Code Orange

Now that the BCS is out, I’ll present what my hypothetical playoff bracket for Division I-A football. Ages ago I presented to my father my oh-so-brilliant playoff idea: Have a 16 team playoff. Include the 11 conference champions and the top 5 other teams from the BCS, then seed the teams based on their BCS rankings.

Now, given that the season isn’t over, we obviously don’t have any conference champions yet. As a result, I’ll either pick the team who currently has the best conference record, and if there is a tie, I’ll look to see if I can choose one via a head-to-head tiebreaker, and if not, then pick which of those teams are ranked highest in the BCS. So here are the entrants into the hypothetical playoff as of now:

ACC: Boston College (7-0)
Big East: South Florida (6-0)
Big Ten: Ohio State (7-0)
Big 12: Kansas (6-0)
Conference USA: Tulsa (4-2) - (OK, they’re all tied and none are in the BCS, so I picked Tulsa for being tied with 1 conference loss, and having the best overall record)
MAC: Miami (OH) (4-3) - OK, this one is tied in all respects. I picked Miami (OH) cause Central Michigan lost to a I-AA team.
Mountain West: Brigham Young (4-2)
Pac 10: Arizona State (7-0)
SEC: LSU (6-1)
Sun Belt: Troy (4-2)
WAC: Hawaii (7-0)
Wildcard: Oklahoma (5-1)
Wildcard: South Carolina (6-1)
Wildcard: Kentucky (6-1)
Wildcard: West Virginia (5-1)
Wildcard: Oregon (5-1)

Now, the bracket (using the BCS, then Billingsly’s computer rankings, to seed):

#1 Ohio State vs. #16 Miami (OH)
#8 Arizona State vs. #9 West Virginia
#5 Oklahoma vs. #12 Hawaii
#4 LSU vs. #13 Brigham Young
#3 Boston College vs. #14 Troy
#6 South Carolina vs. #11 Kansas
#7 Kentucky vs. #10 Oregon
#2 South Florida vs. #15 Tulsa

There are several things I like about this layout:

With 6 BCS conferences and 5 wildcard spots, chances are the entire BCS Top 10 will get into the playoffs unless two BCS conferences just don’t have anyone in the top 10. Also, this allows the smaller conference to get a crack at the championship, so no one can complain that a undefeated Hawaii didn’t make the wildcard cut-0ff (and if you just did a “top 16 teams” playoff, Hawaii would be left out right now).