There's No Arguing Against Having A Tournament!!

Right now is the perfect time to put the final touches on this blog argument. We have just witnessed one of the greatest sports events, the NCAA basketball tournament. For nearly a month, the NCAA tournament was at the center of the sports universe. Big name schools we often able to squash the little schools. This is almost to be expected. But then every once in a while a small school would pull off the upset. In the end it came down to David vs. Goliath. Butler vs. Duke. Although Butler gave it a valiant effort they came up a bit short. Literally. In this clip, the Butler Bulldogs final shot fell just short, dashing their dream of pulling off an upset.
College Football could have this fame. Even more! Their fan following is unprecedented in college athletics. They could have America begging for more. It would give the little guys a chance to at least be on the same field and show that they belong just as Butler has shown the basketball world that they belong.
Instead, another season will go by where we live happily during an eventful regular season, then we are submitted to a stale postseason made up of Goliath vs Goliath battles. The smaller schools will be relegated to meaningless bowl games while the Alabama's, Texas', and Florida's play each other to see who is the champion over all of college football. They may win the Goliath vs. Goliath battles, but just remember who won in the true David vs Goliath battle.

My Proposal

The first round playoff games will be played at the major bowl sites. Fiesta, Sugar, Rose, and Orange. 8 Teams will participate in this tournament that will be held just after New Years Day. The winners of these 4 games will continue to the semi-finals and eventually the final game. This scenario makes it so the winner is determined on the field, not by computers. Although there will be debate about which 8 teams get selected to play in the tournament, the National Champion will have no debate. A tournament is the perfect situation to determine who is the best team.
College football must find a way for this to happen. not only will it determine a true National Champion, but the money will pour in at this time. Stadiums will be filled to capacity, a capacity that averages 80,000 for the four big bowl venues. 80,000 fans is nearly the whole population of Orem, Utah!!
This scenario is a win-win situation for the BCS and Universities around the country.

Playoffs can create more revenue

As sad as it seems, even college football is being corrupted with big money making ways. Even though the players do not get paid for their efforts, the colleges sure do!! This article in the Orlando Sentinel ranks the schools by the total revenue they took in during the 2007-08 year. Some noteworthy schools include BYU who took in over 36 million during that year. This money is gained through many sources. Tickets sold provides a big percent of the income, also TV contracts and other advertisement methods make up this large sum of money.
College Football is the top earner above all other college sports. This revenue gained is very important to the school. The money goes directly to the school and can lead to better on campus facilities and can be used as the university desires.
Implementing a college football playoff would increase the revenue to these schools. TV contracts to show these very intense playoff games would be sold at a very high price.
Also, currently each school plays 12 regular season games and occasionally a conference championship game. If the team is invited to a Bowl game they play one post season game. A playoff would extend the season, creating more games for these schools. More games equals more money for these money making universities.

Regular Season Enhancement

Some people think that creating a playoff for college football would ruin the best part of college football, the regular season. As it is, the regular season is pretty much like a playoff because if you lose a game you pretty much can kiss your national championship aspirations goodbye.
With an 8 team playoff, the stakes would be the same. You have to be an 'elite' team to qualify for the playoff. Just think of our current March Madness, then add the most popular sport in America and you've got a recipe for a great season with tons of fan following.
TV ratings would sore for both the regular season and the playoffs. Hype would be even greater because of the elimination possibility.
Think of the possibilities!!

Bowl Traditions Kept

One of the biggest fears of bowl committee chairmen and college presidents with a playoff is the fear that the bowl games themselves will lose their long storied history. The Rose Bowl for example has been a staple on New Years day for nearly a century. It is kicked off every New Years with the Rose Bowl Parade. Each year the game features the winners of the powerful Pac-10 conference against the winner of the Big-10 conference. The Rose Bowl is packed with over 90,000 excited fans and the TV ratings are enormous. It is a big production that produces a lot of revenue. The same goes for many other bowl games.
My proposed playoff will not lose these traditions. In fact, the traditions will be intensified, as the winners of these games will continue to play. Each of the four big bowls, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose, and Orange, will be used as semi-final and final games to determine a champion. The excitement will be tremendous. The teams will be playing for much more than simply a 'bowl victory.'
The games will continue to be played and the money will continue to come in for these teams, conferences, and bowl games.

A New Postseason

Now that we've gotten to the bottom of the problems with the current College Football Postseason, I propose a plan to fix the problem.

a. The top 8 teams in the nation, based on record and poll rankings, are seeded in a playoff bracket to decide the national champion. It will take three weekends to produce a champion but the winner will have to prove it by winning the tournament.

b. This playoff will begin in mid-December with four games to decide who will advance to the semifinals. The tournament will be played in the Rose bowl, the Orange bowl, the Fiesta bowl, and the Sugar bowl. It will culminate the first weekend of January.

c. Which conference you play in will hold no bearing as to your admittance into the eight team tournament, but your strength of schedule and regular season record will. This will allow multiple teams from one conference to be in the tournament as well as smaller schools that are normally left out of the national championship mix.

Problems With the System

There are several problems with the current BCS system, but to explain all of them would require me to write a several hundred page book. I just don't have that kind of time. But to narrow it down to the biggest problems with the system is very doable.
1. The reason why 120 college football programs play their seasons is to hopefully be on top by the end and win the national championship, or be the best team in all the land. The problem is that there is no definite winner in college football postseason. Because there is not a playoff, teams don't get to compete head-to-head to see who is the best. Instead, people vote on who should get to be the two teams in the national championship game. Computer rankings are released and accordingly, the two strongest ranked teams are matched up.
2. The little guys outside of the major BCS conferences can go undefeated and still not have a chance of winning it all. Several small schools such as Utah and Boise State have gone undefeated but never sniffed the national championship. Because these teams do not bolster tougher schedules, they are considered inferior to the BCS conference teams.
3. Other than the national championship game, the rest of the 30-some odd bowl games are completely irrelevant and mean nothing. The bowl games are played to gain revenue and keep football traditions, but the team is playing for nothing.