The BCS system has its flaws. Nebraska (hurrah!) made the title game this year over two other (Oregon and Colorado) deserving teams. Almost every fan really wants a Dv1 football playoff. The players mostly want it. The media surely wants it. The universities somewhat have toyed with it. Its just time to start considering the potential of a playoff system and how to do the games fairly.
I propose this playoff:
1. 10-game regular seasons; more than enough for perrenial losers!
2. Allow for UP TO a two-game conference championship, regulated by the conferences.
3. Give the other teams above .500 an eleventh game through some NIT lottery system.
4A. An "Elite 8" field is chosen for the "Run to the National Championship". Selections done by a computer ranking similar to the current BCS selection system.*
4B. "Minor Bowl" invitations go out to sixteen (or maybe twenty) >.500 record teams that do not make "Run to the National Championship".
5. The "Run to the National Championship" playoffs hosted in select regional cities. If a nearby team is in the tourney then they can play their game in that city ONLY if they have more power points, else a national committee decides the location among available hosts.
6. The "National Championship" game played in a neutral city that bids for the game (versus the current BCS system) in order to maximize revenue.
* = NOTE: Allow teams to bypass potential bids for the "Race for the National Championship" in order to play in select "Minor Bowl" games. This allows teams that know they cannot win the tourney still play big dollar bowl matchups.
At best you have a 15-game season for two teams. The rest of the teams garner their normal eleven games. Twenty-four to twenty-eight teams make post-season play beyond the 1-game NIT matchups. With this system the perrenial losers get to go home early, mediocre winners get to play in minor Bowl Games, and the "top dogs" get their day in the sun.
This year it would have looked like this:
First Round
1. MIAMI (11-0; BigEAST Champ) vs. 8. ILLINOIS (10-1; Big10 Champ)
2. NEBRASKA (11-1) vs. 7. TEXAS (10-2)
3. COLORADO (10-2; Big12 Champ) vs. 6. TENNESSEE (10-2)
4. OREGON (10-1; Pac10 Champ) vs. 5. FLORIDA (9-2)
Minor bowl qualifiers would have been:
Stanford (9-2), Maryland (10-1; ACC Champ), Oklahoma (9-2), Washington State (9-2), LSU (9-3; SEC Champ), South Carolina (8-3), Washington (8-3), Virginia Tech (8-3), Georgia (8-3), Michigan (8-3), Syracuse (9-3), BYU (12-1; MountainWest Champ), Fresno State (11-2), Ohio State (7-4), Lousville (10-2; ConfUSA Champ), Florida State (7-4), Toledo (10-2; MAC Champ), Hawaii (9-3), North Carolina State (7-4), Auburn (7-4), Arkansas (7-4), Marshall (10-2), Boston College (7-4), and Georgia Tech (7-5).
The losers (that have bowl games this year) in my system:
North Texas (5-6), Colorado State (6-5), East Carolina (6-5), Pittsburgh (6-5), Utah (7-4), USC (6-5), Iowa State (7-4), Alabama (6-5), Texas A&M (7-4), TCU (6-5), Concinnati (7-4), Texas Tech (7-4), Iowa (6-5), Kansas State (9-2), Louisiana Tech (7-4; WAC Champ), Clemson (6-5), Purdue (6-5), Michigan State (6-5), and North Carolina (7-5).
We have a really watered down 2002 Bowl Season because too many terrible teams made it. Its so bad that teams are being asked to PAY TO PLAY the bowl games! That means we have too many of them. By making them a little less common we make them more valuable, increasing the chance of revenue generation. By no means does any team deserve to play a bowl game if they lose money. That is just nonsense. ;P
Lets hear some other ideas........