I think we can pretty much agree that at this point, barring some sort of catastrophe, it will be Alabama and LSU in a rematch for the BCS National Championship. Really? I mean, don't get me wrong. I think the SEC is easily the best conference in college football, and this weekend proved it...top 3 teams in the BCS standings were LSU, Alabama, and Arkansas. But a team that can't even win it's own division is going to get in over any other one loss team from another BCS conference? I know the computer decides it, but this year, more than almost any other, proves that the computer is the true flaw in the system.

This would almost be the ideal year to reintroduce the discussion of a playoff system. We know all the reasons it won't pass (money), so I'm not going to re-hash that part of the discussion. Even if there were serious discussions this time around, there is one man that will easily stand back and say, "no way in hell". That man, Big Ten (12) commissioner Jim Delaney. This guy has a Reinsdorfian level of influence in the NCAA when it comes to football, and he is easily the dumbest person working in sports on any level. On one hand, I get where he, and any other commissioner, will look at it and say he's doing what's best for his conference, but he's really not. He was the big opponent to a playoff system when discussed before, too. Now that he may see 2 teams from the same conference fighting it out for the BCS championship, he must be salivating.

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almost every year is the ideal year to introduce a playoff system. look, LSU had to share the goddamn title almost 10 years ago and that didn't change the system, either...and that was fucking ridiculous.

i do agree, though, that 2 teams from the same conference that have already played each other shouldn't meet again in the national championship. but if it has to be any team, i'd rather see alabama than most other teams, because they're legit.

While I agree that Bama is legit, they weren't technically good enough to win their half of the conference.

It's the same reason I don't like Wild Cards in football and baseball.

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it's different in college though because the coaches make their own schedules. at least in NFL and baseball, it's the league making those choices.

i have no problem with wild cards in professional sports.

Without a playoff, who else do you let in? There could be five one-loss teams left at the end.

Alabama had the best loss. They lost to the #1 team by 3.

Virginia Tech and Boise St are next with losses to Clemson and TCU, both of which are good opponents.

Oklahoma St lost to Iowa St. They don't deserve it.
Stanford got blown out two years in a row by Oregon. They don't deserve it.

Houston is the only other unbeaten but has a ridiculously weak schedule.

The Big East needs to have its AQ status revoked. A four or five-loss team could be their BCS representative for a second straight season.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

Not NIU

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NIU-Huskies brought up the reasons why it's hard to do a playoff.

I would say the 2 big questions for a playoff are,

1. Who gets in? Going off the premise it's 8, the only way to get people at agree is to let the 6 BCS conferences winners in, and like what was brought up about the Big East, what if UCLA wins Friday, a 6 loss team makes the Rose Bowl.

2. Where do you play the games? Are you playing games at team's home sites or some of the bowl sites and I can't see the Bowl sites agreeing to this, because if your an LSU fan and you feel you will win the first game, your thinking is I will skip that one and go to the next one, just guessing, but you get more fans at a bowl game than you would a first round college playoff game. I'm just using the fans skipping the first game, because that's what you hear for the Basketball tournament, that if a team is a 1 or 2 seed, most of their fans feel they will win those and save their money for the Sweet 16 games.

1. Last season, I threw a suggestion out here on the board that you take all conference winners, and with multiple division conferences, the division winners and seed them 1-16 (the math worked last year...I think it still might).

2. This was the big issue...my suggestion was to base this on the bowl games...each bowl game basically becomes a game in the tournament.

The NCAA will never go for it, and neither will the conferences because there are obviously 40 ish teams that are now not going to an extra game.

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It is not that hard. Every other level of college football has a playoff ranging from 16 to 24 teams. In fact it is easier with all the money involved. Since you dont have to take 12 hour bus rides to games.

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Exactly right. This isn't difficult at all.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I was going by 8 teams, that's why I put that NIU Huskie was right when it's hard to do a playoff, every time 16 teams comes up, people think that's too many.

I will add, I have heard that a Plus 1 is coming, don't know when though.

Should be 12 teams with top 4 bcs teams getting a bye... Im down for 16 teams, but the people who control this system are so greedy and corrupt I don't see more than 8 teams in my lifetime...

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I still prefer the bowl system, so sue me. That being said, fuck another LSU-Alabama game. No one deserves to have to watch another 9-6 shitfest, not that a playoff system wouldn't bring us that game again either.

I'd actually rather watch that than watch a team like Wisconsin, Michigan St, Stanford, etc. get blown out because they put an inferior team in just so there wouldn't be a rematch.

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NIU Football:
2011, 2012, & 2014 MAC Football Champions

You can keep games like the Motor City Bowl and still have a playoff system. It not like the bowls will be anymore meaningless than they already are.

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If they keep the bowl system, why even bother having a "National Champion"? Why not just place teams in bowls and have them be Champion of that bowl and that's it. You can then have the classic matchups like the Big Ten #1 play the Pac 12 #1 in the Rose Bowl, and the SEC #1 play the whatever top level team in the Sugar Bowl, etc.

If there's an LSU/Alabama rematch in New Orleans, site of this year's BCS Championship Game becomes a reality, that's a result of the system that's currently in place. Even if Georgia beats LSU in the SEC Championship Saturday in Atlanta, LSU might still end up playing for the BCS title. It doesn't seem right, but that's the way it is.

Besides the complex formula that's enough to give me a headache, I hate the setup. While ESPN has more than a passing interest in the BCS itself, they & ESPN2 have other bowl games in the last 2 weeks of December that I could care less about. Based on what I've seen, get a load of this...

Following what's called the Discover Orange Bowl in Miami on January 4th, there are 3 meaningless bowl games that'll take place before the BCS Title Game on January 9th. That's right...January 9th. The three bowl games after the Orange Bowl are the AT&T Cotton Bowl in Arlington, TX on January 6th, followed by the BBVA Compass Bowl(?) in Birmingham, AL on January 7th & the GoDaddy.com Bowl(!) in Mobile, AL on January 8th. What's up with that?

I just wanted to throw this out about College Football and getting a national champion for another reason they don't do a playoff, they don't want a Cinderalla team there, they want the 2 possible best teams.

Like if they had a 8 team playoff, and the 7th and 8th seed teams met for the title, they wouldn't want that for their title game.

Like last year's College Basketball title game between Uconn-Butler, College Football would never want that for a title game, they would have rather had Kansas-Ohio State. Like I thought the big winner of last year's College Basketball Tournamnet, was College Football.

It could be nothing, but when College Football does these things, have the big teams play for the title, instead of a team that's lost a couple of games early gets hot late.