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"Death to the BCS" a what-if recap

After that ridiculously boring game last night (I admit, I don't know if it was truly boring because I turned it off after the 1st Q... it was that bad), I thought back to the Death to the BCS format (or at least how I remembered reading it). If there were a 16 team playoff, where every conference champ got a spot with 5 at-large spots available, with no conference restrictions and seeding based on final regular season ranking, here would be the round 1 set of games:

  • 16. Wisconsin @ 1. Notre Dame
  • 15. Arkansas St @ 2. Alabama
  • 14. San Diego St @ 3. Florida
  • 13. Tulsa @ 4. Oregon
  • 12. Utah St @ 5. Kansas St
  • 11. Louisville @ 6. Stanford
  • 10. N. Illinios @ 7. Georgia
  • 9. Florida St @ 8. LSU

Not exactly the most compelling set of games, but it sure beat the bowl lineup we actually got (except for a very few)
Some potential round 2 match-ups:
  • 9. Florida St @ 1. Notre Dame (a pre-season NC favorite vs. the current #1)
  • 5. Kansas St @ 4. Oregon (this game was really played in the bowls, Oregon won easily)
  • 7. Georgia @ 2. Alabama (a rematch of the great SEC Championship game)
  • 11. Louisville @ 3. Florida (this was also really played and Louisville pulled an amazing upset) or
  • 6. Stanford @ 3. Florida
If it were to shake out as they played in the bowls (how good or bad they played), we could have ended with the match-up it seemed most really wanted: Oregon vs. Alabama.

The one that slipped out was Texas A&M. They looked amazing in the Cotton Bowl and were the only team to actually beat Alabama. This proves out the CONTINUED importance of the regular season. TX A&M lost early in the season to Florida (where FL had to come from behind) and a mid season loss to LSU where they really dominated most of the game, except for the inability to get into the end zone (settling for too many short field goals).

One of the main complaints to this system is the "home field" attendance issue where the potential exists for a small stadium team gets a home game. But in this case, the smallest stadium is Notre Dame... with that fan base, how much could they charge for those tickets?

Maybe it was just me (with Penn State ineligible for a bowl), but this was really a bad year for bowl games. Most were not interesting at all with only a few exceptions. I just checked and as I expected, attendance was down again and considered the lowest per-game average since the 70's. I'm guessing the average ratings also dipped.

I know we'll never get this type of playoff, but it sure is fun to dream.

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