College Football Playoff Needs to Come Sooner Rather Than Later

Nearly every year after college football's regular season is over the debate begins about a playoff. Most feel the bowl system is flawed and is all about money. University presidents argue that scheduling could affect academics. What about the bowl games that employs a staff all year round to prepare for its bowl day and will they be done completely? What about the regular season, will it lose its luster since teams could lose 1, 2 or even 3 games and still contend for a title? For the most part these questions are smoke screens and what those that make huge profits off the bowl games use in their defense. The system is flawed and all of the questions above can be answered with a positive with a proposed playoff system.

University presidents have argued for years that bowls benefit academics by not allowing the students to miss class time. Currently, bowls begin the in mid December with the National Championship Game being played on the 2nd Monday in January. A 16 playoff could be scheduled during the same span. The first round could begin on December 17 and end on January 9 like the current bowl system. Only the teams in the National Championship Game would miss potential class time as class for most universities begin in the same week. Scheduling arguments against playoffs: smokescreen.

Most traditional football enthusiasts do not want to see the bowls go away. Those same traditionalist would agree that currently there are too many bowls in place now. Under the current system there are 35 bowls that allow teams like a lousy 6-7 UCLA team to make a bowl game. Under the 864 Sports Playoff system, we keep 15 bowls in place and no mediocre teams get in. Some good teams will be kept out but under the current system only 2 are allowed to play for a title. Playoff killing the bowl system: smokescreen.

Currently the college football regular season is a like playoff and having a playoff could take away from that. Losing one game and definitely 2 normally take you out of the BCS title hunt. But with a playoff in place with only 16 teams, every game would still be important. The NFL still manages to have an amazing regular season with parameters in place that make it difficult for teams to take it easy for a week or 2. Offering incentives for teams that make the playoff, like higher seeding for winning the Conference Championship and strength of schedule would still put value on every regular season game. Playoff causing regular season to lose its luster: smokescreen.

NCAA and university presidents worry that a playoff will lose money for the schools(even though they will not say it). Bowls do generate revenue for Universities but not all will profit. UCONN lost money due to now being able to sell its ticket allotment and it qualified for the Fiesta Bowl. Also, according to Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson, college football would essentially make over $700 million compared to only $182 million that the BCS generated last season. Also, bowls could bid on hosting playoff games simular to to the current system that college basketball uses. Some estimate that bids could reach over $90 million; $54 million than what the BCS National Championship pays out to its participants. Schools losing money with playoff: smokescreen.

Now that all the arguments against playoff system are out of the way, let's get to how the playoff system would set up and simulate how it would play out. Rules and stipulations are as follows:

• All 6 Champions of BCS Conferences receive guaranteed spots
• 3 of the 5 Non-BCS Conference Champions get in based on the final BCS Rankings
• The top 7 at large teams based on the final BCS Rankings receive bids
• No more than 4 teams from one conference can make the playoff
• The top 4 seeds go to the top 4 Conference Champions based on the final BCS Rankings
• Bowls sites would bid hosting playoff games. The current BCS Bowls would rotate hosting the semifinals and the National Championship game.

The College Football Championship Tournament-With each game simulated using www.whatifsports.com, a bowl bracket was set and simulated each game one time to determine our National Champion.

Round 1 12/16/11-12/18/11-(Bowl Site-Seed and Team-score)

• Independence Bowl-1 LSU-41 vs 16 Northern Illinios-9
• Outback Bowl-8 Boise State-33 vs 9 Kansas State-30
• Music City Bowl-5 Alabama-20 vs 12 Clemson-17
• Pinstripe Bowl-4 Wisconsin-45 vs 13 TCU-3
• Holiday Bowl-3 Oregon-31 vs 14 Southern Miss-10
• Sun Bowl-6 Stanford-30 vs 11 Virginia Tech-28
• Gator Bowl-7 Arkansas-36 vs 10 South Carolina-13
• Alamo Bowl-2 Oklahoma State-52 vs 15 West Virginia-24

2nd Round

• Chic-fil-a Bowl-1 LSU 29 vs 8 Boise State 32
• Cotton Bowl-4 Wisconsin vs 5 Alabama 34
• Capital One Bowl-2 Oklahoma State 37 vs 7 Arkansas 21
• Fiesta Bowl-3 Oregon 33 vs 6 Stanford 34

3rd Round

• Orange Bowl-5 Alabama 31 vs 8 Boise State 30
• Rose Bowl-2 Oklahoma State 31 vs 6 Stanford 45

National Championship

• Sugar Bowl-5 Alabama 36 vs 6 Stanford 31

National Champion: Alabama Crimson Tide

The simulated bracket gives us the excitement of March Madness with superstars leading the way and a few Cinderella teams pulling off upsets. Six games decided by 3 points or less. Boise State, pushes the SEC to the limits by upsetting LSU and then losing to Bama by 1. Heisman finalists, Trent Richardson and Andrew Luck faceoff in a Championship game that was decided on the field instead of by using polls. We wouldn't be missing out on 4 weeks of teams battling for the opportunity to play for a National title instead of meaningless bowl games between 6-6 Illinois and 6-7 UCLA.