1-AA, and then we'd only worry about 8 conference champions. Ain't I nice?

You can't just take conference champions because not everybody is in a conference, nor should they be required to be.

If you take the top 8 according to a simple mathematical formula and play the first round at the top four home sites, problem solved.

Who's gonna complain? #9 in the country? I'd rather #9 complain than #3!

When the game is football, mere math is ALSO rank.

I maintain that college football can deny playoff spots to independents. Finding the will is the only problem there.

Obviously, for any playoff, finding the money is more difficult than most people think, but I digress.