[Husker] An 8-team playoff !! ??

[Rod Wellman]

The president of the University of Georgia is calling for an 8 team  
playoff.

IMHO, that's too much.  Extends the season too long.

What about this:

First of all, go back to 11 games.  This 12 game stuff is nonsense.   
Also, get rid of the conference championship games.  Either all  
conferences have them, or none.  The Big 11 can decide their  
conference champion without an extra game to do it.  And what does it  
really prove?  Not much.

Then, have a 6 team playoff.

#1 and #2 get first round byes.  Teams are decided by the poll system  
used now, so that some of the fun of "controversy" and "arguing" is  
maintained, as well as the incentive to do really, really well (if  
not go undefeated) during the regular season so as to end up #1 or #2.

#3 plays #6, #4 plays #5, at home field of the higher rated team.   
And don't wait until the end of the season to play these games.  Do  
it a week or two after the season.

After those two games are played, a new poll comes out.  It  
determines the seeding for the next two games, which are played about  
two weeks later, either at home field advantage, or neutral, but not  
too far geographically for either team (gives time for travel plans  
for fans).  If you really want to think outside the box, you could  
use the "big bowls" for these two games (rotating), but I don't know  
that they'd be willing to move from their traditional Jan 1. date to  
mid-December.  Now we're down to the final two teams for the national  
title game, played on or near Jan. 1 like it used to be.  Rotate it  
among the 4 or 5 "big bowls".  Keep the rest of the bowls, but for  
crying out loud, get rid of about 5-10 of them and make it a reward  
for having a good season, not something that a 6 - 6 team can attain!

No more 52 day breaks (time that a team just uses to "get rusty").   
Time to make travel plans for fans of the schools.

Downsides: the loser of the 3 - 6 match ups go home early (don't  
benefit from 30 or 40 more days of practice) and don't get a "bowl  
atmosphere".  But they'd probably be willing to give that up for the  
chance at making a run at the national title (whereas now, they have  
NO chance and are often in a bowl game they don't really want to be  
in).  Also, the "big bowls" might become something they aren't now:   
basically games matching conference runner-ups, or they might have to  
move to new, unfamiliar dates to accommodate this scenario.

It kinda stacks the deck against the 3 - 6 teams, especially the 5, 6  
teams (since they have an away game) because they would play soon,  
without much of a break.  But again, that helps to make sure that the  
urgency to reach the top (which is something that makes college  
football so special) is intact, and also that the "hot team" at the  
end of the season doesn't necessarily pull off upsets when they  
haven't consistently been the good team all season.  If they ARE good  
enough to maneuver the minefield, they can prove it and play for all  
the marbles.

All this makes way too much sense and TV won't go along with it  
because in this scenario they can't string the bowl games out for 4  
or 5 days into January.  But, they'd also have 4 more "marquee" games  
to air.

I don't think you need to go past 6 teams.  Most arguments for  
getting in could stop after 6.  Heck, most years you could do 4 and  
some years it's real easy to say which teams are the top 2 or 3!

You can change the times or locations or how the above system would  
integrate with the bowls. I was just trying to figure out how to do  
it to give the school's fans a chance at traveling (and not have too  
many games to try to attend), as well as make it so that teams don't  
have 40 days to wait to start the "mini playoff".  That's ludicrous,  
especially for teams that rely on complex timing.  You simply can't  
be the same team 40 or 50 days later as you were at the end of the  
season (I think Ohio State would agree today) when you don't have  
live game-type conditions for that length of time.  Sure, the lower  
divisions have playoffs and they've figured out a way to do it around  
the academic issues.  But they don't wait to do it a month after the  
regular season.

Rod W.
Sioux City, Ia.




Rod Wellman
Sioux City, Ia.