Hey, I have a wild idea -- how about making the Bowl Championship Series an actual, you know, SERIES? I know, I know, this is crazy talk I'm spouting here. But it is called a "series" and it's really anything but. And yes, I know we need to get used to the idea that universities and the old, crotchety men who control the bowl games are not interested in a playoff.... BUT, it's fun to talk about this time of year. And I think one of the main reasons it's fun for me to talk about is that it's just so damn simple and logical to come up with any number of better scenarios to close out the college football season than the way they currently do that it's laughable.
First, the arguments against a playoff or bracket-type tourney need to go away. This argument that the players are in school and all that crap is downright insulting to the rest of us. College basketball players miss tons of school since many of their games are played on weeknights and then nearly all conferences have a conference tourney in early March followed by the famous gigantic nationwide tourney for the rest of March and into April. Yet they all seem to get by.
And let's not forget that college football players travel all season long. And they play spring ball. So to suggest a few more games in late December or early January -- when nearly every single school in the nation is on break -- would hurt these guys academically is disingenuous at best and a giant F you to the fans with working brains at worst.
How about the idea that they shouldn't play so many games since they're only in college and aren't professionals. This is similar to the argument too many OTs are "dangerous." Please. Where was the concern over additional games when D-1 schools were allowed to add a 12th regular season game a few years back? Where's the concern about those conferences that have a conference championship game?
Speaking of which, one of the other idiotic arguments that are always brought up is that you can't ask a school's fans and alumni to travel to multiple playoff games. Why not, exactly? They play 4-6 road games a year and fans travel to those. And the aforementioned conference championships put teams into "playoff" type games far from home already once.... and then you add a bowl game, so you're already asking the fans to travel many times. What's a couple more? Do people really think that Ohio State fans or LSU fans or Oklahoma fans or Michigan fans or USC fans wouldn't travel to multiple playoff games? Really? Of course not... nobody really believes that the fans wouldn't be there. It's idiotic and, again, insulting to suggest that. People go to the effing Music City Bowl; they'll come to playoff games.
So what do I propose? Well, I propose what I've proposed to anyone who will listen for several years now. A small playoff, consisting of the top 6 teams in the country. Feel free to continue to use the BCS formula to determine this listing. And feel free to keep all the crappy bowl games that currently exist. Sure, they won't mean anything but, guess what -- they don't mean anything now, either!
Your top-6 BCS ranked teams are as follows:
1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Va Tech
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Mizzou
Sure, we've eliminated teams like USC, Kansas, WVU and Hawaii. But you can make easy cases to exclude them just like the cases made to exclude them from the title game: USC lost to a 41-point dog at home, Kansas played the 109th schedule in the nation, WVU just lost to Dave Wannstadt, and Hawaii plays in a joke conference.
Another supposed ill of a playoff is that it would make the regular season not mean as much. I beg to differ. Notice that Michigan is still gone? And USC? And one-loss Kansas? I'd say those teams would find their regular season games just as critical as they do under the current system, wouldn't you agree?
And if you're going to complain that "perfect" Hawaii doesn't get a shot under my system, then you're right. But they get no shot under the current system, either. And let them play four or five tough nonconference games and then their cupcake conference and maybe their strength of schedule will get them into the top 6.
In addition, one more way to make the regular season continue to "matter" and those to keep those top 2 spots just as coveted as they are now, would be to give teams #1 and 2 a bye in the first round of the Boiled Sports Championship Series (BSCS).
First up, for argument's sake, is #3 Va Tech versus #6 Mizzou. And let's just say that's played in the Sugar Bowl. That same weekend is #4 Oklahoma versus #5 Georgia in, for example, the Fiesta Bowl.
Now, even in this college football season where there has been so much upheaval and no clear above-the-cut teams, imagine the possibilities here. First of all, Oklahoma versus UGA would be an awesome matchup that a lot of people would love to see. It'd be like the current BCS Orange Bowl except that, after it's over, the winner would be moving on to another huge game.
So now we've got two winners from the first weekend of the BSCS. Let's say, just for fun, that it's Oklahoma and Mizzou. Well, now we bring OSU and LSU into the fray and continue with highest seed playing lowest seed, and so forth.
The National Semi-Finals would be #1 Ohio State versus #6 Mizzou in the Rose Bowl, while #2 LSU and #4 Oklahoma would tangle in the Fiesta Bowl.
And then what might happen? Could Mizzou's dream season continue and perhaps put them into a National Championship against the one team able to beat them (twice) this year, Oklahoma? Or maybe OSU and LSU would wind up against one another for the title anyway. Who knows?
What we do know is that this would make for an impossible-to-dispute national champ and it would take all of three weekends. Looking at this year's calendar, how about 12/22, 12/29 and 1/5? Or 12/29, 1/5 and 1/12? It's right in the same wheelhouse as the current bowl dates and the most your team would play is three total games, or two more than they're currently playing.
Now, obviously, there are those who would love a system like this to be expanded to two dozen teams or things like that. But I've got no problem with keeping it exclusive. I do agree that one of college football's wonderful things is how critical the regular season games are. Expanding this playoff field much bigger would indeed minimize that importance.
Beyond these six teams, as I said, the other bowls that litter the landscape of college football could very easily continue to be played without upsetting anything or anyone. Those 7-5 teams out there would still love some postseason football and the bowls would love the cash. It's a perfect match.
As for the BCS bowls, you just keep rotating them as to who has the first round, semi-finals, etc., just like they currently rotate the national title game. It's really not that hard. Hell, I was able to come up with this and I think about boobs most of the day.
Your thoughts are welcome in the comments.