BCS source: Playoff 'gets done' as part of new contract

[cigaretteman]

Years from now, this BCS National Championship Game won’t be remembered so much for Alabama’s utter domination of LSU as it will the beginning of radical change in college football. A national playoff is coming, everyone.
It’s only a matter of what it looks like.
“It gets done,” a high-ranking BCS official told Sporting News Monday evening.
Here’s how: over the next six months, the leaders of the sport will meet at least four times to iron out a plan that protects the importance of the regular season—the one aspect BCS leaders believe separates the game from every other—while embracing a new frontier for the poll-driven sport.
It begins Tuesday here in New Orleans with a meeting of conference commissioners, and includes meetings in Dallas in February and Miami in April. Another meeting in June is also likely, especially considering the magnitude of the potential change.
When asked what the playoff would look like, a high-ranking BCS source said there are “at least 60” different options on the table, and that includes everything from a four-team playoff to one game after all the bowls.

Read more: BCS source: Playoff 'gets done' as part of new contract - NCAA Football - Sporting News

[MLawrence]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[CycloneJames]

So if it was one game after all of the bowl games, would we see LSU vs Alabama vol.3? Yaaay...that solves everything.

[chuckd4735]

I still don't get how a four team playoff improves anything. Your just shifting the "why didn't we get a chance" complaint a little further down the line. Secondly, why are the Sun Belt, Mid American and WAC even in FBS (Division 1)? Take a page from College Basketball and give EVERY FBS team at least a shot at this thing. They play just as many football games, and work just as hard as everyone else week in and week out. We are discounting them for one reason, MONEY! Those conference teams are probably never going to make it out of the first round (not to mention they give favorable match-ups to higher seeded teams), but at least they had their chance.

[galactawitz]

I've heard so much talk about what this would look like, and how to do this while keeping the season meaningful and so on. Here are my thoughts.

I like a 12 team playoff. The reason being is that 8 gets too messy deciding what type of At-large teams get in, and 16 just seems like you'd have too much dead weight. That number would also allow the top 4 seeds to have a buy week to get healthy and prepare. These top four would most likely be the winners of whatever 4 major conferences are remaining, meaning the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and either the Pac 12 or ACC. However, the seedings would ultimately be determined by a selection team much like the NCAA Tournament.

The games would be at the higher seeds home field, the finals would be at a neutral location that rotated every year. The big advantage for the 4 top teams would be time to get healthy and prepare. The other 8 would be chosen mostly at large, though there could be some qualifications added, such as all major conference champions, and highest ranking non major teams had to be included. They would play the weekend after conference championship games. Games would continue every weekend, but the season would wrap up the same time as now. You can still keep the same bowls in place as you have now, though you could probably reduce some of them. In my mind nothing would change with them. Every one except the major ones are just bragging rights exhibition games anyway and that won't change. People will still go watch their teams get to play a non-conference opponent in nice weather.

Anyway, that is my two cents.

[HFCS]

So if it was one game after all of the bowl games, would we see LSU vs Alabama vol.3? Yaaay...that solves everything.

I will puke if it's not one game with winners from two designated games.

My lord how dumb would it be to add a plus one that still involves freaking voting, they'd be admitting THEY WANT it to be exactly like figure skating and ballroom dancing.

Hello NFL for all non-ISU football if that's the solution, lots of my friends have already become NFL only fans because of the stupidity of the BCS.

[bawbie]

I still don't get how a four team playoff improves anything. Your just shifting the "why didn't we get a chance" complaint a little further down the line.

There is no way to get rid of the "why didn't we get a chance" complaint, it happens in basketball as well. But the #3 team in the country has an exponentially better chance of winning a playoff than the #9 or #13 or even #5 team.

The lower you can push that complaint, the better the system is going to be, in my opinion at least.

[Tre4ISU]

I still don't get how a four team playoff improves anything. Your just shifting the "why didn't we get a chance" complaint a little further down the line. Secondly, why are the Sun Belt, Mid American and WAC even in FBS (Division 1)? Take a page from College Basketball and give EVERY FBS team at least a shot at this thing. They play just as many football games, and work just as hard as everyone else week in and week out. We are discounting them for one reason, MONEY! Those conference teams are probably never going to make it out of the first round (not to mention they give favorable match-ups to higher seeded teams), but at least they had their chance.

If you can't see why we don't have the same system in football as basketball, I can't help you.

[Tre4ISU]

To maintain importance of the regular season I think you have to have a 6 team playoff. That way you can reward undefeateds. If you have 4 teams, you really just have home field in the first round which is nice but not nearly as nice as a bye then home field. The top 6 teams will also definitely include all teams with a claim to being the best and you won't get massive fluke champions.

[Palmer]

Nothing like ISU sitting at home watching the playoffs every year if this come to pass.

yeaah!

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Nothing like ISU sitting at home watching the playoffs every year if this come to pass.

yeaah!

[WalkingCY]

I've heard so much talk about what this would look like, and how to do this while keeping the season meaningful and so on. Here are my thoughts.

I like a 12 team playoff. The reason being is that 8 gets too messy deciding what type of At-large teams get in, and 16 just seems like you'd have too much dead weight. That number would also allow the top 4 seeds to have a buy week to get healthy and prepare. These top four would most likely be the winners of whatever 4 major conferences are remaining, meaning the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and either the Pac 12 or ACC. However, the seedings would ultimately be determined by a selection team much like the NCAA Tournament.

The games would be at the higher seeds home field, the finals would be at a neutral location that rotated every year. The big advantage for the 4 top teams would be time to get healthy and prepare. The other 8 would be chosen mostly at large, though there could be some qualifications added, such as all major conference champions, and highest ranking non major teams had to be included. They would play the weekend after conference championship games. Games would continue every weekend, but the season would wrap up the same time as now. You can still keep the same bowls in place as you have now, though you could probably reduce some of them. In my mind nothing would change with them. Every one except the major ones are just bragging rights exhibition games anyway and that won't change. People will still go watch their teams get to play a non-conference opponent in nice weather.

Anyway, that is my two cents.

This is good, but for some reason I would see "the powers that be" only involve 6 teams in the playoffs, with the top 2 teams getting byes. Then after those two weeks we head into bowl season like it is now.

Question also: would the losers in the early play off games go to respective bowl games afterwords?

[chuckd4735]

There is no way to get rid of the "why didn't we get a chance" complaint, it happens in basketball as well. But the #3 team in the country has an exponentially better chance of winning a playoff than the #9 or #13 or even #5 team.

The lower you can push that complaint, the better the system is going to be, in my opinion at least.

I agree. You need to find a way to include every FBS conference champ into the mix...this way you can make qualifying simple...win your conference.

[chuckd4735]

If you can't see why we don't have the same system in football as basketball, I can't help you.

The reason why we don't have the same system is because of the amount of money tied up in the bowl system. There is no other conceivable argument to explain why you cant create a system that rewards each conference champ and a pool of at large candidates.

[cybsball20]

To maintain importance of the regular season I think you have to have a 6 team playoff. That way you can reward undefeateds. If you have 4 teams, you really just have home field in the first round which is nice but not nearly as nice as a bye then home field. The top 6 teams will also definitely include all teams with a claim to being the best and you won't get massive fluke champions.

The only thing you need to do to maintain the importance of the regular season is not add games to it, or even go back to 11 games. Every game will remain just as important, especially if you have a homefield scenario.