Article:What College Football Needs.....A 12 Team Playoff

Originally posted at Jumping Offsides in 3 separate parts.

For part 1...click here. I dispelled arguments against a playoff including the weakening of the regular season and the length of season. For part 2...click here. I explained why an 8 or 16 team playoff wouldn't work.

So now there is only one other thing left to do.

A 12 team playoff.

12 teams....conference champions plus 6.

I think the best way to do it is just rank the teams by their BCS rankings. Including all 6 BCS conference champions and the next 6 highest ranked BCS teams, REGARDLESS of conference. There will be NO LIMIT to how many schools from one conference in this playoff. If you are with in the parameters for the playoff than you are in.

This years teams:

1. Oklahoma (Big 12 Champ) 2. Florida (SEC Champ) 3. Texas (at-large) 4. Alabama (at-large) 5. USC (PAC 10 Champ) 6. Utah (at-large) 7. Texas Tech (at-large) 8. Penn State (Big 10 Champ) 9. Boise State (at-large) 10. Ohio State (at-large 11. Cincinnati (Big East Champ) 12. Virginia Tech (ACC Champ)

Now I am sure you are saying well there isn't an even number of teams so how will this work. Simple....give the top 4 teams a bye week. The bottom 8 play and the winners there play the top 4 and then you move on.

I don't think you would get many arguments from teams lower either (at least this year) because really Ohio State shouldn't be getting an invite. It expands past the 8 team theory to allow the non-BCS schools and other schools that deserve a chance but doesn't get to the 16 team theory that would include 3 loss teams.

The Schematics:

First 2 rounds at the higher seeds campus. This would help with travel costs and assure that fans could and would show up to the games with ease. After that you would put the final 4 into 2 of the current BCS bowls (Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose). The Championship would be at another BCS bowl site.


 * the bowl sites will rotate each year, so once every four years a BCS bowl site would NOT be part of the playoff and would have a normal bowl game like they currently do*

The 1st round would take place the week after the season ends (this weekend coming up) on Friday (one game at 8:00) and Saturday (other 3 games). The 2nd round would take place the following week with the same Friday/Saturday split. The reason for the 2 night setup is so all the games can be televised. The semi finals would take place on January 1st and the National Championship a week later. This gives teams a week off in the middle to rest and get ready for more games.

The schedule:

Using this seasons rankings and this year's calendar this would be the playoff:


 * I am going to assume the higher seed wins but if not the lowest seed would play the highest seed in next round

Round 1 December 12th/13th Virginia Tech @ USC 8:00 Cincinnati @ Utah 8:00 (Friday) Ohio State @ Texas Tech 4:00 Boise State @ Penn State 12:00

Round 2 December 20th Penn State @ Oklahoma 4:00 Texas Tech @ Florida 12:00 Utah @ Texas 8:00 (Friday) USC @ Alabama 8:00

Round 3 (semi-finals) January 1 Alabama vs Oklahoma (Sugar Bowl) 3:00 Texas vs Florida (Fiesta Bowl) 8:00

Round 4 (National Championship) January 8 Oklahoma vs Florida (Orange Bowl) 8:00

Now that would be exciting!! I would watch EVERY SINGLE GAME! And I bet most other people would too. Could you imagine the TV ratings for the semi-final games on NEW YEAR'S DAY? Everything would be on the line.

I mean you are getting Alabama vs Oklahoma on NEW YEAR'S DAY!! AND Texas vs Florida!! And before that you get Penn State @ Oklahoma and USC @ Alabama!!

How could you not LOVE this set up?

That is in my opinion, which unfortunately means very little, on what would be the best possible thing for college football. There is NO WAY an 8 or 16 team playoff would add as much drama. And the regular season wouldn't lose much either. Sure a game or two (Fla/Bama this year, Mich/OSU a couple years ago) would lose SOME LUSTER but really wouldn't the fans be WINNING with the games we get after the season?

I think so.

What do you all think?