With all the bowl games going on and the national championship less than a week away comes all the chatter about why there isn’t a playoff in college football. Now as a college football fan and a student at a Division 1A University, I find all the reasons why there isn’t a playoff hysterical. A sixteen team playoff would be fair to all the conferences and the independents, and would generate millions, maybe even billions in revenue at a time when not only athletic departments, but entire universities are hitting hard financial times. The biggest argument against the playoff is that it would destroy the bowl games. Now let me make this clear, I hate the bowl games even the BS, I mean BCS ones, they are nothing but glorified exhibitions that mean absolutely nothing in terms of crowning a champion. But in order to make all those rich sponsors and bowl organizers happy, here is my proposition. In order to make room for a playoff and keep the bowl games, I would have the bowl games be played in the first week of the following season. Think about it for a second, this past season we had the Boise St.-Virginia Tech game to kick things off, which was fantastic. But imagine having Wisconsin-TCU, Arkansas-Ohio St., and Oregon-Auburn at the beginning of the season, it would be amazing in my opinion. It would keep the bowl games running and make room for what every college football fan who truly values competition wants: a playoff. This is just a thought, please share your responses.
A playoff would consist of the 11 conference champions and five at-large teams in order to be fair to the independents (Notre Dame, Army, Navy, and soon-to-be BYU). Yes, some teams would get left out that may be deserving but if the team wins their conference they are in. It is so simple win and in, lose and you play the bubble game. Just like in basketball, where every team has eventually gotten over the fact that their bubble got burst by the next season. A playoff would allow every single D-1A team a shot at a championship, something the BCS does not do. As far as where the games would be played, the first round should be on the higher seed’s campus. The following rounds and championship could be played at some of the bowl sites (i.e. Rose Bowl, Louisiana Superdome, Sun Life Stadium, Cotton Bowl, etc.) This would allow games to still be played on New Year’s Day in traditional places.
