My Playoff Brackets - Week 1
16 10 2007Now 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).
Not a bad idea and the bracket looks like it’ll produce some good games.. but there are some flaws…
If we “bracket people” are ever going to convice the old-school “BCS people” to do a playoff, we can’t push for 16-teamers… Just too grand, too big, too long.
An 8-teamer is just perfect… Like the BCS Bowls pre-2006… You got your 6 BCS conference champs (putting a HUGE emphasis on winning your conference - making every conference championship game of utmost importance; and unlike your current model wher eif kansas met Oklahoma, both would be “in” - rendering that game moot).
Also, the first round games should be held on home fields… college students and fans can’t be expected to travel to 3 sites in 3 weeks or so… The semis and finals should be your Rose, Sugar, Orange or something…