NCAA Football Tournament

New Brackets for 2011-2012 Bowl Season

2011-12-08T20:27:00.001-05:00

http://playerschoicegames.com/store/ncaa2011-2012playoff.pdf

NCAA Football 2010-2011 Playoff Brackets

2010-12-16T23:58:00.000-05:00

Click on the Link below for the 2010-2011 Brackets. Print them out. Hand them to as many people as you can. Get the word out. This is how the College Football season should end.

http://atlanticcoastconcrete.net/ncaa2010playoff.pdf

We have taken the top 64 teams and seeded them accordingly.

The first round games will be played at the home stadium of the higher seeded team.

The final rounds can be played in different regions. North, South, East, and West. Bowl affiliation can be linked to each game. All advertisement and bowl deals can be kept. The games will have more meaning and will make alot more money. Everyone benefits!!

NCAA Football 2010-2011 Playoff Seeds

2010-12-16T23:35:00.001-05:00

We took the CBS College Football Rankings and have created seeds for each team.

Rank Team Seed
1 Oregon 1
2 Auburn 1
3 TCU 1
4 Wisconsin 1
5 Stanford 2
6 Ohio State 2
7 Michigan State 2
8 Arkansas 2
9 Boise State 3
10 Virginia Tech 3
11 Oklahoma 3
12 LSU 3
13 Nebraska 4
14 Missouri 4
15 Nevada 4
16 Oklahoma State 4
17 Texas A & M 5
18 Alabama 5
19 South Carolina 5
20 Utah 5
21 Mississipi State 6
22 West Virginia 6
23 Florida State 6
24 UCF 6
25 Hawaii 7
26 Connecticut 7
27 North Carolina State 7
28 Miami (Ohio) 7
29 Northern Illinois 8
30 Air Force 8
31 Maryland 8
32 Navy 8
33 Tulsa 9
34 San Diego State 9
35 Penn State 9
36 Notre Dame 9
37 Fresno State 10
38 Arizona 10
39 North Carolina 10
40 South Florida 10
41 Texas Tech 11
42 Florida 11
43 Michigan 11
44 Miami 11
45 Iowa 12
46 Pittsburgh 12
47 Northwestern 12
48 Baylor 12
49 Ohio 13
50 SMU 13
51 Georgia 13
52 Illinois 13
53 Toledo 14
54 Boston College 14
55 Southern Mississipi 14
56 Syracuse 14
57 Kansas State 15
58 Tennessee 15
59 Kentucky 15
60 Clemson 15
61 Georgia Tech 16
62 BYU 16
63 Washington 16
64 East Carolina 16

Finally, Mark Cuban has a plan to put the BCS out of its misery

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

By Matt Hinton

Here's how the world works when you're as filthy, stinking rich as dot-com billionaire Mark Cuban: 1) You buy a basketball team; 2) You get a little bored after a few years; 3) You try to buy a baseball team; 4) You fail in your attempt to buy a baseball team; 5) You start reading a book about how terrible the Bowl Championship Series is.

And if you're as ambitious and impulsive as Cuban, 6) You take it upon yourself to use your fortune to personally fund a playoff system that will render the BCS obsolete. From ESPN Dallas:

Cuban, the outspoken owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, told ESPNDallas.com on Wednesday that he is "actively interested but in the exploratory stage" of creating and funding a playoff system to crown a champion for major college football.

"The more I think about it, the more sense it makes as opposed to buying a baseball team," said Cuban, who tried to buy the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers within the last few years. "You can do something the whole country wants done."

Cuban said he has talked to two athletic directors from BCS conferences who were extremely enthusiastic about the idea. He intends to contact several school presidents and state senators in the coming weeks to determine whether the idea is worth pursuing.

Cuban called the BCS "an inefficient business where there's obviously a better way of doing it," and that puts him in pretty good company: Congressmen, senators, lobbyists, the Department of Justice, attorneys general, university presidents, the president of the United States, Sports Illustrated cover stories and more than a few big-name head coaches are way ahead of him. Let's make this happen!

Wait, how are we going to make this happen?

"Put $500 million in the bank and go to all the schools and pay them money as an option," Cuban said. "Say, 'Look, I'm going to give you X amount every five years. In exchange, you say if you're picked for the playoff system, you'll go.'" […]

"[The BCS is] an inefficient business where there's obviously a better way of doing it," Cuban said. "The only thing that's kept them from doing it is a lack of capital, which I can deal with. …"

Wait, money is standing in the way? You mean the television networks aren't willing to foot something on the order of the $11 billion deal the NCAA struck with CBS and Turner Sports earlier this year for rights to the basketball tournament?

That might come as news to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, anti-playoff enemy No. 1, who told Congress in 2005 that "an NFL-style football playoff would generate three or four times" more than "the current system does." It might surprise ACC commissioner John Swofford, too, who said last year "a playoff of some type would generate more money than the current BCS," and SEC commissioner Mike Slive, who told the Orlando Sentinel last summer that the opposition to a playoff has "never been about the money," and "it's not the money that will … drive [the] SEC's decisions about postseason football." That's coming from the guy who once proposed a "plus one" format to fellow BCS commissioners that was essentially a four-team playoff.

If "capital" was all that was standing in the way – with no regard to preserving current television contracts, lopsided revenue distribution and other traditions – it stands to reason that gap would have been filled by now by a network or other outside party that would see a return on its investment and then some in colossal TV ratings. But maybe not; I'm not in the board rooms. Maybe Cuban is the first guy, after all these years, with the will and the bank account to achieve the heretofore impossible dream. Hey, that's why he's an innovator. Godspeed, dude.

Congress seeks bowls truth

2009-06-02T08:34:00.000-04:00

A congressman said he plans to investigate testimony from Alamo Bowl executive director Derrick Fox at this month’s Bowl Championship Series subcommittee hearing after learning that Fox might have exaggerated by millions of dollars the amount bowl games donate to local charities.

Fox, while representing all 34 bowl games during his appearance on Capitol Hill on May 1, claimed in his argument against a playoff that “almost all the postseason bowl games are put on by charitable groups” and “local charities receive tens of millions of dollars every year.”

In fact, 10 bowl games are privately owned and one is run by a branch of a local government. The remaining 23 games enjoy tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, but combined to give just $3.2 million to local charities on $186.3 million in revenue according to their most recent federal tax records and interviews with individual bowl executives.

Read More
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ys-congressbcs052509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

House committee hears BCS official

2009-05-01T13:55:00.000-04:00

A congressman who wants to see college football adopt a playoff system is comparing the Bowl Championship Series to communism.

Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas said Friday that efforts to tinker with the BCS are bound to fail. He told a House hearing that the BCS is like communism and can't be fixed.

Barton has introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from labeling a game a national championship unless it's the outcome of a playoff system.

The coordinator of the BCS told the panel Friday that a switch to a playoff system -- favored by fans, President Barack Obama and some lawmakers -- would threaten the existence of celebrated bowl games.

Sponsorships and TV revenue that now go to bowl games would instead be spent on playoff games, "meaning that it will be very difficult for any bowl, including the current BCS bowls, which are among the oldest and most established in the game's history, to survive," BCS coordinator John Swofford said in prepared testimony. "Certainly the 29 games that are not part of the BCS would be in peril."

Swofford was appearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee, some of whose members back legislation aimed at prodding the BCS to switch to a playoff system.

Under the BCS, some conferences get automatic bids to participate, and others do not. Conferences that get an automatic bid -- the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC -- get about $18 million each, far more than the non-conference schools. Swofford is also commissioner of the ACC.

Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West Commission, which does not get an automatic bid, said in prepared testimony that the current system is patently unfair.

"Such economic disparities and anomalies cannot be justified and should not continue," he said. "Many have said the current BCS system ensures a permanent underclass. They are right."

The MWC has proposed a playoff system and hired a Washington firm to lobby Congress for changes to the BCS, which currently features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS standings, based on two polls and six computer ratings.

The MWC proposes, among others things, scrapping the BCS standings and creating a 12-member committee to pick which teams receive at-large bids, and to select and seed the eight teams chosen for the playoff. The BCS has previously discussed, and dismissed, the idea of using a selection committee.

The four current BCS games -- the Sugar, Orange, Rose and Fiesta bowls -- would host the four first-round playoff games under the proposal. Thompson argued that a playoff system would be a boon for those bowls, because they would help determine the national champion.

Thompson said that under the current system, teams that don't come from a conference with a guaranteed bid have no realistic chance of winning a BCS championship.

Swofford argued that criticism that the BCS guarantees berths and money to only some conferences "states the situation exactly backward." Prior to the BCS, he said, the conferences that now have automatic bids were guaranteed an attractive bowl slot for its champion.

"If the BCS were to disappear tomorrow, each of those conferences would return to the marketplace and obtain a similarly attractive bowl slot on its own through individual negotiation, most likely in one of the current BCS games," he said. But there would no longer be guaranteed annual bowl game pairing the top two ranked teams.

The BCS is in its final season of a four-year deal with the Fox network. A new four-year deal with ESPN, worth $125 million per year, begins with the 2011 bowl games.

The BCS has come under attack from a range of politicians. Last November, then President-elect Obama told "60 Minutes" he would prefer an eight-team playoff system.

"I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this," he said then. "So I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit."

In the Senate, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch has put the BCS on the agenda for the Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee this year, and Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, is investigating whether the BCS violates federal antitrust laws.

Fans were furious that Utah was bypassed for the national championship despite going undefeated in the regular season. The title game pitted No. 1 Florida (12-1) against No. 2 Oklahoma (12-1); Florida won 24-14 and claimed the title.

USC's Pete Carroll: BCS vs. a college football playoff

2009-02-10T11:23:00.000-05:00

After beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl, USC head coach Pete Carroll talks about politicking to get higher in the BCS and his continued desire to see a college football playoff. For more USC coverage from the LA Times, go to

http://www.latimes.com/trojans

Barack Obama on College Football Playoff

2009-01-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

Chris Berman interviews Barack Obama on Monday Night

Rep. Barton introduces Bill to Scrap BCS

2009-01-15T11:25:00.000-05:00

Congressman Joe Barton (R-Arlington/Ennis) issued the following statement after introducing a bill to eliminate the Bowl Championship Series:

"The Energy and Commerce Committee is vested with the responsibility for overseeing sports, and that includes the current process for determining a national college football champion: the BCS system. College football is more than an exhilarating sport, it’s a billion-dollar business. I’m introducing legislation today because despite every effort to fix the problems of BCS, college seasons still end in sniping and controversy, rather than clear winners and losers determined on the field.

“The BCS system was created to identify a broadly accepted national champion, but 50 percent of the time it has failed to do so. Most coaches who lose half their games would also lose their jobs. Yet that's what we settle for in determining a champion today.

“The BCS system of determining America's top collegiate team was established in 1998 and has been plagued by controversy almost ever since. In some years the sport's national championship winner was left unsettled, and at least one school was left out of the many millions of dollars in revenue that accompany the title. Despite repeated efforts to improve the system, the controversy rages on.

“In the 2003 season, the University of Oklahoma and Louisiana State University were selected to play in the title game, even though the University of Southern California arguably had an equal claim. LSU beat Oklahoma and USC also won its bowl game, leaving both schools claiming be national champions and further chafing millions of college football fans, especially USC alumni. As a direct result of LSU's selection by BCS, the school's merchandise sales in both 2003 and 2004 were more than double previous levels, producing millions of dollars in additional revenue for the school.

“In the 2004 season, again three equally qualified and, in this case, undefeated teams -- Auburn, Oklahoma and USC -- fought for the two slots in the title game, which once again produced an uneven outcome as USC defeated Oklahoma handily. Auburn won its game, but had no opportunity to play for a national championship and the millions of dollars that accompany it.

“This year, we again have two teams with one loss each playing for the ‘championship’ while two undefeated teams and four additional teams with only one loss will play in bowl games, but none can become ‘champion.’

"The distinction of being the best brings millions of dollars in revenue, but the BCS method of determining who is number one consistently misfires. When we held our first hearing on BCS in 2005, I didn't have legislation in mind, and I hoped none would be necessary. Simply exposing the flaws and subjecting them to discussion, however, hasn’t led to improvement by those who run the system.”

“The legislation I am introducing along with Congressmen Bobby Rush and Michael McCaul recognizes the flaws of this system. Consumers, whether the millions who watch the game on TV or the lucky few who pay for a ticket to the computer-designated ‘championship’ game, are being deceived. The BCS championship game is not a championship game under any sensible interpretation of the manner in which sports champions are determined.

“The legislation we are introducing today will prohibit the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a post-season game as a ‘national championship’ football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system. Violations of the prohibition will be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice, and provides the FTC with civil penalty authority.

“The legislation does not specify the details of the playoff system, rather only that all Division I, Football Bowl Subdivision, teams should be initially eligible at the start of every season. The existing bowl structure could easily be incorporated into or as the basis for such a playoff system.

“We’re never going to abolish all controversy, and who’d really want to be rid of it, anyway? People will argue about who should be in and out of playoffs, too, but I am confident when more of the most deserving teams can compete, a true national champion is much likelier to emerge.”

Gators win BCS, but are they No. 1?

2009-01-11T11:17:00.001-05:00

By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN.com

MIAMI -- This is all your fault, USC. If you hadn't thrown up on your thigh pads at Oregon State on Sept. 25, the national championship debate wouldn't be tied up in square knots.

Instead, we're still stuck wondering whether we have the right team getting fitted for title rings.

Is it the University of Tebow, which beat Oklahoma on Thursday night to claim the BCS championship?

Is it Utah, the only undefeated team in the country?

Is it one-loss Texas, which still can't believe it got squeezed out of the BCS title game?

Or is it one-loss USC, which pile-drived Penn State in the Rose Bowl and probably stole the glasses off JoePa's statue, too? But -- sigh -- the Trojans couldn't beat Oregon State for the second time in three seasons.

And the answer is …

Who knows for sure?

I know who'd get my vote: Florida, but with an asterisk the size of Tebow's heart.

The Gators won a crystal trophy, but the victory over OU was as artistic as a finger painting. It isn't the first time a BCS Championship Game didn't live up to the hype. No shame there.

The difference is that there are three other teams that think they deserved a confetti shower -- or at least the chance to have played for a national title. So what would the Gators say to Utah, Texas and USC?

"Sorry you can't be here," said Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap, who was named the defensive player of the game.

"Good luck next year," defensive tackle Lawrence Marsh said.

Controversy? The Gators didn't notice any controversy after the 24-14 win.

"I think our résumé speaks for itself," wide receiver David Nelson said. "In my opinion, we are national champions."

In Utah's opinion, Florida has one more loss than the Utes' tally, which was zero. Florida ran the table in October, November, December and January. Utah ran the season.

In Texas' opinion, Florida has the same number of losses as the Longhorns (one), the same number of wins against Oklahoma (one) and the same margin of victory against the Sooners (10). But Texas' victory came on a neutral field and the Gators essentially played a home game at Dolphin Stadium. Even UF coach Urban Meyer admitted as much afterward.

In USC's opinion, Florida has the same number of losses, but not the same momentum or same talent. After all, remember Pete Carroll's dis of Florida and Oklahoma after the Trojans' Rose Bowl win? Said Carroll: "With all due respect, those are two great programs, I don't think anybody can beat the Trojans."

Carroll isn't the only one who thinks so. The problem is that we'll never know whether USC would have beaten Florida or Oklahoma. Probably? Maybe? Maybe not?

"We saw the two best teams in America go after each other," said Meyer in the wee hours of Friday morning -- and he wasn't talking about USC as one of the two.

Meyer has a tendency to exaggerate. Then again, he has earned the right after winning two BCS championships in the past three years. Anyway, Meyer said this was "one of the greatest college football games that's occurred."

Not for the first 2½ quarters it wasn't. It was intensely played, that's for sure. But four interceptions -- two thrown by Tebow, two by Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford (they had a combined eight INTs for the entire regular season) -- isn't great. Eight Florida penalties (including three false starts by left tackle Phil Trautwein) isn't great. And let's not even talk about the ACC officiating crew.

Tebow is what we'll remember about the 2008 BCS championship. Tebow and, of course, Florida's defense, which held Oklahoma's record-breaking offense to a season-low 14 points (49 points below OU's 63-point average in the Sooners' previous five games).

The Gators made two crucial first-half red zone stands, a fourth-down stop at the UF 1-yard line and an interception at the UF 3-yard line. And, with 9:59 left in the fourth quarter and OU trailing by only a field goal, Florida safety Ahmad Black ensured he'll never have to buy a dinner in Gainesville in decades to come. He won a wrestling match for a Bradford pass meant for OU receiver Juaquin Iglesias.

"The play of the game," Meyer said.

Afterward, Gators offensive guard Carl Johnson cupped the BCS crystal football with his right hand and hammed it up for a semicircle of photographers.

"What pose you want?" he said.

They wanted Johnson to do a Heisman pose, so he made like his quarterback Tebow. Then somehow the crystal was handed to a man in a wheelchair. Just as the guy cradled the trophy, a University of Florida police officer snatched it away from him and gave it to Meyer.

Meyer would say later that the Gators are "one of the best football teams I've ever had the privilege to be around." But are they the true national champions?

"Absolutely," linebacker Brandon Spikes said.

"No doubt in my mind," Marsh said.

There's doubt at Utah, Texas and USC. Otherwise, after a weird game and an even weirder season, this Florida victory is going to have to do. Just what 2008 deserved.

Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn3.com

BCS coordinator: System in compliance

2009-01-09T09:42:00.000-05:00

Read this garbage
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls08/news/story?id=3818921

So let me get this straight, the Commissioner from the weakest BCS conference is saying the BCS is legit? What a surpise! Who has the most to lose by going to a playoff system? The Big East and the ACC, because while they have plenty of decent teams, we all know they have absolutely no title contenders. So of course the ACC is going to say the BCS is fine, they get millions from their bowl game that is a joke every year. To me that's the evidence that the BCS is illegal, even though VT and Cincy are weaker teams, because they are in a BCS conference they have a better shot at getting to a BCS game and making millions.

The bottom line is - you dont know whether team A can beat team B unless there's a playoff. Let's stop being like figure skating where people vote, and start settling on the field with a playoff!

Obama Calls For NCAA Playoffs

2009-01-09T09:31:00.000-05:00

In a 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft, President-elect Barack Obama laid out his plan to have playoffs at the end of the college football season.

BCS is a political football in 2009

2009-01-08T16:36:00.001-05:00

Since its inception in 1998, the NCAA's Bowl Championship Series has weathered criticism from nearly all directions.

But entering 2009, the BCS may encounter a perfect storm: a unique, bipartisan legislative current and the imminent thunderhead of an Obama administration.

The BCS is the system that chooses the contenders for college football's most prominent postseason games: the Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar bowls, as well the National Championship game, which this year pits Oklahoma against Florida on Thursday.

The BCS relies on a compilation of polls and rankings instead of, to the consternation of many, actual competition.

In a post-election "60 Minutes" interview, President-elect Barack Obama made clear his stance on the issue: "This is important. I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. [If] you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season [and] there's no clear decisive winner ... we should be creating a playoff system."

Republicans and Democrats alike each year are angered by what they see as inherent unfairness in the arrangement. In 2008, legislators -- for one reason or another -- drafted legislation to invalidate the BCS on grounds that it misdirects commerce. Video Watch how a playoff system could change college football »

In an April resolution, the House of Representatives formally, if not forcibly, condemned the BCS as "an illegal restraint of trade that violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act" and also urged the Justice Department's Antitrust Division to investigate. Since this resolution, though, no serious action has been pursued.

And so, on December 10, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, took the next step, introducing the College Football Playoff Act of 2008.
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If passed, this bill would "prohibit, as an unfair and deceptive act or practice, the promotion, marketing, and advertising of any post-season NCAA Division I football game as a national championship game unless such game is the culmination of a fair and equitable playoff system."

If passed, this bill would apply to any game that occurs after January 31, 2011. It would be enforceable by the Federal Trade Commission.

The BCS, of course, would have things go differently. Made up of the commissioners from all NCAA Division I-A conferences; the athletics director from Notre Dame, which isn't affiliated with a conference; and representatives from each bowl organization, the BCS governing body announced in spring 2008 that the system would be used through at least the 2014 season.

Later, ESPN outbid Fox for a four-year television rights deal with the BCS. To begin in 2011, this contract rests on the understanding that the current system will remain in place.

On Thursday, second-ranked Oklahoma will battle top-ranked Florida in the National Championship. Third-ranked Texas was responsible for Oklahoma's only defeat. Texas didn't play Florida.

Barton, the ranking Republican in the Energy and Commerce Committee, represents the 6th District of Texas. Two of his co-sponsors, Republican Reps. Michael McCaul and Lamar Smith, represent districts 10 and 21, respectively -- two of the four districts that collectively represent Austin, home of the University of Texas.

Regardless of lawmakers' personal affiliation with home teams, the official motivation for college football reform is the same as for any similar economic reform: to help the little guy compete.

The BCS is composed of eleven conferences. The six traditionally dominant conferences -- the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific 10 and Southeastern -- are guaranteed at least one berth in one of the BCS bowls. Each year, they are awarded $18 million, plus $4.5 million for each additional team that appears in a bowl game. Meanwhile, only one team from the smaller conferences -- Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Western Athletic -- is given this opportunity.

For the 2006-07 postseason, an average of $25.5 million in revenue was awarded per large conference, while the small conferences averaged $5 million each.

As the argument goes, the larger postseason earnings provide an advantage -- in athletic recruiting, as well as for each university as a whole -- to the "power" conferences.

This is not the first time lawmakers have voiced their discontent.

In 2005, Barton summoned a BCS official before an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, but legislation did not result.
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And in 2003, both the House and Senate Judiciary committees held oversight hearings to examine the BCS system, though the combined result yielded not much more than a sound bite from current Vice President-elect Joe Biden:

"It looks un-American. ... It looks like a rigged deal."

Utah AG: BCS may violate antitrust laws

2009-01-07T00:29:00.002-05:00

Associated Press
January 6, 2009, 7:07 PM ET

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's attorney general is investigating the Bowl Championship Series for a possible violation of federal antitrust laws after an undefeated Utes team was left out of the national title game for the second time in five years.
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff contends the BCS unfairly puts schools like Utah, which is a member of a conference without an automatic bid to the lucrative bowl games, at a competitive and financial disadvantage.
"We've established that from the very first day, from the very first kickoff in the college season, more than half of the schools are put on an unlevel playing field," Shurtleff said Tuesday. "They will never be allowed to play for a national championship."
BCS administrator Bill Hancock said he couldn't comment on the investigation until he had seen something in writing from the Utah attorney general's office.
"We just don't think it's appropriate to comment until we've seen something to comment on," Hancock said.
The BCS is designed to pit the top two teams against each other in a national championship game each year. It uses a complicated formula based on human polls and computer rankings to determine who plays in that game, which Shurtleff contends is biased.
No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Oklahoma have one loss each but will play for the BCS national championship Thursday night in Miami.
The Associated Press crowns its own national champion based on a poll of sports writers who are not bound to vote for the winner of the BCS title game. Many fans are clamoring for voters to put Utah -- the nation's only undefeated team -- in the No. 1 spot in the final poll.
On Friday, Utah became the first team from a non-BCS conference to win two BCS bowls after it upset No. 4 Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl. Utah also beat Pittsburgh in the 2004 Fiesta Bowl to complete an undefeated season.
Shurtleff said his office is still in the initial stages of reviewing the Sherman Antitrust Act to see if a lawsuit can be filed. To succeed in a lawsuit, he would have to prove a conspiracy exists that creates a monopoly.
Shurtleff said he prefers that BCS officials and university presidents solve the problem of excluding some schools from a national title game by creating a playoff system, but added he's committed to doing whatever it takes to produce change.
If a lawsuit is filed against the BCS, though, Shurtleff could end up suing the state he represents. Utah is a member of the Mountain West Conference and Utah State belongs to the Western Athletic Conference; both leagues are members of the BCS.
"We have to determine the answer to those questions," said Shurtleff, whose planned investigation was reported by the Deseret News on Tuesday. "You determine who it is you're bringing action against."
The BCS is comprised of the 11 Football Championship Subdivision conferences, the director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame, and representatives of the bowl organizations.
Under the BCS, about $9.5 million is distributed among Conference USA, the Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Western Athletic conferences for making their teams available to play in BCS games.
If a school from any of those conferences receives an at-large invitation to play in a BCS bowl or championship game, those conferences get an additional 9 percent of BCS revenues among them, which come from television rights and the bowls themselves.
If more than one school from those conferences make the BCS bowls or championship game, those conferences get an extra $4.5 million for each additional team.
By comparison, the share to each conference with an automatic berth in the BCS -- the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC -- is about $18 million each. When a second team from one of those conferences qualifies to play in a BCS game, as the SEC accomplished this year with Alabama and Florida, that conference gets an additional $4.5 million.
"It's not about bragging rights. It's a multimillion dollar -- hundreds of millions -- business where the BCS schools get richer and non-BCS get poorer," Shurtleff said.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Boycott the Bowls and Demand a College Football Playoff!

2008-12-03T14:47:00.001-05:00

It is darn well time that American college football fans start demanding the end of this ridiculous BCS system and start insisting on a college football playoff system for Division 1.

It is time to boycott the bowls.

When attendance and viewership drop off sharply, perhaps then the major college football programs will realize that American college football fans are sick and tired of the annual "BCS Mess".

The only good thing that is going to come out of this current Texas/Oklahoma travesty is that it will draw attention to how horrible the BCS is.

Texas and Oklahoma had identical records and Oklahoma lost to Texas on a neutral field. Texas also had a tougher schedule.

But now Oklahoma jumps over Texas when they both won their last game?

But the even more ridiculous result in this current college football season is this - there are 4 undefeated teams currently and THREE of them have absolutely ZERO chance of even getting into the national championship game.

How would you like to win all of your games and never have a chance to even play for the title?

How fair is that?

How long are we going to allow computers and polls to pick a champion?

Each year there is a BCS mess and each year it makes most of us increasingly sicker and more disgusted.

And how hard would it be to implement a playoff system?

An 8 team playoff would mean that 2 teams play one more game per year than they would normally, and 2 teams would play two extra games.

Other divisions in college football have a playoff system, so why not Division 1?

The truth is that it is time for the college football championship to be decided on the field and not in a computer.

So we need to start demanding a playoff system by using our boycott power.

If nobody watched the bowl games and nobody attended them then the powers that be would be forced into a change.

So perhaps it is time to send a message.

No more BCS!

We want a change.

College Football Playoffs: I'll Say They're Worth $160 Million A Year

2008-11-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, frustrated University of Georgia president Michael Adams proposed an eight-team playoff as a remedy to what he called a flawed BCS system.

It's obviously not the first time the playoff system has been mentioned. But the question I always get is, how much would a playoff system be worth to schools and conferences that participate in 2011, the first year something like this could happen?

Here's my official guess: The television money would double from today's dollars, with a network paying $640 million for a four-year playoff package.

Let me show you my math. Fox paid $320 million for the rights to air four out of the five BCS games through the 2010 season. That puts the value of each game at an average of $16 million. ABC paid $300 million for the rights to eight Rose Bowls and two BCS games through 2014. That values each game at $10 million.

If a playoff were to start in the 2011 season, the total eight-team package that could be offered would be three first-round games--the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar – and the rights to the winners of those games as well as the winner to the Rose Bowl (whose rights are held by ABC), which would represent the semifinals. Then of course, the National Championship game.

So that's a total of six games offered. The Fiesta, Orange and Sugar, I'll value at $22 million each. The semifinals, which adds the winner of the Rose, I'll value at $28 million each. And the national championship, I'll say is worth $38 million. I'll say it's likely that a four-year deal would be made so that it lines up with the end of ABC's relationship with the Rose Bowl.

$22 million times three = $66 million
$28 million times two = $56 million
$38 million times one = $38 million
That's $160 million.

Should ABC not win the rights, by the way, it would have to be compensated for the loss of what was sold to them as the National Championship game in 2014.

Unfinished Issues: College Playoffs

2008-11-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

The final night of the campaign brought the candidates to a lot of odd forums, none so odd as Monday Night Football, where Chris "Boomer" Berman proved that the Road to the White House goes through Bristol, home of the World Wide Leader in Sports.

So, he asked Barack Obama and John McCain, if they could change anything in sports what would it be?

McCain didn't repeat his vow last week that he wouldn't pre-empt the World Series with a political infomercial; instead he said he'd stop the spread of performance enhancing substances.

As for Obama he said, ""I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football. I'm fed up with these computer rankings and this and that and the other. Get eight teams - the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a National Champion."

Yeah, even with a Democratic majority in Congress he won't be able to pull that off.

The Wetzel plan

2008-10-13T18:07:00.001-04:00

A playoff is coming to college football, not eventually but probably sooner than the moneyed-establishment wants to admit.
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, the Vladimir Putin of college sports and the key figure preventing a playoff, can stem the tide for only so long.

Unfortunately, we're stuck with the current Bowl Championship Series for the time being. But that doesn't mean we can't dream about what a real playoff would entail and the magic it would produce each December and January.

If you think you like Saturdays now, understand that this is just college football lite; one day to be looked back on as a quaint and confusing era.

Here's how the playoff will eventually work – and this isn't just my idea, it's essentially the exact scenario the NCAA (which will eventually run it) uses to run the football playoffs at the former Division I-AA, II and III.

We even made up a mock bracket for you to salivate over.

(Please note, whereas some conference title games still need to be played, for the sake of argument we assigned victory to the higher rated team in the current BCS standings to place and seed the field).

A 16-TEAM FIELD

Just like in what used to be Division I-AA, the tournament would feature four rounds with teams seeded one through 16. Just like the wildly popular and profitable NCAA men's basketball tournament, champions of all the conferences (all 11 of them) earn an automatic bid to the field.

Yes, all 11. Even the lousy conferences. While no one would argue that the winner of the Mid-American Conference is one of the top 16 teams in the country, there are multiple benefits of including champions of low-level leagues.

First is to maintain the integrity and relevancy of the regular season. While the idea that the season is a four-month playoff is both inaccurate and absurd, there should be a significant reward for an exceptional season.

The chance for an easier first-round opponent – in this case No. 1 Missouri would play No. 16 Central Michigan or Miami (Ohio) – is a big reward for a great regular season. Earning a top-three seeding would present a school a near breeze into the second round. Drop to a sixth-seed in this year's scenario and you are dealing with Florida.

On the flip side, it brings true Cinderella into the college football mix for the first time. Is it likely that Central Florida could beat Ohio State? Of course not, but as the men's basketball tournament has proven the mere possibility (or even a close game) draws in casual fans by the millions.

Last season the most memorable college football game was Boise State-Oklahoma, in part because Boise was the unbeaten underdog that wasn't supposed to win. When it did, in dramatic fashion, it became arguably the most popular team in America.

But it had no shot at a national title because the system says Boise can't be any good in 2007 because it wasn't any good in 1967. As illogical as this is, that's the system.

For even lower-rated conferences – the Sun Belts, the MACs – allowing annual access to the tournament would not only set off celebrations on small campuses but it would encourage investment in the sport at all levels. Suddenly, there would be a reason for teams in those leagues to really care. This would improve quality throughout the country.

With the bigger conferences, a championship would take on greater value. Does anyone without direct rooting interest really care if USC wins the Pac-10 Saturday? How about the Virginia Tech-Boston College ACC title game? You would now.

AT-LARGE BIDS

In addition to the 11 automatic bids, there would be five at-large selections made by a basketball-like selection committee. Most years, those would come from the power conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC).

While the selection process would still draw complaints from the teams left out, those schools often would have two or three losses or significant flaws. Gone forever would be the days of an unbeaten Auburn in the 2004 season not getting a chance at the title or the bizarre 2003 season where nearly everyone thought USC was the best team but got left out anyway.

HOME GAMES FOR HIGHER SEEDS IN FIRST THREE ROUNDS

The strangest part of the BCS is that outside businesses – the people who own the bowl games – get a cut of the revenue. It would be unfathomable for a league such as the NFL or NBA to allow independent promoters to stage its playoffs.

College football is leaving millions on the table by staging top games in far-off locales. Ohio State, for instance, earns an estimated $5 million-plus for each home game. And that is just direct revenue. Forbes estimates Buckeye football games generated $42 million for the Columbus area in 2005.

The 14 hugely profitable home games from the first three rounds would create a huge revenue stream.

There is simply no need to include the current bowl structure. Obviously no fan base can afford to travel week after week to neutral-site games. But they wouldn't have to. In what used to be Division I-AA, the playoffs are home field until the title game. That's the way it should be.

The competitive value of home-field advantage would also help maintain the importance of the regular season because the higher the seed, the more home games.

This would also be a boon to teams in the Midwest, which build their teams to deal with the predictably harsh weather only to play postseason games in generally warm, calm environs.

So how would say, USC fare if it didn't get a Big Ten opponent in Pasadena each January, but rather had to slip and slide around Ann Arbor or Columbus for a change? And who wouldn't want to see the Trojans invade one of those historic old stadiums, snow falling, and proving they have grit not just skill?

COMPETITION

That's the best part, of course, the games. As heart-thumping and pulse-stopping as college football is and always has been, we aren't even scratching the surface in our plan. We currently have nothing even close to this. Week after week of building excitement, tension and stakes.

A byproduct of the BCS has been a devaluing of competitiveness in college football. There is no longer an incentive to play games against other big-time opponents. It's not just intra-regional games that are all but gone but most non-conference games of any significance. Teams just load up on patsies to grab the home gate and maybe play one local rival.

Amazingly, the BCS rewards them for this.

Because of human voters' tendency to favor record over all else – unless the school is from outside the BCS – the goal of the season is simply not to lose. The easiest way to do that is to play as few teams as possible that are capable of beating you.

The BCS favors teams that load up on cupcakes early and play in a weaker BCS conference that ideally doesn't have to deal with a 13th game (for the league title).

Consider Kansas, which is rated No. 5 in the BCS (and was No. 2 last week) despite owning wins over opponents with a combined record of 45-63 record (.417 winning percentage). Maybe the Jayhawks are a great team that was capable of beating other great teams. But no one really knows. And the BCS didn't care.

The playoffs return the big-time games between teams from different conferences. Even better, it puts them on campus – not some far-flung NFL stadiums – in historic venues with all the pageantry.

Oklahoma-USC in the Coliseum in the first round? Florida-Ohio State in the Horseshoe in the second? How about the Buckeyes at West Virginia in a national semifinal? Every week of every year would be incredible.

BOWL GAMES COULD STILL EXIST

Understanding that there really isn't anything wrong with most bowl games – it's not like innocent people are dying because the Meineke Car Care Bowl exists – we'll allow them to stick around.

One bowl could serve as the championship game, giving college football its neutral, Super Bowl-style site to conclude the tournament.

As for all the other bowls, they can go on as they wish. The NIT still operates, doesn't it? It's not like most bowl games have any direct bearing on the championship now.

There is value to the smaller bowls in smaller communities. If the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, still wishes to stage a game, it by all means should. It just won't have access to the 16 playoff teams. But it doesn't have access to teams of that quality now. It still can host a meaningless game between two moderately successful schools. For most bowls, nothing changes.

The lack of 16 "bowl-qualified" teams would filter down, of course, and run a couple of minor bowls out of business since there won't be enough bowl-eligible clubs. But if the reason college football is not staging a playoff is the need to save the International Bowl in Toronto, then the current system is more corrupt than we think.

THE SCHEDULE

While the former Division I-AA plays all four rounds in four weeks and stages the title game before Christmas, football’s top division might be better served playing the first one or two rounds in December, breaking for final exams and staging the semifinals just after Christmas and the title game in early January.

The schedule is a minimal concern. Something can be worked out. Whatever it is, it would allow teams and stars to become familiar to the American public, for momentum to build and excitement to grow.

The college football playoffs would have a chance to rival the NFL playoffs (Super Bowl included) as the biggest sporting event in the country. Fans would love it, players live for it and a game deserving of a real playoff finally enjoying it. It would capture the imagination of the nation.

Right now it's only a dream, but the day is coming. There is only so long the dictators can stop it.

Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist.

Which team would win a college football playoff?

2008-10-13T18:05:00.000-04:00

This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of year, but what if it was just a little more wonderful for college football fans?
What if instead of waiting a month for Ohio State to play for the national championship against Florida, a team selected by voters and computers as better than Michigan, Boise State and other contenders, fans could watch a month of postseason college football games between teams playing each other for the right to reach the title tilt? In short, what if college football had a playoff system?

We can't make it happen in real life, but SportsCenter's holiday gift to you this year is the next best thing. All this week, as bowl season begins to heat up on ESPN and ESPN2, SportsCenter will play out a hypothetical 10-team playoff bracket for college football. Kirk Herbstreit and Mark May will set the field and weigh in each with their picks and analysis, but we also want to know how you think the bracket would play out, SportsNation.

The bracket below represents the official picks made by Herbstreit and May, as seen on SportsCenter each night. To sound off on how you think things would unfold, scroll to the bottom of the page and vote along with SportsNation.

SportsCenter's College Football Playoff!
Watch SportsCenter all week at 6 p.m. ET
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship
National Champion

(8) Oklahoma
(1) Ohio State
(1) Ohio State
(4) LSU
(4) LSU
(3) Michigan
(4) LSU

(4) LSU
(5) USC

(3) Michigan
(6) Louisville
(3) Michigan
(2) Florida

(10) West Virginia
(2) Florida

Possible Playoffs Continue to be a Major Topic

2008-05-19T09:52:00.000-04:00

Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer

DALLAS - Talk of a playoff won't go away, as conversation at the Football Forum showed last week.
This was the first Forum, sponsored by the National Football Foundation, College Hall of Fame and the Football Writers of America. It's hoped the Forum will become an annual event, a sort of think tank of discussion on some of the biggest issues facing the sport.

A panel -- which included coaches Mark Mangino of Kansas, Tyrone Willingham of Washington, Gary Patterson of TCU and Jim Tressel of Ohio State; athletic directors Kevin White of Notre Dame and Kevin Anderson of Army; and Florida State president T.K. Wetherell -- was against a playoff. But the subject of a playoff -- in whatever format -- stirred the passions of many. The current BCS format will remain until at least 2014, when the TV deal with the Rose Bowl, Pac-10 and Big Ten expires.

Despite that timetable, some panelists feel it is just delaying the inevitable: A playoff is coming.

"It's not a question of if there will be a playoff," Wetherell said, "but when there is a playoff."

Why?

"Money will drive it," says Wetherell.

As it stands, most schools have tapped out revenue streams such as seat licensing, stadium naming rights, club seats and suites. A playoff would provide additional money that will be needed in the future for a sport that, according to research White cited, features only six I-A schools that have a positive cash flow.

Even so, White said, "we need to maintain the meaningfulness of the bowls and regular season."

The People's Voice: College football playoffs

2008-04-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

I expected the reaction for my column on a playoff for college football to be nuts, but I didn't expect how nuts. Nearly 3,000 emails have poured in and the column's been read by well over a million people.

The most amazing thing is that 95 percent of the emails were positive. Do you know how hard it is to get a million people to agree on anything? Radio hosts around the country have had me on to agree with me.

Which ought to tell the powers that be in college football – yes you, Jim Delany – that the public is dying for change.

Many of the letters I chose to run are critical, mainly because those are worth addressing and a bunch of notes saying, "great idea" wouldn't be particularly compelling.

But let me get a couple of things out of the way before we delve into an extremely detailed discussion – I wanted to keep the original column as clear and concise as possible. Here, we'll get serious.

The plan I have is both reasonable and doable (and will one day happen) because it is … reasonable and doable. Trust me, I've discussed this with scores of NCAA types through the years.

A lot of the proposals people float out are impossible. A 64-team tournament? A 128-team tournament? Shortening the regular season? Kicking some of the teams out of the top division? None of those would ever happen. I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm for change, but you have to give all parties something, as my proposal does.

For instance, why a 16-team playoff? Why not four? Why not byes for the top seeds? Because more games means more revenue – both in gate receipts and with television deals. College football doesn't want fewer playoff games, it wants more. That's why 16 teams can work. Understanding the NCAA, you have to include all conferences.

You have to give the business side something, the networks something, even the academic folks something – like a two-week break for finals so universities can continue to graduate 43 percent of the players.

This plan isn't perfect, but it is damn near close. And it is much better and more likely than anything else out there.

So, without further ado, on to the People's Voice …

Playoffs? You're talking about playoffs?

I am in absolute agreement with you … every word. But for me the issue is that nasty T-word, Tradition. Baseball "purists" run it out all the time in regards to the wild card, and even divisional play. It is the single most abused word in sports, and in particular NCAA football. Tradition. As you have pointed out, most teams have stopped loading their schedule with good teams. My question is how does Notre Dame figure into this?

Jeff Chew
Palamos, Spain

It's actually the P word – Power. The Big Ten and the Pac-10 don't want to give it up, even if there is more money involved. They run the show. But times will change.

As for Notre Dame (or any independent) they can get in as an at-large selection.

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While I appreciate your consistent harping on the Bowl Exhibition Series (call it what it is), you have to think smaller, at least at first. It's already a 12-game regular season now. Then there are the conference championship games.

A16-game field makes the college football season almost as long as the pro season. So, how about an eight-team tournament? Only conference champs get in.

Neil Tardy
Rochester, Minn.

I'm not blaming Neil for bringing this up, but this is one of the great water-muddying arguments that proponents use. Too many games? Suddenly, the establishment cares about the health of the players?

Just a couple of years ago they extended the season from 11 regular-season games to 12 for the sole purpose of making more money. That meant a net of an additional 120 games. A 16-team playoff is a net of just 15 games.

The real issue, however, isn't the number of games a player is exposed to, but the number of actual plays where bodies go in motion. Statistically, the more plays you are in, the more likely there is an injury.

Due to college football's rule to stop the clock after every first down, its overtime system and other quirks that prolong things, college games have more plays than NFL games. The college season may be shorter in games, but in total plays it is actually pretty close.

Last weekend there were 16 NFL games and 17 college games involving teams ranked in the AP top 25. On average, the pro games featured 127.3 plays from scrimmage. The college games averaged 147.9. That's 20.6 more plays, or an additional 16.2 percent.

A college team that competes in 14 games (12 regular season games, a conference title game and a bowl game) are exposed to the same number of plays as 16.3 NFL games, or a little more than a full NFL season.

In some extremes, it is even greater, especially when understanding that fatigue often leads to injury. The Tennessee-Kentucky quadruple overtime game featured a ridiculous 192 plays. To take it to the comparative extreme, Monday's Miami-Pittsburgh NFL game featured just 106 plays from scrimmage. So that's 81.1 percent more plays for the college guys, almost two games in one. Did you hear anyone crying about that?

In the interest of safety, the NCAA should adopt NFL clock rules to shorten the games. They did this partially for the 2006 season, but quickly reverted due to complaints from control freak coaches.

But by doing just that, a 17-game college season (the most possible under this playoff plan) would equal, in terms of plays from scrimmage, 14.6 current college games, a far more reasonable deal for college kids' knees.

Of course, guess who also likes all those extra breaks in the action? Television networks, naturally.

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It's funny how the toughest questions are dealt with the simplest solutions. Your plan works. Playoff system and bowl games.

Kevin Sidell
St. Petersburg, Fla.

The easiest way to stop a movement like this is to confuse the facts and argument so much that it seems impossible to solve. It isn't. In fact, it is simple. The NCAA already runs this system at its other levels.

Unfortunately, the smoke screen stuff has worked. Many people give up and claim it'll never happen because the argument is so convoluted with misinformation, faux arguments and broad-based blame at faceless "presidents." While it has been effective, little of it is true.

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I couldn't agree with you more. I heard a couple of commentators during the Michigan-Ohio State game briefly bring up the controversy of a college playoff system and they ended it by saying something along the lines of "with a season full of so many upsets and surprises we have a playoff system – it occurs each Saturday".

I was disgusted. I hope you will not waver or be intimidated. I hope others will join you. Terry Bowden seems to deeply favor a playoff system as well. Good luck and thanks for trying to make things more equitable and exciting for the fans as well.

William Rogers
Mobile, Ala.

Announcers work for two groups, the conference (in that case the Big Ten) which is staunchly in favor of the current bowl system. And ESPN, which broadcasts tons of bowl games and has contracts with the conferences and, in the most ridiculous of conflicts, even owns five bowl games (Las Vegas, Hawaii, Armed Forces, New Mexico and Papajohns.com).

It's not a real shock they'd spew the propaganda. Neither is it a shock that ESPN's myriad outlets won't tackle this issue – the one fans overwhelming care about the most – in any in-depth, significant or intelligent manner.

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I agree with you 100 percent, a playoff is the way to go. There is no way that teams like Hawaii or BYU or any other school from a small conference shouldn't be able to play for the right to be a National Champion. In the BCS if you're not a major powerhouse school you might as well not play at all.

Brian White
St Clair Shores, Mich.

The ridiculous thing is – as I mentioned in the column – it isn't about how good your team is in 2007, but how good it was back in 1957 or 1967 or 1977. Back then you could stockpile recruits with 150 scholarships and much of the west was still lightly populated.

These days with scholarship limits, the spread offense that eliminates the effectiveness of size and depth in the trenches and vast media exposure, it is asinine to hold to the old standards.

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I enjoyed your article on a college football playoff system. Why not make the bowl games part of the playoffs? Still have the Big Games – Rose, Sugar, etc. and make them part of the playoff system.

Rob West
Nashville, Tenn.

I think the question isn't why not, but why?

The bowl committees spend a lot of money promoting themselves. But including the bowls – other than for a Super Bowl-style title game – makes no sense, there are no advantages.

Why would the NCAA take the games out of facilities they own, share revenue with outside promoters and make fans and teams travel relentlessly to smaller venues so they can play in a stadium that most likely adds absolutely nothing to the experience?

In most cases, the games won't be sold out. The neutral-site ticket market is virtually impossible to pull off in sports, which is why it is rarely attempted. Very few bowl games are sellouts. Three years ago, USC and Oklahoma met for the BCS title in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and there were plenty of empty seats. You can get a ticket to the men's basketball final for face value on the street most years.

Besides, other than the Rose Bowl, the BCS venues are quite forgettable – two of them are vapid, suburban NFL facilities. For the less prestigious bowls, it gets even worse. Meanwhile, college football boasts many of the most historic and breathtaking sporting environments in the country. Why not use them?

I commend the bowl folks for marketing themselves so well that it is ingrained in the minds of fans and the media that they are an essential part of this. But I've yet to hear a single sensible argument why that is actually true.

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I'd like to point out that maybe teams that lose in the first round or second round can still get invited to bowls. There is likely going to be some big schools that lose in those rounds and I am sure the Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl (etc.) would be happy to have these teams play in one of their bowls.

Michael Przybylowski
Toronto

I failed to make that clear enough in the original column. Depending on when you stage the tournament, as many as 12 playoff teams could be placed back into the bowl pool and make those games better. As far as I'm concerned, the bowls can do anything they want as long as they aren't interfering with a real playoff. They should be just like the NIT.

The bowls should serve college football; college football should not serve the bowls. I'm suspicious of those who argue otherwise.

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Your NCAA football playoff proposal is ridiculous. Four additional games is absurd. The great thing about college football, the thing that sets it apart from the boring NFL is that EVERY game is essentially a playoff game.

Yes, a school may lose a game and still qualify as the "champion" after the bowls have been played, and occasionally may even lose two. That hardly ever happens. For nearly a century the champion was determined like a beauty contest. This allowed for argument amongst fans as to who the real champion should be, but that was part of the charm.

Alex Ferguson
Portland, Ore.

First, the "every week is a playoff" argument is as tired as it is untruthful. Three weeks ago Ohio State lost one of those "every week is a playoff" games and yet could still back into the title game. Even LSU might still make it.

What playoff works like that? It's just not accurate no matter how many times it is repeated.

Does that mean that if there is a playoff, the Arkansas-LSU game would carry the same sense of urgency? No. I'll concede that. Although, there would still be some urgency due to the seeding and home games at stake that would significantly alter national title chances.

But conversely – and this is the part that is never discussed – so many additional games would take on "playoff" implications. This weekend's ACC title game, the UCLA-USC game, the Florida-Florida State game last Saturday, even the MAC title game (and so on and so on) would suddenly take on great importance. The number of games that would matter would increase, not decrease. The excitement of the regular season would be enhanced and expanded, not ruined.

Second, as for the oft-repeated comparison to the NFL season – where regular season games obviously matter less, this doesn't add up for three reasons.

First, rivalry games in college football can't be duplicated at the pro level. Alabama and Auburn played for nothing and everything last week.

Second, and more to the point, the NFL season is 16 games long, not 12. That alone devalues each game.

Third, the NFL invites 12 of its 32 teams to the playoffs, or 37.5 percent of the league. Division I-A has 120 teams. A 16-team college tournament would include just 13.3 percent of them and even that is a bit skewed since some are locked up by automatic bid (Florida can't win the Sun Belt).

The Flat Earth Folks of Delany argue this one relentlessly but unless we expanded the season to 16 games and held a 45-team tournament, then this isn't a logical comparison.

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As a D-I football official, I have been fortunate enough to officiate four games in the I-AA playoffs, including a national semifinal, and the excitement and urgency as each round progresses is awesome. I hope that in my officiating career (as also because I am a great fan) that the NCAA finally steps in and fixes the current mess. I enjoy your columns!

Randy Jackson
Demorest, Ga.

It's funny, I don't know anyone associated with the playoffs at the other divisions of college football who don't love it. And I don't know anyone in college football’s top division – at least anyone who isn't directly profiting off its system – that is remotely satisfied with what they have.

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What can college football fans do to show their support for a college football playoff? How can we make the bigwigs listen and see the benefits of such a playoff? Thanks and Gig'em

Tim Holder
Houston, Texas

There isn't much. You can harass your school's athletic director and conference commissioner. That can't hurt. And as I pointed out in January, the value of the Rose Bowl needs to be diminished for the Big Ten and Pac-10 to ever waver.

Considering the breadth and intensity of the movement for a playoff, if fans actually spread the word and organized, they could hurt the Rose Bowl immediately. I doubt that will happen, but that's the best advice I can offer.

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I like your plan! However, I think this alternative better embraces the tradition of college football. Check it out:

1. We say all Big Ten teams with winning records get auto-bids to a 12-team bracket.
2. We play all games at rotating Big Ten venues.
3. Big Ten schools get 50 percent of all TV revenue and 100 percent of ticket sales.
4. The commissioner of the Big Ten gets a 10 percent cut of any revenue that would have gone to a non-Big Ten school under the old system.
5. The SEC can secede from the NCAA, play its regular season and championship game.
6. The SEC winner can then challenge the winner of the NCAA/Big Ten bracket to a home-and-home series that will not get played because the Big Ten winner will complain that it's too hot in September below the Ohio River.
7. Then we fire on Fort Sumter.

Casey Dalton

Good to see Vladimir Delany checking in from Moscow.

Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist.

There Can't Be a IA College Football Playoff

2008-04-05T10:46:00.000-04:00

So, you think there can't be a IA college football playoff for one reason or another?

Let's begin with the following:
1. Many people state that a playoff would take years to implement, but that is only an excuse. To illustrate this point, do you know when the BcS was created (concocted)? June/July of 1998, and the season started a short month later, the point is that next-day service does happen regularly. In fact, BcS trademarks were not even submitted until October 1998, during the season. And guess who owns these BcS trademarks? Bowl Alliance Properties in Birmingham, Alabama.

2. The existing BcS contract is a NON-ISSUE! There are several rational explanations as to why and how any contract can be replaced, but what if they signed the BcS contract through 3006. Could we then not have a playoff for another thousand years. Of course that would be ludicrous, and so is any talk of the BcS contract getting in the way.

3. Proceeds will go back to the heart of the great sport of college football, the student-athletes and the fans. The applicable and flawless systems are now available and have been available to the NCAA and other relevant parties.

4. What can the NCAA do in regard to a IA playoff? The NCAA has the authority to oversee every facet of the bowl process and postseason except provide the playoff system and negotiate contracts.

5. The Sport Lawyers Journal states that the BcS would in all likelihood be found to violate the Sherman Act (Antitrust and Anti-competitiveness implications) at a minimum due to a less restrictive alternative doctrine. This means that if an outside challenger could show that a National Championship could be produced in a manner that would cause much less injury to the market (such as the lesser IA conferences), then the BcS would be displayed as an illegal arrangement. The point is that if we, were to pursue litigation, we could throw the current BcS administrators out on the street, but in that scenario, lawyers would win as opposed to the fans and student-athletes.

College Football Playoffs: Sooners are undisputed national champs

2008-01-02T21:14:00.000-05:00

In what was expected to be a high-powered game between two great offenses, Oklahoma played great defense and got a 44-yard field goal from Garrett Hartley with 13 seconds remaining to lift the Sooners over USC 16-13 in the CBSSports.com College Football Playoffs.

Down 13-10, the Trojans tied the game on a 50-yard field goal by David Buehler with less than two minutes remaining, but the Sooners turned to an unlikely hero to guide the team down for the game-winning kick.

Oklahoma is the 2007 national champion ... if we had a playoff system. (Getty Images)
Joey Halzle, who was forced to come off the bench after Sam Bradford was injured in the second quarter, came up with two big plays to get the team into field goal range.

Halzle hit Maclom Kelly on a 12-yard pass to keep the drive alive and then on third-and-7, Halzle scrambled 25 yards down to the USC 34. He hit Kelly on another short pass to set up the kick.

Halzle finished the game 17-of-25 for 191 yards and a touchdown, while Bradford was 9-of-13 for 104 yards. Allen Patrick had 67 yards rushing, while DeMarco Murray added 49 yards on the ground.

USC’s John David Booty struggled against the Oklahoma defense, throwing for just 220 yards with zero touchdowns and an interception. Fred Davis led the way with three catches for 51 yards. Linebacker Keith Rivers had nine tackles, four for a loss, a sack and an interception.

Now, of course, this is all make-believe, but this is what it would have been like to have a 16-team playoff.

At the end of the season, no questions asked.

Under this scenario -- Oklahoma would have beaten BYU, Florida, No. 1 Ohio State and USC.

A true national champion, which was decided on the field. Not based on the opinions of sports writers and computer rankings.

We might end up with a great national championship game between LSU and Ohio State next Monday, but that’s not the point. Because under the current system, we don’t know who the two best teams are. Maybe it’s USC, Oklahoma or Georgia, but we’ll never know because of the BCS and its idiotic way of determining a "fake" national champion.

Congrats Oklahoma, you proved it in our bracket. You are our national champion.

College Football Playoffs: Eight teams to go

2007-12-12T09:54:00.001-05:00

Dec. 12, 2007
We are down to eight teams.

Just to recap for you newcomers, we have a 16-team playoff bracket with 11 conference champions and five at-large teams. I explain the whole thing here. The at-large teams would best be selected by a committee, but since I don't have access to one of those, we based it off the BCS standings.

Now since this is more fantasy than reality, I turned to my PS2 and EA Sports' NCAA 2008 to determine who wins and advances each week.

Here are the results:

Heisman winner Tim Tebow wasn't ready to go home just yet.

With Georgia leading 28-21 at halftime, Tebow guided the Gators in the second half, eventually knocking off Georgia 45-28.

Tebow threw for 284 yards and four touchdowns, including two to Percy Harvin in the third quarter. Matthew Stafford struggled in the second half, throwing two interceptions as he tried to lead the Bulldogs from behind.

Knowshon Moreno finished with 129 yards and a touchdown for Georgia.

Other first-round results

No. 1 Ohio State 21, No. 16 Florida Atlantic 0: The Buckeyes got a little scare by the Sun Belt Conference champions early on, but Todd Boeckman shook off two first-half interceptions to help guide the Buckeyes past the Owls.

Chris Wells rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns and a defense led by James Laurinaits held the Owls to 67 yards of total offense, including minus 20 rushing.

No. 2 LSU 42, No. 15 Central Michigan 3: Matt Flynn and Ryan Perriloux combined to throw for five touchdowns as the Tigers rolled past the Chippewas. Keiland Williams added 94 yards rushing, while Jacob Hester had 60.

The LSU defense sacked Dan LeFevour five times, and he completed only 8 of 23 passes for 63 yards.

No. 3 Virginia Tech 35, No. 14 UCF 17: The nation's leading rusher, Kevin Smith, was held to just 100 yards as Virginia Tech's defense dominated the Knights.

Vince Hall had eight tackles and two sacks, and Xavier Adibi returned an interception for a touchdown as the Hokies cruised into the second round. Brandon Ore added 114 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

No. 4 Oklahoma 24, No. 13 BYU 14: Sam Bradford threw for 320 yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-40 passing to lift the Sooners past the Cougars.

Bradford connected with Malcolm Kelly 10 times for 136 yards and a touchdown, while Allen Patrick added 91 yards rushing. Max Hall had 182 yards passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions for BYU.

No. 11 Arizona State 42, No. 6 Missouri 38: In a back-and-forth game, the Sun Devils pulled off the upset behind Rudy Carpenter's 346 yards passing and four touchdowns.

Missouri cut the lead to 35-31 when Chase Daniel found Martin Rucker for a 31-yard touchdown with 9:13 remaining, but Carpenter led Arizona State right down the field and pushed the lead to 11 points when he found tight end Brent Miller in the end zone with six minutes left.

Daniel finished with 333 yards passing and four touchdowns but also had three interceptions. Tony Temple had 147 yards rushing.

No. 7 Southern California 44, No. 10 Hawaii 21: John David Booty threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns to guide the Trojans to an early 20-0 lead and an easy victory over the Warriors.

Colt Brennan tried to guide Hawaii back but ended up throwing three interceptions to go along with 331 yards passing and three touchdowns.

No. 9 West Virginia 42, No. 8 Kansas 34: In one of the best games of the tournament, West Virginia pulled this one out in the fourth quarter.

With the game tied at 28, heading into the final period, the Mountaineers' Pat White stole the show. White finished with three passing touchdowns, including a 52-yarder to Darius Reynaud to give the Mountaineers the lead for good. Steve Slaton added 110 yards rushing and a fourth-quarter score.

Todd Reesing had 316 yards passing with three touchdowns and two interceptions for Kansas.

The next round
Let's take a quick look at what we could expect in the quarterfinals:

No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 9 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl: Oh man, what could have been. Ohio State's fantastic defense against West Virginia's quickness on offense.

No. 2 LSU vs. No. 7 Southern California in the Cotton Bowl: Maybe the two best teams in the country, but only a quarterfinal game here. The winner has a great shot to win it all.

No. 3 Virginia Tech vs. No. 11 Arizona State in the Chick-fil-A Bowl: Can 11th-seeded Arizona State keep it going? It will have to go up against a tough defense.

No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 12 Florida in the Sugar Bowl: Wow! Another exciting matchup. Tim Tebow vs. Sam Bradford, two of the best young QBs in the game. And this is just to get to the semifinals!

College Football Playoff Bracket
First round Quarterfinals Semifinals National title
Results on Dec. 12 Results on Dec. 19 Results on Dec. 26 Results on Jan. 2
1 Ohio State (Big Ten)
16 Florida Atlantic (Sun Belt) Fiesta Bowl
1 Ohio State vs. 9 West Virginia Orange Bowl
1 Ohio State
vs.
4 Oklahoma National title
4 Oklahoma
vs.
7 Southern Cal
8 Kansas (at-large)
9 West Virginia (Big East)
5 Georgia (at-large)
12 Florida (at-large) Sugar Bowl
4 Oklahoma vs. 12 Florida
4 Oklahoma (Big 12)
13 BYU (MWC)
3 Virginia Tech (ACC)
14 Central Florida (C-USA) Chick-fil-A
3 Virginia Tech vs. 11 Arizona State Rose Bowl
11 Arizona State
vs.
7 Southern Cal
6 Missouri (at-large)
11 Arizona State (at-large)
7 Southern California (Pac-10)
10 Hawaii (WAC) Cotton
2 LSU vs. 7 USC
2 LSU (SEC)
15 Central Michigan (MAC)

By J. Darin Darst
http://www.sportsline.com/spin/story/10526389

College football playoff

2007-11-27T21:08:00.000-05:00

College football playoff

Posted by Ethan J. Skolnick
Why is this so difficult?

Other football divisions do it.

Every other sport does it.

Why can't NCAA Division I-A hold an 8-team playoff?

Yes, 8. That's enough. I hear some say that there would always be arguments, because some team would get snubbed. If a team isn't clearly among the top 8, however, does it really deserve a shot at a national title? No.

Use the major bowls to play the seven games. Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, Rose, Cotton, and so on. Let the other teams play in the other bowls. I hear some say that those other bowls would lose their meaning, if they weren't part of a playoff. How can they have any less meaning than they do now?

How to pick the teams?

Simple.

Take the conference champion from the ACC, SEC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10. Let each conference determine how it wants to choose its champion -- and representative. If a conference likes the revenue of a conference championship game, keep it. If it would rather send a fresher team to the 8-team tournament, that's fine, too.

That leaves two bids. One goes to the highest-ranked remaining team from those six conferences, according to the BCS (yes, you can keep it for that purpose). One goes to the highest-ranked team from the WAC, Sun Belt, MAC, Mountain West or Conference USA. If teams want to be considered for the playoff tournament, they'll schedule some quality opponents.

What would you have this season?

ACC: BC or Virginia Tech

Big East: West Virginia

Big Ten: Ohio State

Big 12: Missouri or Oklahoma

SEC: LSU or Tennessee

Pac-10: Arizona State or USC

At-large big conference bid (No. 7 seed): One from a group that includes Kansas, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, the USC/Arizona State loser (unlikely), Missouri/Oklahoma loser (unlikely if it is Oklahoma), the LSU/Tennessee loser (unlikely if Tennessee), the BC/Virginia Tech loser (unlikely either way).

At-large "other conference" bid (No. 8 seed): Hawaii from the WAC.

So these could be your eight participants:

(1) Missouri vs. (8) Hawaii

(2) West Virginia vs. (7) Georgia

(3) Ohio State vs. (6) Boston College

(4) LSU vs. (5) USC

xxxxx

Who would you like in each game in that tournament?

Is there another format you'd prefer?