College Football Bowl Playoff System

So yeah, I figured since it has been over 1 year since the last post on the sight, it better be a good one. Well, here goes.

I have devised a Bowl Playoff System to determine an NCAA Division IFootball Champion. There are currently 34 bowl games, so with a 32 team playoff system, 31 of the current bowls could be used todetermine a National Champion.

Here's how I came up with the 32 teams: 11 conference champions; ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big 10,Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Pac 10, Sun Belt, SEC, and WAC, along with at least one independent for 12 automatic bids.

A second team from the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big 10, Pac 10, and SEC isguaranteed (second team does not have to be a division winner in conferences with more than one division). Second team from those 6 conferences will generally be decided upon by the conference. Before each season, conferences will vote on whether they will take the team with the second best conference record or decide by a blind vote by the coaches. If the record is chosen, first tie breaker will be head to head competition, second tie breaker will be blind vote by the coaches with a tie to be settled by the conference commissioner. If the blind vote is chosen, the tie breaker will be head to head competition. If there was no head to head match-up that season, the conference commissioner will determine the second team to receive a bid.

After the second team is selected by each of the 6 conferences, the remaining 14 bids will be at large bids and will be determined loosely by the polls. A committee of one representative from each conference will select the final 14 teams and determine seeding. The six major conference champions shall have a seeding of no lower than 3 entering the playoff regardless of record or ranking in the polls.

Teams mustbe over .500 overall and in conference play to qualify.

The 3 bowls I didn't end up using were the International Bowl, LasVegas Bowl, and whatever bowl is in St. Petersburg, FL. These bowls will either be eliminated outrightly, or can simply be played on a date not interfering with the playoffs, hopefully before the playoffs begin.

Now, obviously, logistical considerations haven't been given to this system, nor has working out when these Athlete/Students would take exams, especially if they are on a trimester plan. That being said, here is the format (and I'm using dates for what would be this year's playoffs).

The first round of games would occur the Wednesday through Saturdayafter the final week of the regular season (12/10-12/13), and the regular season shall always end by the first Saturday or Sunday in December (this works out well, because this year is the latest possible start to the playoffs we would see). Winners would face off Thursday through Saturday the following weekend (12/18-12/20), the Quarterfinals would be held the following Friday or Saturday(12/26-12/27). The final 7 bowl games are the marquee bowls; Capital One, Cotton, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange, Rose, and Championship bowl. Thetwo semi-final bowls will be played on New Year's Day unless that day falls on a Sunday and will interfere will a full day of NFL games, then they will be played on Saturday, December, 31st. The Championship Bowl will be played on the first Friday or Saturday occurring between 1/6 and 1/12 so there is a minimum of 5 and no more than 11 days between the semi-finals and finals. The Championship Bowl will be rotated through the Fiesta, Rose, Orange, and Sugar Bowl sites. The quarter and semi-final bowls will rotate their spot in the bracket each year, moving one space clockwise. For example, from this year's bracket to next year, the quarterfinal bowls would be: the Cotton, Orange, Sugar, and Capital One, with the Semi-Finals being the Fiesta and Rose.

So now that we have that set up, here is what I came up with. I tried to divide the regions to West, South, East, North teams and named the regions thusly.

In the West, the first round would look like this:

(12/10-12/13)

Holiday Bowl (San Diego, CA)
1 Texas vs 8 Troy

Humanitarian Bowl (Boise, ID)
4 Oklahoma St vs 5 Oregon

Poinsettia Bowl (San Diego, CA)
3 Boise State vs 6 BYU

Hawaii Bowl (Honolulu, HA)
2 USC vs 7 Tulsa


SOUTH

Alamo Bowl (San Antonio, TX)
1 Oklahoma vs 8 Oregon State

Emerald Bowl (San Francisco, CA)
4 TCU vs 5 Missouri

New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque, NM)
3 Utah vs. 6 Hawaii

Independence Bowl (Shreveport, LA)
2 Texas Tech vs 7 Rice


EAST

Papajohns.com Bowl (Birmingham, AL)
1 Alabama vs 8 ECU

Champs Sports Bowl (Orlando, FL)
4 Cincinnati vs 5 LSU

Meineke Bowl (Charlotte, NC)
3 Georgia Tech vs 6 Michigan State

New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, LA)
2 Ohio State vs 7 Navy


NORTH

Motor City Bowl (Detroit, MI)
1 Florida vs 8 Buffalo

GMAC Bowl (Mobile, AL)
4 Ball State vs 5 Virginia Tech

Eagle Bank Bowl (Washington, DC)
3 Georgia vs 6 Florida State

Music City Bowl (Nashiville, TN)
2 Penn State vs 7 Pittsburgh


***** For the remaining rounds, I have moved the higher seed to thenext round.*****

Second Round (12/18-12/20)

WEST

Insight Bowl (Tempe, AZ)
1 Texas vs 4 Oklahoma State

Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX)
2 USC vs 3 Boise State


SOUTH

Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, TX)
1 Oklahoma vs 4 TCU

Texas Bowl (Houston, TX)
2 Texas Tech vs 3 Utah


NORTH

Outback Bowl (Tampa, FL)
1 Alabama vs 4 Cincinnati

Chick-fil-A Bowl (Atlanta, GA)
2 Ohio State vs 3 Georgia Tech


EAST

Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, FL)
1 Florida vs 4 Ball State

Liberty Bowl (Memphis, TN)
2 Penn State vs 3 Georgia


QUARTER FINALS (12/26 or 12/27)


WEST

Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, AZ)
1 Texas vs 2 USC


SOUTH

Cotton Bowl (Dallas, TX)
1 Oklahoma vs 2 Texas Tech


NORTH

Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, LA)
1 Alabama vs 2 Ohio State


EAST

Capital One Bowl (Orlando, FL)
1 Florida vs 2 Penn State


SEMI FINALS (1/1/09)

West vs South

Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA)
1 Texas vs 1 Oklahoma


North vs East

Orange Bowl (Miami, FL)
1 Alabama vs 1 Florida


Championship Bowl (1/10/09)

Dolphin Stadium (Miami, FL)
1 Oklahoma vs 1 Florida


So there you are, feel free to discuss.


-Until next time...