I like the idea, but here is the problem. WHo are the current top 8?
1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. USC
6. Utah
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
So out of these top 8 we have:
3 Big XII South Teams
2 SEC Teams
1 Pac 10 team
1 Big X team
1 non BCS Conference Team
There are no ACC or Big East teams here. Why would they be ok with this system? In the current system, they get an automatic bid with maybe #16 Cincinnati and perhaps #22 Florida State. They give up lots of $ if they were to lose their automatic bowl bid. So, while I think your idea is great in Theory, it will not come to fruition.
I've got a system that gives us a playoff
AND keeps the bowls alive.
**Disclaimer** - I already know this has no chance in hell so save those posts.
Anyway, I've posted it on here the last couple of years or so, and will do so again when the regular season and conference championships are done.
What it is is a 16 team, 4 week tourney. It takes the champion of each conference and 5 at large teams, the best 5 in the BCS not already in with a conference title.
The BCS rankings still come into play as the 16 teams will be seeded using those rankings. #1 would play #16, #2 vs. #15 and so on.
The 4 big bowls, Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta would rotate for the title game. That would be the Orange Bowl this year. The Sugar Bowl (Superdome) hosted the championship game last year, so that would roatate to a 2nd round matchup with the other 2 (Rose and Fiesta) hosting the semis.
I just picked the bowls according to their payout, and it has been a few years now so these may have changed, but the bowls hosting the 1st round would be the;
Chick-fil-a Bowl
Texas Bowl
Liberty Bowl
Champs Sports Bowl
Holiday Bowl
Motor City Bowl
Music City Bowl
Meineke Car Care Bowl
The 2nd round bowls would be;
Cotton Bowl
Gator Bowl
Outback Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Semis:
Rose Bowl
Fiesta Bowl
Championship:
Orange Bowl
I know, travel, blah, blah, blah. Well, only 2 teams have to travel 4 times, and half the teams only travel once. Quit using travel as an excuse.
So just to give an idea of what it would look like, I'll just take the better record in each conference and assume they're the champs, and then pick the next 5 in the BCS.
So the first round would look something like this if the season ended today:
Chick-fil-a Bowl - #1 Alabama(SEC)/#16 Houston(CUSA)
Texas Bowl - #2 Texas(Big12)/#15 Troy (Sun Belt)
Liberty Bowl - #3 Oklahoma(At Large)/#14 Florida St.(ACC)
Champs Sports - #4 Florida(AL)/#13 Oregon St.(Pac10)
Holiday Bowl - #5 USC(AL)/#12 Cincinnati(Big East)
Motor City Bowl - #6 Utah(MWC)/#11 Ball St.(MAC)
Music City Bowl - #7 Texas Tech(AL)/#10 Ohio St.(AL)
Meineke Car Care - #8 Penn St.(Big10)/#9 Boise St.(WAC)
Picking winners at random, the 2nd round could look something like this:
Cotton Bowl - Texas/Texas Tech
Gator Bowl - Alabama/Penn St.
Outback Bowl - Florida/USC
Sugar Bowl - Oklahoma/Utah
Semis:
Rose Bowl - Texas/Oklahoma
Fiesta Bowl - Alabama/Florida or PennSt/Florida
Orange Bowl National Championship: Oklahoma/Florida or Texas/Florida
So that takes care of that, but that's not all.
The rest of the bowls get to stay in play as well as there will be another 16 team tourney, I call it the
Bowl Invitational and this will be like the NIT tournament in college hoops.
This will take the next 16 teams in the BCS and/or AP poll, and they will play it out just like the above tourney in the lesser bowls; Papa Johns, Armed Forces, Independence, etc.
The incentive to make it to the finals in this tourney would be a trip to Hawaii to play this bracket's title game in the Hawaii Bowl.
So that's my contribution to getting a playoff for college football while at the same time keeping the precious bowl system in play.
And don't doubt for a minute that this thing wouldn't be bigger than March Madness. Hell, it might even be bigger than the Super Bowl.