Interesting Article for NCAA Football D-I playoff

this was an article submitted by a community member from the Zanesville Times Recorder in Zanesville, Ohio.

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080127/SPORTS/801270332/1006/NEWS17

Eight-team playoff needed for D-I collegiate football

As a Buckeye fan the past two seasons have been great; the title games not so much. As a college football fan, it has been disheartening to watch great football teams year after year unable to have the opportunity to determine on the field who is the best team in the country.

Major college football needs a playoff. I propose an eight-team playoff that will not affect the bowl games, would not play games during December exams, and still end the season with a title game about a week after New Year's Day.

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The last weekend in November would be reserved for the most deserving eight teams to play the first round of a playoff. The four winning teams would play in two New Year's Day BCS bowl games, with the bowl winners playing in a national title game about a week later.

Here are some specifics: The BCS conferences will get an automatic bid for their champion provided that they play a conference title game (i.e. ACC, SEC, Big 12) or all teams in the conference play each other (i.e. Big East, Pac 10). The Big 10 should be able to conform to one of those to get the automatic bid. The other two spots will go to the highest ranked team not from a BCS conference and the highest ranked team not among the seven teams already selected.

The four highest ranked teams from different conferences would host the other four teams. The highest seed would be matched with the lowest seeded team not from the same conference, and so on. The four winners would be matched by the same method for the New Year's Day bowl games.

The Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta bowls could rotate who gets the two "playoff" games or base it on which bowl has a relationship with the league of the highest ranked teams in the match ups (i.e. Rose with Pac 10 and Big 10). Seven to 10 days after New Year's Day, the title game would be played.

As far as the regular season, it would be 13 weeks ending with the next to last weekend in November. Teams would be allowed to play a total of 12 regular season games. Conferences with a title game would play 11 regular season games and then match up the teams from each division top to bottom and play games on the last regular season weekend.

One year the north division would host all the games and the next year the south so that schools know they are home or away that last weekend; just not sure who the opponent is until the week before. Most teams in the country would still play 12 games. Most schools going to a bowl game would play 13, six of the best teams in the country would play 14, and the best two teams in the country would play 15 games.

Just like now, you would have people flocking to 30-some bowl games, knowing it has no bearing on who wins the national title, and one January game that still crowns the national champion. The difference is, instead of a system picking the most deserving two teams (not best two teams like Georgia and USC this year) to play in a title game, the system would pick the most deserving eight teams and they would decide the champion on the field.

The BSC is better than the "lack of a system" before it came along, but it is also not what anyone associated with or a fan of college football deserves. It's time for a playoff, and if the presidents of the universities used some of their knowledge, I'm sure they could find a way to do it and still preserve the bowl tradition - of money.

John Lanning is a Tri-Valley teacher and scheduler for the Muskingum Valley League.