Keep bowls, add playoffs to football

By By Austin Bishop / EMG sports director
Jan. 7, 2004
Writing words of wisdom on a Wednesday while wondering whatever happened to Wally Joyner …
College football has a pair of National Champions. That is something the founders of the Bowl Championship Series had hoped to eliminate I think.
Some pundits of college football are ready to punt the whole idea of the bowl system and head straight to an NCAA Basketball type of format as soon as possible.
Others say the bowl system in college football is sacred and shouldn't be touched.
As for me, well, I'm somewhere in between. And just like every other sports writer who has been in this business longer than 24 hours, I have an idea of how to correct the way we currently crown a National Champion in NCAA Division I-A football.
My system which gives us a mini-playoff this year but within three years will work itself into a full 16-team playoff has three basic rules that must be followed:
1.) Don't mess with the current bowl system. I think it's great. Folks like Miami of Ohio, Boise State, Bowling Green, Navy and Fresno State deserve their three hours in the national limelight. The minor' and intermediate' bowls are also important for programs such as Georgia Tech, Missouri, California and Houston who are trying to build themselves into one of the elite football schools but need somewhere to start.
Shoot, it may as well be on a blue field in Boise in the Humanitarian Bowl.
2.) It will be necessary to add one additional game this season, and as many as three in the next two.
3.) Within three years, all of the schools interested in winning the National Championship must be in a conference that has at least 12 teams and plays a conference championship game. If you don't meet that criteria, then fine, you just aren't eligible for the National Title. It's as simple as that.
Are you at least a bit curious?
Okay, here is how it looks in a year-by-year breakdown.
2004 For this coming season we simply add an additional game aptly named The National Championship Game. The four major BCS bowls stay as they are. And for this season, the way the eight teams are selected for those four games can remain the same.
One of those four BCS games will pit the No. 1 team against No. 4 and another will feature No. 2 against No. 3.
Two weeks after the regular bowl season, The National Championship Game will be held at a predetermined neutral site which will pay megabucks to host it.
All of the rest of the bowl games remain just as they are. Nobody's hurt and we are two steps away from the playoff system we need.
2005 Now it's time for step two.
This is very similar to step one. We add two more games.
After the four BCS games, all four winners advance into semifinal games either one or two weeks later.
In this case, it will probably be necessary for the top-seeded teams to host the games. These would be the newly added National Championship Semifinals.
Two weeks later, the National Championship Game is held.
Again, the other bowl games remain the same, keeping most everyone happy and the economies of the host cities unharmed due to the loss of their big game.
2006 Finally, we are here.
During the past two seasons the conferences have been busy realigning and setting up their various league championship games getting ready for the 2006 season and our first true full-blown NCAA Division I-A football playoff.
Remember, if you are not in a league that has a conference championship game, you can't win the title.
Exceptions came be made for schools like Notre Dame. If the Irish haven't joined a league by this time, then they would be able to play as a football-only competitor with one of the other conferences. If their record is good enough, then they can play for that conference's championship. It doesn't matter to me if it's the Big Ten, Big East or the Mountain West. That would be up to the Irish.
If they can't work something out, then too bad too sad.
At this point, eight conference champions will be eligible to play in one of the four BCS bowl games.
Five of those conferences are easy to identify Southeastern, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and Pac 10. The rest will have to fight it out for the other three spots.
That means in any given year the Conference USA, Big East, Mountain West, Western Atheltic, Mid-American, Sun Belt or any other Divison I-A conference will be eligible to send a team to the Elite Eight of college football, formerly known as the Bowl Championship Series.
Any of the conference champions not making the Elite Eight, as well as any other team with a winning record, can then move on to play one of the regular bowl games.
The tournament teams will be seeded at that point with No. 1 playing No. 8, No. 2 playing No. 7, etc., etc, etc.
The winners would then move on to the previously established semifinals before reaching the National Championship Game.
The playoffs would actually begin with the various conference championship games, giving us a starting field of 16.
It may not be perfect, but it is certainly something to think about.
Or maybe, you prefer having two champions.