BCS under scrutiny from Capitol Hill

[BarnBoy]

About the only thing positive that is coming out of Washington these days:


Several lawmakers and many critics want the BCS to switch to a playoff system, rather than the ratings system it uses to determine the teams that play in the championship game.

Full story (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4870657)

[RodentRampage]

I support a playoff, but this is just sabre-rattling. It is a matter of when, not if a playoff comes, but it won't come from Washington.

[BarnBoy]

Just the fact that they are talking about it again is good. I hope you are right (when, not if).

[Kuato Lives!]

We should let Congress vote for the Top 25, too.

[NateDawgUM]

Just the fact that they are talking about it again is good. I hope you are right (when, not if).

I'd actually prefer it if they talked about other things right now.

[Bo Darville]

Dienhart said in his live chat at Rivals that if the NCAA is forced to do away with the BCS, they'll go back to the pre-BCS bowl system.

[RodentRampage]

My proposal is an 8-team playoff with the top 8 conference champions participating, with the opening round at the higher seed's home field. It preserves and enhances the value of the regular season.

[Kuato Lives!]

I'm a fan of the Top 4 while keeping the current ranking system and current bowls for all others in place.

[Goldmember]

My proposal is an 8-team playoff with the top 8 conference champions participating, with the opening round at the higher seed's home field. It preserves and enhances the value of the regular season.:horse:

This does nothing to aknowlegde the reality that the best programs are concentrated in 5 conferences.

Your plan would simply rob programs like Minnesota to pay prgrams like Boise State by continuing down the destructive path of watering-down the regular season.

Do you really want to see North Dakota State play Ohio State in a multi-million dollar bowl game on ABC in January while Minnesota is eliminated because of playing Ohio State in October on the BTN at 11 AM? Because that's precisely what people like you are advocating.

edit: and it is this nonsensical notion of a playoff that is assuring there will not be one.

[NateDawgUM]

Dienhart said in his live chat at Rivals that if the NCAA is forced to do away with the BCS, they'll go back to the pre-BCS bowl system.

You mean all of the good bowls would be on New Year's Day and named after local symbols rather than multinational corporations?

Sounds awesome to me!

[HopHead]

You lost me here:




Do you really want to see North Dakota State play Ohio State in a multi-million dollar bowl game on ABC in January...

How would North Dakota State end up playing in any bowl game when they are a FCS school?

[RodentRampage]

This does nothing to aknowlegde the reality that the best programs are concentrated in 5 conferences.

Perhaps. But the best team just might not be in one of those 5 conferences, and the BCS doesn't recognize this.


Your plan would simply rob programs like Minnesota to pay prgrams like Boise State by continuing down the destructive path of watering-down the regular season.

It doesn't water down regular season, it does the exact opposite, it makes the regular season even more important. You have to win your conference to make the playoff, that increases the importance of the regular season. And how does it rob Minnesota? Minnesota would stand to benefit greatly from this hypothetical playoff. Currently, if we were to win the Big Ten, we probably aren't going to be playing in the national championship game anyway. But with this playoff, we would have a shot at the national title.

An 8 team tournament is also small enough that bowl games could still be preserved.


Do you really want to see North Dakota State play Ohio State in a multi-million dollar bowl game on ABC in January while Minnesota is eliminated because of playing Ohio State in October on the BTN at 11 AM? Because that's precisely what people like you are advocating.

No, I'm not advocating anything like that. Then again, I'm not even sure what you are saying. North Dakota State would not be participating in a I-A playoff.


edit: and it is this nonsensical notion of a playoff that is assuring there will not be one.

A playoff is at the very least not nonsensical. But saying that the idea of a playoff assures there will not be a playoff? Now that's nonsensical.

[station19]

I'm in favor of 8 team p/o. Conference champ from 6 bcs conferences and 2 at-large team. 1 or 2 must come from non-bcs.

This would mean every team from bcs conferences would have a chance-win your conference. Non bcs schools would still have a chance with an at-large bid. Everyone loves a Cinderella. Yes a top 3 or 4 team could be eliminated but they had a chance to win their conference. The idea imo is to find the champion not reward the top 8 teams.

Also the present bowl games could stay close to as they are, i.e. rose bowl- #2 pac 10 vs #2 big 10.

[Goldmember]

You lost me here:



How would North Dakota State end up playing in any bowl game when they are a FCS school?

You must be assuming that having a playoff doesn't changes the rules of the game. It does.

There are schools that would make the leap to FBS just because of a playoff. There would probably be about 20 that could justify it, but NDSU would certainly be one of the first.

The potential pay-off is just too huge to resist. This is why we have 120 FBS football teams but only about 60% of them are consistently meeting the NCAA's criteria for FBS.

NDSU, Montana and several others FCS programs are already more aligned with the FBS criteria than some Sunbelt and WAC programs.

[station19]

You mean all of the good bowls would be on New Year's Day and named after local symbols rather than multinational corporations?

Sounds awesome to me!

I would favor a playoff as I expressed below. However I would rather go back to the old bowl format like you stated than continue with what we have now. Choosing the participants in the title game is too often open for debate.

On another note; could someone explain to me why they have those stupid bcs games for 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th place. They do more unnecessary harm to the bowl system than a playoff would.

[RodentRampage]

You must be assuming that having a playoff doesn't changes the rules of the game. It does.

There are schools that would make the leap to FBS just because of a playoff. There would probably be about 20 that could justify it, but NDSU would certainly be one of the first.

The potential pay-off is just too huge to resist. This is why we have 120 FBS football teams but only about 60% of them are consistently meeting the NCAA's criteria for FBS.

NDSU, Montana and several others FCS programs are already more aligned with the FBS criteria than some Sunbelt and WAC programs.

Under my playoff proposal, three conference champions would be left out of the playoff. This season, the MAC, C-USA and Sun Belt champions would be left out. This would reduce the incentive to move up because of a playoff, as just being a conference champion would not be enough.

Imagine if Minnesota had gone undefeated last season. We would have been left out of the national championship game. We'd have a much better chance with a playoff.

As for the I-A teams that don't meet NCAA criteria, the NCAA could step up to enforce it. That has nothing to do with a playoff, as there are already plenty of teams that don't meet criteria under the current system, and they already know they have nearly no shot at the national championship game no matter how good they are.

[RodentRampage]

There's no way that the NCAA will go back to the old system, that's a total bluff. There may not be enough support yet for a playoff, but there would be too much opposition to bringing back the old system.

But at least with the old system, the #3 team had a chance at the national title, if #1 and #2 lost their bowl games.

Or I suppose we could go back to the old old system, with the national title determined before the bowl games, with the bowl games being glorified exhibition games.

[magpie]

I still say we keep our traditional conference match-ups for BCS schools (ours being BigTen/Pac10 @Rose Bowl) and at-large champs to narrow the field to 4. Then do what all sports do and have a final four and a pre-bid site.

[Goldmember]

A playoff is at the very least not nonsensical. But saying that the idea of a playoff assures there will not be a playoff? Now that's nonsensical.

If I were to ask the AD of Texas how he feels about your 8-team playoff that would have excluded Texas (probably the best team in the country that year, but did not technically win the Big XII because of polls) in 2008-2009 I'm sure he would say "that's nonsense".

So the debate ends there every time.

[metrolax]

Congress has FAR more important things they should be doing.

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

It has to be 16 teams

The 11 conference champions (yes even the MAC & Sun Belt champ should qualify) & 5 at-large.

[station19]

It has to be 16 teams

The 11 conference champions (yes even the MAC & Sun Belt champ should qualify) & 5 at-large.

Maybe someday but it will never start that way.

[RodentRampage]

If I were to ask the AD of Texas how he feels about your 8-team playoff that would have excluded Texas (probably the best team in the country that year, but did not technically win the Big XII because of polls) in 2008-2009 I'm sure he would say "that's nonsense".

So the debate ends there every time.

You either win your conference or you don't, there's no "technically" involved. If the Big 12 has a problem with how they figure out their conference champion, that's a Big 12 problem.

[magpie]

It'll never be 16, as that's way too many extra games for those involved. 12 games, 1 conference playoff game, 1-4 national playoff games. That's potentially 17 games. This is school remember, not the pro's.

They'll allow conferences to determine their own champion, and the major conferences will get auto-bids, with the minor conferences being at-large up to 8 teams. Heck for the above reason, it may start out as small as a 4 team playoff.

[goldygo4]

65 team tournament, two last teams in play in the play in game. Only way to settle this lol

[Rosemountian]

12 team playoff.

11 conference champions. All conference Champions in the top 18 of the computer rankings get automatic bids. A selection committee (like Basketball and every other sport) fills the at large plus any spots left by conference champions who did not qualify. First two rounds are home games. Final four is at rotating neutral sights around the country (like basketball). Obviously the stadiums in the north would have to be indoors.

First round byes would insure a game like Bama-Florida still had meaning in a season like this one. In an 8 team model it would have been Bama vs Florida in the 2nd round game on a neutral field. Rendering the SEC title game useless. Also unfair to the winner.