sounds good to me. Even ESPN would be happy because they could continue to bitch at each other about who's the top 8.
Only real weakness of a playoff is that late season games between highly ranked teams wouldn't mean as much. (ala Missouri/Kansas this year, Mich/OSU last year, classic ND/USC games...)
Yeah, the conference championship games at least would not result in automatic bowl births. But they'd still almost certainly impact top 8 rankings.
I read NDNation quite frequently. I am quite surprised that there are *still* people over there that argue *against* a tournament vs the current BCS. It is simply indefensible:
1. They argue that it would render the regular season meaningless. Totally Wrong! The regular season would determine who would get into the 8 team tournament (Duh)! We could use Sagarin and other strength of schedule algorithms to determine who gets into the tournament. This leads to the other weak-ass argument:
2. "The 9th, 10th teams left out would still complain and make a case that they deserved into the tourny. It would be chaos." That is a weak argument. Yes, there would be a few teams bitching that they didn't get in, but that is to be expected. Even the NCAA B-Ball tournament creates controversy for bubble teams that don't get in, and you have to draw the line somewhere. And it would be a heck of lot less controversial than what we have today. Instead of people arguing who is number 1 or number 2, it would be an argument over who is number 9 or number 10. That's weak sauce!
3. This point trumps all others: EVERY OTHER LEVEL of football has some sort of tournament. Div 1-AA, Div II, Div III, NFL, High School, Little League, Pee-Wee...the list goes on and on...They ALL have tournaments to determine the Championship. Why is this? I don't know, maybe because it is pretty much the only fair and just way to settle the argument...
4. Finally, one last thing: I admit that a tournament is usually won not necessarily by the "best" or most talented team, but the team that happens to be playing the best at the right time. But that is true with *any* tournament - B-Ball, hockey, baseball, etc. And I ask you, isn't that a true quality of a champion - one who is able to step up and perform at the highest level when all the chips are on the table? The one who makes all the critical shots at the most important times? Yep.
i'd agree with pretty much everything you said here, except i might let the conference champions get automatic bids. After all, the NFL playoff seeds are the leaders of their respective divisions.
I'd also worry about the lack of mid-major conference representation. Hawaii wouldn't have made it in this year and i don't think Boise was slated top 8 when they went to the Fiesta bowl. I just worry the SEC would be over-represented because the pollsters love the conference so much.
i guess that could be taken care of by a better ranking system, but all in all i agree whole heartedly.
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