http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2008-09-14-ohiostate-lockerroom_N.htm
Buckeyes' lament: 'Every big game we end up blowing it'
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
9-14-8
LOS ANGELES — Ohio State senior left tackle Alex Boone was one of the last players to leave his locker room following his team's 35-3 loss to No. 1 Southern California, but he was still steaming on full boil.
"I can't believe we screwed up so badly," Boone said. "I feel like this is the national championship all over again, stupid penalties, stupid mistakes, roughing the passer, holding, offsides, personal fouls."
The Buckeyes lost the last two national title games to speedier, more athletic Southeastern Conference teams, including last year's mistake-filled loss to LSU. Saturday, the Buckeyes were undone by miscues in the second quarter and scored the fewest points in coach Jim Tressel's eight-year tenure. They also might have fumbled away a chance at their third consecutive Bowl Championship Series title game.
"Every big game we end up blowing it for ourselves, not to say they weren't a great team," Boone said. "I think it must be nervousness. …. Guys come out here and see 100,000 people and they start to get antsy. We can't play that way."
With a remaining schedule which includes only two teams currently ranked, the No. 14 Buckeyes (2-1) will need plenty of help to get back into national title contention by season's end. Next week, they host Troy before beginning their Big Ten schedule Sept. 27 against Minnesota. They face No. 10 Wisconsin in Madison on Oct. 4, host No. 17 Penn State on Oct. 25 and travel to Illinois on Nov. 15.
Last year, in one of the most tumultuous seasons in college football history, the Buckeyes were able to overcome a loss to Illinois in November to climb back to the title game. Even if OSU wins the remainder of its games, it might face longer odds this fall. Since the Buckeyes once again faltered on the biggest of stages, voters might be more reluctant to place Ohio State ahead of a team from the SEC with the same record.
"The only difference between this one and that one (to LSU) is we have a season ahead of us," said linebacker Marcus Freeman. "We have to turn it around and still try to win the Big Ten championship."
In the second quarter, trailing 14-3, a holding penalty on OSU guard Ben Person nullified quarterback Todd Boeckman's 21-yard touchdown pass to Brian Robiskie. On their next offensive possession, Boeckman's pass was cut off by USC linebacker Rey Maualuga, who returned the interception for a 48-yard score.
"We just shot ourselves in foot with penalties and turnovers," Boeckman said. By halftime, it was 21-3, and the locker room was as quiet as study hall.
"At halftime nobody was saying anything," Boone said. "I mean what the hell? We're Ohio State. We should be screaming and swearing everything you can think of, and guys were hanging their heads. You don't know what to say to them. You start screaming, and they just put their heads down even more."
The play of freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor was one of the Buckeyes' few bright spots. Pryor, who alternated snaps with Boeckman through most of the game, competed seven of nine passes for 52 yards and rushed 11 times for another 40. USC was forced to respect Pryor's running ability, containing him better in the second half. "They started putting everyone outside the box so I couldn't get it outside," Pryor said.
Boeckman (14-for-21 for 84 yards) was intercepted twice and sacked four times. When asked if he would consider changing his starting quarterback, Tressel didn't seem inclined to replace his fifth-year senior with a freshman. "There's always competition for playing time," Tressel said. "I don't know about the starting spot or any of that business, but obviously we'll go back and evaluate everything."
"I thought Terrelle did a good job from a composure standpoint," Tressel said. "Being thrown in a stage like this, he probably played more than the first two weeks combined. Overall, he did a lot of good things. Obviously he's got a lot of talent, not just running. He can throw the ball in there hard."
The Buckeyes were without star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells who has an injured right foot. Redshirt freshman Dan Herron started in Wells' place and had 51 yards on 11 carries. Afterward the Buckeyes refused make excuses, but USC coach Pete Carroll said that without Wells the Buckeyes were forced to run more laterally than powering down the field.
As they headed to the bus, Ohio State seemed more resolved than defeated. "This team is (as upset) as we'll ever be," Boone said. "We're going back to work tomorrow. I won't be surprised if guys go home straight to watch film for four hours."
Added Pryor: "We'll pick it up and be fine … From now on, we won't get stopped. We won't. We're going to work hard, study more in the film room, because I don't want to feel like this again and I'm sure nobody else wants to."
Showing posts with label Ohio State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio State. Show all posts
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Ohio State vs. LSU
Below is a great article by King Kaufman of Salon that pretty much says it all about this season's travesty ending...
http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2007/12/03/monday/
King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Ohio State vs. LSU: The BCS's answer to a wild, unpredictable year is a couple of usual suspects. Sorry, Hawaii.
Dec. 03, 2007 After all those crazy upsets and all that churn in the rankings, after a year when anything could happen and most of it did, the Bowl Championship Series has rounded up a couple of usual suspects for the Championship Game.
With almost a dozen teams able to make a claim for a shot at the title without laughing into their sleeve, the title game will be Ohio State vs. LSU. Oh, the topsy. The turvy. It has been months -- months, I tell you! -- since we've seen the likes of these two in the big one.
Ohio State earned its spot with a brilliantly played bye. The BCS voters and computers really admired the way the Buckeyes did nothing this week. These guys make Maynard G. Krebs look like Thomas Edison.
LSU played its way in by losing to an unranked team at home last week instead of this week. Losing to an unranked team this week would have been bad, not a championship-caliber move. Just ask West Virginia, which lost at home this week to Pitt. Losing to an unranked team last week? Not so bad.
Hawaii didn't lose to anybody, ever. The Warriors started the season ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, No. 24 in the USA Today poll, went 12-0, and finished the season No. 10. They'll play Georgia in the Sugar Exhibition Game on New Year's Night in New Orleans.
Here's a list of the teams that passed Hawaii at some point this year in the three polls -- AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive -- and the BCS standings, all without the Warriors ever losing a game: Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Boston College, Clemson, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas A&M.
Hang on. Just catching my breath. That was all in the first two weeks of the season.
Here's the rest of the list: Alabama, South Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Arizona State, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky (again), Virginia, Georgia (again), Connecticut, Michigan, USC, Virginia Tech, Florida, Texas, Clemson (again), Virginia (again) and Boston College (again).
Hawaii was passed 20 times in the AP poll and 19 times in the USA Today poll without ever losing a game. The Warriors were passed 10 times in 10 weeks in the Harris Interactive poll while going undefeated. They were leapfrogged 10 times in eight weeks in the BCS standings, winning all the while.
Last week, the 14th week of the season, was the first time all year that undefeated Hawaii was not jumped by at least one team in the USA Today poll. It was also the first time the Rainbows weren't jumped in any of the four rankings.
I could go into some eye-glazing detail about things like the three-week stretch at midseason during which Hawaii went 3-0 and didn't gain an inch in the polls, then had a bye week and moved up a little, pounded mediocre New Mexico State and moved up a lot, then had another bye week and dropped down.
I'll spare you. The point, though, is that a lot of what goes on in the polls is pretty random, but one thing's sure: There was a glass ceiling for Hawaii somewhere around No. 10. No matter how much everybody else lost and no matter how long Hawaii kept on winning, the Warriors weren't going any higher.
There were always teams that could be vaulted ahead of them. Kentucky lost five games but still found time to jump Hawaii in the polls on two separate occasions.
If there were ever a year when a team like Hawaii, a team from a smaller conference, would get a shot at the title game, this was that year, with not even one squad from a big conference having an unchallenged claim to a berth.
If Hawaii had no shot at the Championship Game this year, then no team from a smaller conference will ever have a shot at it unless it can muscle up its schedule with nonconference wins against BCS powers, who would sooner encourage their players to major in astrophysics and never miss a lab session just because of a silly old thing like practice than schedule teams like Hawaii or last year's model, Boise State.
The five smaller conferences in what's now known as the Bowl Subdivision -- it used to be Division I-A -- got together a few years ago and forced the six BCS conferences to toss a little more dough their way and give them a slightly better shot at big bowl berths, but what they ought to do now is form their own subdivision, or subsubdivision.
They're suckers in the meantime. They're the only teams in the NCAA that literally have no chance at a championship. Teams in the lower divisions play a tournament. Even traditional big-conference doormats like Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Baylor would get a crack at the title if they managed to put together a good enough team some year and didn't lose any games.
But teams from the WAC and the MAC, Conference USA, the Mountain West and the Sun Belt, they should have gotten the message loud and clear this year when it was delivered to Hawaii: You need not apply.
What a numbskull of a system. On ESPN's bowl selection show Sunday, host Rece Davis debriefed a guy named Brad Edwards, whose bio on ESPN.com describes him as a "college football researcher." Davis called him "our BCS guru."
BCS guru? That poor man! What a pathetic thing to be an expert on. It's like being the world's foremost authority on "Charles in Charge."
I used to know every ZIP Code in Oakland, Calif. It was the byproduct of a job I'd had. Tell me an address in Oakland, I could tell you the ZIP Code. I never got it wrong. It was a not-very-impressive parlor trick, occasionally good for 30 seconds of moderate amusement for someone who had moved around a bit in Oaktown, but otherwise useless.
It dwarfed encyclopedic knowledge of the BCS for usefulness and significance.
Well, let's let the guy speak. He has evidently devoted way too much of his life -- anything north of 10 minutes -- to the study of something so asinine it's scarcely worth learning what order the three letters go in. Why let that go to waste?
Davis asked him for his gut feeling on what would happen with the BCS after this absurd year. "Is the formula where they want it or do you expect more changes?"
This is kind of like asking if you expect daylight in future days. Of course the BCS formula is going to change. It changes every three weeks or so, every time someone notices how ridiculously stupid some aspect of it is.
"In reality, this is what the BCS was set up to do," Edwards said. "There's a season when you have a bunch of teams that all have similar records and similar résumés, and the formula was put together in order to take two teams out of that bunch and say, 'These are the best two.' Now, you can debate all day whether it got the right two, but the point of the BCS is to take two out of that group and say, 'These are the two that are going to play.' And they did that."
What's funny about that is that you can replace "the BCS" and "the formula" in that paragraph with something like "the system of having monkeys fling their poo at pictures of NCAA logos" without changing the meaning. That system would also be able to identify two teams to play in the Championship Game. And we would be able to debate whether the system got the right two, as if that were some kind of side consideration, beside the real point of the thing.
Shall we try?
In reality, this is what the system of having monkeys fling their poo at pictures of NCAA logos was set up to do. There's a season when you have a bunch of teams that all have similar records and similar résumés, and the monkey-poo-fling system was put together in order to take two teams out of that bunch and say, "These are the best two." Now, you can debate all day whether it got the right two, but the point of the monkeys flinging their poo is to take two out of that group and say, "These are the two that are going to play." And they did that.
Good going, monkeys!
http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2007/12/03/monday/
King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Ohio State vs. LSU: The BCS's answer to a wild, unpredictable year is a couple of usual suspects. Sorry, Hawaii.
Dec. 03, 2007 After all those crazy upsets and all that churn in the rankings, after a year when anything could happen and most of it did, the Bowl Championship Series has rounded up a couple of usual suspects for the Championship Game.
With almost a dozen teams able to make a claim for a shot at the title without laughing into their sleeve, the title game will be Ohio State vs. LSU. Oh, the topsy. The turvy. It has been months -- months, I tell you! -- since we've seen the likes of these two in the big one.
Ohio State earned its spot with a brilliantly played bye. The BCS voters and computers really admired the way the Buckeyes did nothing this week. These guys make Maynard G. Krebs look like Thomas Edison.
LSU played its way in by losing to an unranked team at home last week instead of this week. Losing to an unranked team this week would have been bad, not a championship-caliber move. Just ask West Virginia, which lost at home this week to Pitt. Losing to an unranked team last week? Not so bad.
Hawaii didn't lose to anybody, ever. The Warriors started the season ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, No. 24 in the USA Today poll, went 12-0, and finished the season No. 10. They'll play Georgia in the Sugar Exhibition Game on New Year's Night in New Orleans.
Here's a list of the teams that passed Hawaii at some point this year in the three polls -- AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive -- and the BCS standings, all without the Warriors ever losing a game: Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Boston College, Clemson, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas A&M.
Hang on. Just catching my breath. That was all in the first two weeks of the season.
Here's the rest of the list: Alabama, South Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Arizona State, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky (again), Virginia, Georgia (again), Connecticut, Michigan, USC, Virginia Tech, Florida, Texas, Clemson (again), Virginia (again) and Boston College (again).
Hawaii was passed 20 times in the AP poll and 19 times in the USA Today poll without ever losing a game. The Warriors were passed 10 times in 10 weeks in the Harris Interactive poll while going undefeated. They were leapfrogged 10 times in eight weeks in the BCS standings, winning all the while.
Last week, the 14th week of the season, was the first time all year that undefeated Hawaii was not jumped by at least one team in the USA Today poll. It was also the first time the Rainbows weren't jumped in any of the four rankings.
I could go into some eye-glazing detail about things like the three-week stretch at midseason during which Hawaii went 3-0 and didn't gain an inch in the polls, then had a bye week and moved up a little, pounded mediocre New Mexico State and moved up a lot, then had another bye week and dropped down.
I'll spare you. The point, though, is that a lot of what goes on in the polls is pretty random, but one thing's sure: There was a glass ceiling for Hawaii somewhere around No. 10. No matter how much everybody else lost and no matter how long Hawaii kept on winning, the Warriors weren't going any higher.
There were always teams that could be vaulted ahead of them. Kentucky lost five games but still found time to jump Hawaii in the polls on two separate occasions.
If there were ever a year when a team like Hawaii, a team from a smaller conference, would get a shot at the title game, this was that year, with not even one squad from a big conference having an unchallenged claim to a berth.
If Hawaii had no shot at the Championship Game this year, then no team from a smaller conference will ever have a shot at it unless it can muscle up its schedule with nonconference wins against BCS powers, who would sooner encourage their players to major in astrophysics and never miss a lab session just because of a silly old thing like practice than schedule teams like Hawaii or last year's model, Boise State.
The five smaller conferences in what's now known as the Bowl Subdivision -- it used to be Division I-A -- got together a few years ago and forced the six BCS conferences to toss a little more dough their way and give them a slightly better shot at big bowl berths, but what they ought to do now is form their own subdivision, or subsubdivision.
They're suckers in the meantime. They're the only teams in the NCAA that literally have no chance at a championship. Teams in the lower divisions play a tournament. Even traditional big-conference doormats like Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Baylor would get a crack at the title if they managed to put together a good enough team some year and didn't lose any games.
But teams from the WAC and the MAC, Conference USA, the Mountain West and the Sun Belt, they should have gotten the message loud and clear this year when it was delivered to Hawaii: You need not apply.
What a numbskull of a system. On ESPN's bowl selection show Sunday, host Rece Davis debriefed a guy named Brad Edwards, whose bio on ESPN.com describes him as a "college football researcher." Davis called him "our BCS guru."
BCS guru? That poor man! What a pathetic thing to be an expert on. It's like being the world's foremost authority on "Charles in Charge."
I used to know every ZIP Code in Oakland, Calif. It was the byproduct of a job I'd had. Tell me an address in Oakland, I could tell you the ZIP Code. I never got it wrong. It was a not-very-impressive parlor trick, occasionally good for 30 seconds of moderate amusement for someone who had moved around a bit in Oaktown, but otherwise useless.
It dwarfed encyclopedic knowledge of the BCS for usefulness and significance.
Well, let's let the guy speak. He has evidently devoted way too much of his life -- anything north of 10 minutes -- to the study of something so asinine it's scarcely worth learning what order the three letters go in. Why let that go to waste?
Davis asked him for his gut feeling on what would happen with the BCS after this absurd year. "Is the formula where they want it or do you expect more changes?"
This is kind of like asking if you expect daylight in future days. Of course the BCS formula is going to change. It changes every three weeks or so, every time someone notices how ridiculously stupid some aspect of it is.
"In reality, this is what the BCS was set up to do," Edwards said. "There's a season when you have a bunch of teams that all have similar records and similar résumés, and the formula was put together in order to take two teams out of that bunch and say, 'These are the best two.' Now, you can debate all day whether it got the right two, but the point of the BCS is to take two out of that group and say, 'These are the two that are going to play.' And they did that."
What's funny about that is that you can replace "the BCS" and "the formula" in that paragraph with something like "the system of having monkeys fling their poo at pictures of NCAA logos" without changing the meaning. That system would also be able to identify two teams to play in the Championship Game. And we would be able to debate whether the system got the right two, as if that were some kind of side consideration, beside the real point of the thing.
Shall we try?
In reality, this is what the system of having monkeys fling their poo at pictures of NCAA logos was set up to do. There's a season when you have a bunch of teams that all have similar records and similar résumés, and the monkey-poo-fling system was put together in order to take two teams out of that bunch and say, "These are the best two." Now, you can debate all day whether it got the right two, but the point of the monkeys flinging their poo is to take two out of that group and say, "These are the two that are going to play." And they did that.
Good going, monkeys!
Robalini's College Bowl Plan
Robalini's College Bowl Plan
Robert Sterling
If the 2007 college football didn't settle that the current NCAA Bowl Championship Series is a joke, it's because it pretty much had already been settled long ago. Until now, the most egregious foul occurred in 2003, when USC, the best team in football, was left out of the championship game due to a dubious computer ranking of #3. (Did Diebold make the computers?) But this season, the general conceit of the BCS championship, that at the end of the year two teams would clearly set themselves apart from the rest of the pack, has been proven a fraud. Indeed, the only team to even indicate it could theoretically be unbeatable was Hawaii, and they still were snubbed from the championship due to the inferior conference they play in.
The biggest change in recent years was to increase the BCS to five games rather than four, giving viewers the four traditional major Bowl games (the Rose, Fiesta, Orange & Sugar) near New Years and a championship game a week later. Though it certainly increased college football television revenues (at least in the short term) by adding the game, rather than improving the system, it made it worse, making the big four bowl games nothing more than glorified exhibitions.
Out of this chaos comes my modest proposal, which is (among millions of others) a plan to create a true playoff system for an NCAA college football championship. Like every other one out there, it has one decided virtue: it is better than the system currently in place.
With this plan, I had a few goals:
1. Respect the traditions of the big four bowl games as much as possible, even more so than the current system does;
2. Make sure that the big four bowls actually were a central part of crowning the championship;
3. Allow bowl games with notable histories of their own to be included in the mix; and, perhaps most important:
4. Create a playoff system that produces an actual season championship.
Taken this together, here are the basics of the plans...
Sixteen teams make the playoffs, consisting of the following:
Automatic bids:
* The top two teams from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC;
* The top team from the Big East;
* Notre Dame if it is in the top 16 of the AP poll;
The other four or five spaces will be filled by the following:
* Any of the other five conference champions who are in the top 25 of the AP poll;
* Any other team that is in the top eight of the AP poll;
The priority of the above will be according to their AP ranking. If this total does not equal sixteen teams, then the rest of the spots will be filled according to AP ranking.
(Granted, the AP has refused to be included in the current system, but in this theoretical example, the AP would agree simply because it would be less controversial.)
With this system in place, there wouldn't have been much controversy over the sixteen teams picked this season. In fact, the only team that would have qualified before this last Saturday that wasn't in the AP top sixteen would be number 21 BYU, who would've replaced number sixteen Clemson. (I think teams should be rewarded for being conference champions.)
Why did I say "before" this last Saturday rather than after? Because many of last weekend's games would be redundant under my plan, as five conference championships would be part of the playoffs.
That's correct: instead of being played the first Saturday in December with the Army-Navy game, The ACC, Big 12 and the SEC championships would instead be played the second Saturday of December, as part of the opening round of playoff bowl games. Under new banners as the Peach Bowl (ACC), the Cotton Bowl (Big 12) and the Liberty Bowl (SEC), these games would be joined by two new conference championship games: the Gator Bowl (Big Ten) and the Holiday Bowl (Pac-10.) A sixth bowl game, the Florida Citrus Bowl, would be hosted by the Big East champion. Two more bowl games, the Independence Bowl and the Sun Bowl, would round out the "Super Saturday" of eight bowl games that would knock off eight teams.
Under this scenario, here's how the matchup would've looked this coming weekend, trying to respect rankings where possible and historical traditions in which team goes to the Independence Bowl and Sun Bowl:
Cotton Bowl (Dallas) Big 12 - Missouri (1) - Oklahoma (9)
Florida Citrus Bowl (Orlando) Big East Host - West Virginia (2) - Brigham Young (21)
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) Big Ten - Ohio State (3) - Illinois (15)
Holiday Bowl (San Diego) Pac-10 - USC (8) - Arizona State (13)
Independence Bowl (Shreveport) - Georgia (4) - Hawaii (11)
Liberty Bowl (Memphis) SEC - LSU (5) - Tennessee (14)
Peach Bowl (Atlanta) ACC - Virginia Tech (6) - Boston College (12)
Sun Bowl (El Paso) - Kansas (7) - Florida (10)
Let's pretend the only upsets this coming weekend are Oklahoma beating Missouri (which they did last weekend) and Hawaii upsetting Georgia (which may not really be an upset, since Hawaii is undefeated.) That would lead to the four traditional big bowl games on January 1st and 2nd, with the traditional teams tied to them:
Rose Bowl - Ohio State (3, Big Ten Champion) - USC (8, Pac-10 Champion)
Fiesta Bowl Oklahoma (9, Big 12 Champion) - Hawaii (11)
Orange Bowl Virginia Tech (6, ACC Champion) - West Virginia (2, Big East Champion)
Sugar Bowl LSU (5, SEC Champion) - Kansas (7)
On the Thursday and Friday before the NFL divisional playoff weekend (January 8-9 to January 14-15), two semifinal game would be played between the four big bowl champs, with the top seeding facing the bottom on Thursday night and the other two on Friday night.
This would lead to the college football championship game, which would happen a week later on the Saturday before the two NFL conference championships. Imagine what a weekend of football that would be: the college football title game followed by the two matchups leading to the Super Bowl. Be sure to stock up on beer!
The only possible glitch in the system is continued snubbing of the five minor football conference teams. Hawaii and BYU would make it in my system, but it would be good to include a clause that any undefeated team gets an automatic bid so a team like Hawaii this year wouldn't be snubbed.
But otherwise, this system really works well. It strengthens the value of the traditional big four bowls. It strengthens the value of eight traditionally noted bowl games. It ensures the five major conferences have a place on the New Years Day bowl games. And it ultimately creates a playoff system that would likely boost college football television revenues substantially. That's probably the biggest key of all, and why I think my proposed system would be a smashing success.
Robert Sterling
If the 2007 college football didn't settle that the current NCAA Bowl Championship Series is a joke, it's because it pretty much had already been settled long ago. Until now, the most egregious foul occurred in 2003, when USC, the best team in football, was left out of the championship game due to a dubious computer ranking of #3. (Did Diebold make the computers?) But this season, the general conceit of the BCS championship, that at the end of the year two teams would clearly set themselves apart from the rest of the pack, has been proven a fraud. Indeed, the only team to even indicate it could theoretically be unbeatable was Hawaii, and they still were snubbed from the championship due to the inferior conference they play in.
The biggest change in recent years was to increase the BCS to five games rather than four, giving viewers the four traditional major Bowl games (the Rose, Fiesta, Orange & Sugar) near New Years and a championship game a week later. Though it certainly increased college football television revenues (at least in the short term) by adding the game, rather than improving the system, it made it worse, making the big four bowl games nothing more than glorified exhibitions.
Out of this chaos comes my modest proposal, which is (among millions of others) a plan to create a true playoff system for an NCAA college football championship. Like every other one out there, it has one decided virtue: it is better than the system currently in place.
With this plan, I had a few goals:
1. Respect the traditions of the big four bowl games as much as possible, even more so than the current system does;
2. Make sure that the big four bowls actually were a central part of crowning the championship;
3. Allow bowl games with notable histories of their own to be included in the mix; and, perhaps most important:
4. Create a playoff system that produces an actual season championship.
Taken this together, here are the basics of the plans...
Sixteen teams make the playoffs, consisting of the following:
Automatic bids:
* The top two teams from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC;
* The top team from the Big East;
* Notre Dame if it is in the top 16 of the AP poll;
The other four or five spaces will be filled by the following:
* Any of the other five conference champions who are in the top 25 of the AP poll;
* Any other team that is in the top eight of the AP poll;
The priority of the above will be according to their AP ranking. If this total does not equal sixteen teams, then the rest of the spots will be filled according to AP ranking.
(Granted, the AP has refused to be included in the current system, but in this theoretical example, the AP would agree simply because it would be less controversial.)
With this system in place, there wouldn't have been much controversy over the sixteen teams picked this season. In fact, the only team that would have qualified before this last Saturday that wasn't in the AP top sixteen would be number 21 BYU, who would've replaced number sixteen Clemson. (I think teams should be rewarded for being conference champions.)
Why did I say "before" this last Saturday rather than after? Because many of last weekend's games would be redundant under my plan, as five conference championships would be part of the playoffs.
That's correct: instead of being played the first Saturday in December with the Army-Navy game, The ACC, Big 12 and the SEC championships would instead be played the second Saturday of December, as part of the opening round of playoff bowl games. Under new banners as the Peach Bowl (ACC), the Cotton Bowl (Big 12) and the Liberty Bowl (SEC), these games would be joined by two new conference championship games: the Gator Bowl (Big Ten) and the Holiday Bowl (Pac-10.) A sixth bowl game, the Florida Citrus Bowl, would be hosted by the Big East champion. Two more bowl games, the Independence Bowl and the Sun Bowl, would round out the "Super Saturday" of eight bowl games that would knock off eight teams.
Under this scenario, here's how the matchup would've looked this coming weekend, trying to respect rankings where possible and historical traditions in which team goes to the Independence Bowl and Sun Bowl:
Cotton Bowl (Dallas) Big 12 - Missouri (1) - Oklahoma (9)
Florida Citrus Bowl (Orlando) Big East Host - West Virginia (2) - Brigham Young (21)
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) Big Ten - Ohio State (3) - Illinois (15)
Holiday Bowl (San Diego) Pac-10 - USC (8) - Arizona State (13)
Independence Bowl (Shreveport) - Georgia (4) - Hawaii (11)
Liberty Bowl (Memphis) SEC - LSU (5) - Tennessee (14)
Peach Bowl (Atlanta) ACC - Virginia Tech (6) - Boston College (12)
Sun Bowl (El Paso) - Kansas (7) - Florida (10)
Let's pretend the only upsets this coming weekend are Oklahoma beating Missouri (which they did last weekend) and Hawaii upsetting Georgia (which may not really be an upset, since Hawaii is undefeated.) That would lead to the four traditional big bowl games on January 1st and 2nd, with the traditional teams tied to them:
Rose Bowl - Ohio State (3, Big Ten Champion) - USC (8, Pac-10 Champion)
Fiesta Bowl Oklahoma (9, Big 12 Champion) - Hawaii (11)
Orange Bowl Virginia Tech (6, ACC Champion) - West Virginia (2, Big East Champion)
Sugar Bowl LSU (5, SEC Champion) - Kansas (7)
On the Thursday and Friday before the NFL divisional playoff weekend (January 8-9 to January 14-15), two semifinal game would be played between the four big bowl champs, with the top seeding facing the bottom on Thursday night and the other two on Friday night.
This would lead to the college football championship game, which would happen a week later on the Saturday before the two NFL conference championships. Imagine what a weekend of football that would be: the college football title game followed by the two matchups leading to the Super Bowl. Be sure to stock up on beer!
The only possible glitch in the system is continued snubbing of the five minor football conference teams. Hawaii and BYU would make it in my system, but it would be good to include a clause that any undefeated team gets an automatic bid so a team like Hawaii this year wouldn't be snubbed.
But otherwise, this system really works well. It strengthens the value of the traditional big four bowls. It strengthens the value of eight traditionally noted bowl games. It ensures the five major conferences have a place on the New Years Day bowl games. And it ultimately creates a playoff system that would likely boost college football television revenues substantially. That's probably the biggest key of all, and why I think my proposed system would be a smashing success.
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