BCS vs. Playoffs, Round One Billion

As has been the case since the BCS was created, this is the time of year where college football enthusiasts debate the heated topic of what to do about the college football postseason. The number of bowls seems to grow each year, including more and more mediocre teams that the vast majority of college football fans don't care too much about.

The main problem behind a college football playoff is that there is so much money wrapped up in these bowls with the corporate sponsorships and all the advertising that occurs during each game. Long gone are the days where bowls were simply named The Sugar Bowl, although I've been clamoring for a Chlorox Toilet Bowl for a while now. We can use the BCS computing system to follow the two worst teams in the NCAA and pit them against each other. It'd probably end up being a pretty competitive game. If nothing else, it'd be better than watching Lloyd Carr get outcoached in yet another nationally televised UM bowl game disaster. Thanks Lloyd, for wasting all that talent.

I have a hybrid solution that could work. Let them still have the 25 bowl games that few people care about, and start up an 8 team playoff. Let the BCS stay and determine the top 8 teams as they usually do. Those 8 teams will engage in a playoff, with #1 vs. #8, #2 vs. #7, etc and advance the teams as you usually would in a tournament bracket. Pick a corporate sponsor for each round, so that Tostitos (Fiesta Bowl), Allstate (Sugar Bowl), FedEx (Orange Bowl), and Citi (Rose Bowl) all still get to sponsor a huge college football game. This would also open up 3 additional sponsors since there would be 7 games total. They can also rotate the sponsors between the rounds each year so that they each get a chance to sponsor the championship game once every 7 years, or just let the previous 4 rotate to keep them happy as they are now. A problem I see with this is the #9 and #10 teams complaining about not being in the top 8, but no matter what you do, there will be debate about the fringe teams. Another problem I see is a smaller team like Boise State going undefeated without getting into the top 8, like what happened this year. Perhaps the BCS can be tweaked to give a team's final record, or more specifically an undefeated record, a little more importance and thus a boost in the final rankings.

I personally feel that it's only a matter of time before some sort of playoff gets established because there's just too much talk about it, but I feel a hybrid solution of some sort will be necessary to keep the bowl season alive. Too many coaches rely on pointing to bowl game appearances on their resume to completely eliminate this facet of the college football postseason.