Dan Wetzel Brings the Win

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Seriously, though, this is an excellent idea, and it completely blows up the "there's no viable alternative" argument that the pro-BCS crowd likes to tout. If the FCS, Division II, and Division III leagues can do a 16 team playoff, then the FBS sure as hell can, too. I like the 11 conference champs + 5 at large plan, and even though I'd like to see a team like BYU in this bracket, I'd rather have the 17th and 18th teams having gripes than the 3rd and 4th. This year, there are no fewer than 8 teams (Florida, Oklahoma, USC, Boise State, Utah, Texas, Texas Tech, and Alabama) who have a case for making the BCS title game; only two of them are actually going to play in it, and another two--BSU and Utah--won't even be discussed as deserving teams. In a playoff, they would be able to make their cases on a weekly basis.

Look at Wetzel's bracket, and tell me that some of those first round matchups don't look good. Boise State and Penn State would be a good game, as would Texas Tech/Ohio State. TCU/Utah would be a great between two good non-BCS teams, and could possibly be the best game of the first round. Even Florida/Cincinnati has the makings of a good game, with the Bearcats--led by a great coach in Brian Kelly-- being the underdogs as they roll into The Swamp. From there, the future games are a fan's dream. In the second round alone, we could see:

Penn State/Alabama, or Boise State/Alabama
Florida/USC
Utah/Texas, or TCU/Texas
Texas Tech/Oklahoma, or Oklahoma/Ohio State

And don't even get me started on the possible championship games. Given these matchups, a playoff would be great for the fans, great for the schools, and great for college football in general. These are games that fans fantasize about; a playoff would actually make them happen. It would be a cash cow for the universities, who could reap the benefits of having their schools play and advance in the playoff. If you think the money made from March Madness is a lot, just think of how much money could be made from college football.

All of this begs the question: why are conferences so hesitant about a playoff, then? Save the BS about being concerned for the students, too; if schools truly gave a damn about the grades these kids made, March Madness wouldn't be as long as it is. Every other college football division has a playoff, and concerns are never raised about their grades. Personally, I think there's another motivation at work here: protection of the name brand. When most people think of college football, they think of the big names like Michigan, Ohio State, USC, and Notre Dame. Extending this logic further, we can say that the reverse is true, too: people certainly aren't thinking of the TCUs, BYUs, and Boise States of the college football landscape when they think of the sport. If a team like Boise State were to knock off one like USC, what would that do for a program's prestige? What would that do for a conference prestige? At least one upset is going to happen in every playoff, and a big team could be a victim of that. The same reasoning works to explain why big time schools don't schedule high-end non-BCS teams now, as well. Not only does an Ohio State loss to a team like BYU knock them out of national title talks, it makes the program look worse as a whole. Don't believe me? Look at Michigan last year; they took Florida to the woodshed in the Capital One Bowl, but has anyone forgotten that they lost to Appalachian State to start the year? If upsets like that happened on a yearly basis, people would start to question just how different BCS teams are from non-BCS teams, and examine if the gap between the two is as wide as the media would have them to believe.

So here we are, with the non-BCS teams vying for attention, and the BCS schools not even giving them tickets to the show. Four conferences-the Big 10, Pac-10, Big East, and Big 12-wouldn't even let talks of a plus-one playoff on the table, much less give it serious consideration. This is a travesty. There's no other way to say it, really; it cheats college football fans out of a chance to see great football, and it cheats non-BCS teams out of the chance to worth their worth on a national stage. I love college football, but the BCS is a joke solution to a serious issue. When a system screws up as much as the BCS has (the BCS got it wrong in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004, and left an undefeated BSU out in the cold in 2006 as well), would you continue to use it and hope that it doesn't screw up again, or would you replace it? Most people know what the answer to that question is.

Just not any of the people that matter.