Guest Blog : Gators First

The Good 'ol Boys from Gatorsfirst were nice enough to provide CFB 365 with another great article this week.

This post was provided by Chris of Gators First. Chris does a great job of laying out a proposed playoff situation. Unfortunately, I couldn't provide the whole article myself, so check out the full version here.

Enjoy!

Conference Realignment and Playoff Proposal…Part Deux

I recently read over James’s original realignment plan and I found it very interesting. It was basically a way to allow the major conferences to make a few minor additions and subtractions to their conferences to make sure the big ones will be guaranteed a championship game. He then went on to mention the Wetzel Plan, which called for a 16-team playoff. However, after reading both, I found that there were a couple of flaws. So, mainly because I have a lot of free time and have nothing better to do, I decided I would make some updates to both plans…

The main point I’d like to start with is that I propose to make eight 12-team conferences, each of which will be entered into the BCS. Yes you read that correctly, the BCS will stay. As much as the BCS has failed to determine the final two teams to play for the national championship game, it has done a good job on a much larger scale figuring out where teams stand. Read further and you’ll see where I’ll use it. As a 12-conference, each will be required to have a championship game, and the winner of that game will earn an automatic bid into a 16-team BCS championship playoff, similar to the NCAA college basketball tournament. The remaining eight playoff spots will go to the top eight teams in the BCS standings that are not already guaranteed a spot in the playoff. This usage of the BCS should quell people’s fears, because the only teams that might have an argument against the BCS will be those teams that feel their team deserved a chance when they were the 9^th or 10^th best team left of those not already guaranteed a spot. In my eyes, this argument holds no weight, because your team clearly wouldn’t have shown itself to be one of the top five best teams in the country at that point and you should stop your bitching. But I digress…

With that being said, you might be wondering to yourself “Wait, if there are eight 12-team leagues, that means there are only 96 BCS teams. What happens to the other 24 teams in the bowl subdivision?” That’s a good question for those who thought that… The remaining 24 teams will still have a chance to play in the tournament, as long as they have a BCS ranking that is in the top eight of the remaining slots. It’s that simple. I will discuss their role later.

I have looked hard at the top 96 teams in college football with respect to current play, history, and current conference value. I chose to leave out those teams out of the eight new conferences that have little value.

Here are the current conference lineups (those struck through weren’t added to new BCS conferences):

SEC

East – Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee

West – Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi St

Big 12

North – Iowa St, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas St, Kansas, Missouri

South – Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St

Big 10 (11)

Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Wisconsin, Penn St

ACC

Atlantic – Florida St, Boston College, Maryland, Wake Forest, Clemson, NC State

Coastal – Miami (FL), North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech

Big East

Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Pittsburgh

Pac 10

Arizona, Arizona St, Southern Cal, UCLA, Stanford, California, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St

MAC

East – Temple, Buffalo, Kent St, Akron, Ohio, Miami (OH), Bowling Green

West – Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Ball St.

Conference USA

East – Central Florida, UAB, East Carolina, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss

West – Tulane, Houston, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UTEP

Sun Belt

FAU, FIU, Middle Tennessee, Arkansas St, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, North Texas, Troy

WAC

Louisiana Tech, New Mexico St, Utah St, Boise St, Nevada, San Jose St, Fresno St, Idaho, Hawaii

Mountain West

TCU, New Mexico, Air Force, Colorado St, Wyoming, BYU, Utah, UNLV, San Diego St

Independent

Notre Dame, Western Kentucky, Army, Navy

With my proposal, here are the new conferences, based off the old ones:

SEC

East – Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Clemson, Georgia Tech

West – Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Mississippi, Mississippi St, Kentucky

Notes: The SEC doesn’t change much. However, they replace Vanderbilt and Arkansas with Clemson and Georgia Tech. Vanderbilt isn’t very “SEC” and Arkansas isn’t geographically near the other SEC schools. Clemson would be a great fit because they, out of any other school in the southeast, resemble a true SEC school, as well as their longstanding rivalry with South Carolina. Georgia Tech also would fit in the east because of their rivalry with Georgia. Kentucky moves to the west division due to geographic complications.

Big 12

North – Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas St, Kansas, Missouri, Tulsa

South – Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Arkansas

Notes: The Big 12 also doesn’t change much. They replace Iowa St and Baylor with Tulsa and Arkansas. Iowa St seems like they should belong in the Big 10. Baylor has sucked at football for a long time now, and belongs with the likes of SMU, Rice, and Houston as poor teams from Texas. They never seem to beat any of the good Big 12 teams anyways. Tulsa would fit right in with the other teams from Oklahoma, especially with Gus Malzhan’s new offense. Arkansas used to be in the defunct Southwestern Conference, with a slew of other current Big 12 members. They’ll fit right in.

Big 10 + 2

East – Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame

West – Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa St

Notes: The Big 10 + 2 finally conforms to the conference championship game model that has worked for other major conferences. They replace Penn St with Notre Dame and Iowa St. Penn St joined the Big 10 in the early 1990’s, so leaving won’t take away from much of the tradition they have built over the last 15 or so years. They belong with other Big East teams. Iowa St. has a major rivalry with Iowa and this allows them to play every year within their conference. Notre Dame needs to get over themselves and join a conference already. This opportunity allows them to play big schools in their area. The conference will split evenly into two divisions, east and west. Also, they get to keep their traditional “big ten” name in their conference name, even though they have 12 teams. I’d like to see the clever logo they come up with next.

ACC

North – North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, NC State, Virginia Tech, Virginia

South – Miami (FL), Florida St, Central Florida, South Florida, Vanderbilt, East Carolina

Notes: The ACC changes a lot. They replace Boston College, Maryland, Clemson, and Georgia Tech with Central Florida, South Florida, Vanderbilt, and East Carolina. I figured that Boston College and Maryland regionally fit with other teams in the northeast. Also, Clemson and Georgia Tech have big rivalries with other schools in the SEC and remind me of SEC college towns (Georgia Tech is better than Vanderbilt). For those coming in, it made sense to group the other Florida schools together as well as bringing in another school from the Carolinas. Vandy matches well with other schools of higher education like Duke, Virginia, and UNC.

Pac 12

South – Southern Cal, UCLA, Stanford, Hawaii, UNLV. Fresno St

North – California, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St, Boise St

Notes: The Pac 12 also finally conforms to the conference championship game model. They replace Arizona and Arizona St with Hawaii, UNLV, Fresno St, and Boise St. Remember, Arizona and Arizona St joined the Pac 8 to form the Pac 10 in the late 1970’s, so leaving won’t take away from much of the tradition they have built over the last 30 or so years. They belong with other Southwestern teams. Hawaii is about as Pacific as you can get, Fresno St and UNLV belong with the other California schools, and Boise St belong with the other northwestern schools. (not Northwestern Univ…). I’d be intrigued to see how Boise St fares with regular stiff competition, especially on the blue turf! The conference will split evenly into two divisions, north and south.

Big Kinda Northeast

Northeast – Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers, Maryland, Penn St, Boston College

Southwest – West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Kent St, Akron, Ohio, Marshall

Notes: This conference brings together five teams from the current Big East, as well as a past member in Boston College, a current ACC member, and four current members of the MAC to form the Big Kinda Northeast Conference. I chose to do this because regionally it makes sense. The current Big East has only eight members, yet they get a guaranteed spot in the BCS, yet the Big 12 and the SEC (considerably better from top to bottom) have 12 teams and only get one guaranteed spot. At the very least, this move allows for a more legit argument for their inclusion. The conference will split evenly into two divisions, northeast and southwest (heh).

Conference USA

North – Ball St, Central Michigan, Bowling Green Cincinnati, Toledo, Miami (OH)

South – UAB, Tulane, Southern Miss, Memphis, Louisiana Tech, Louisville

Notes: This conference brings together five teams from the current MAC, four from the current Conference USA, two from the current Big East (yet former members of Conference USA), and Louisiana Tech, who inexplicably plays in the WAC with the likes of Boise St, Fresno St, and even Hawaii! I figured that I would call them Conference USA, mainly because they are the most spread out of any of my new conferences. On another note, did you know that the MAC current has 13 teams, six in one division and seven in another? Me neither! The conference will split evenly into two divisions, north and south.

Southwestern (SWC?)

Lone Star – TCU, Rice, SMU, UTEP, Houston, Baylor

Four Corners – BYU, Air Force, Arizona St, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico

Notes: This conference brings together five teams from the current Mountain West conference, four from the current Conference USA, two from the current Pac 10, and Baylor, who leaves the Big 12. I will call this the Southwestern Conference, mainly because they are in the southwestern part of the United States of America (weird right?!). The conference will split evenly into two divisions, lone star (consisting of all Texan schools) and four corners (I think the name explains itself.

Non BCS Schools

Temple, Buffalo, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, FAU, FIU, Middle Tennessee, Arkansas St, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, North Texas, Troy, New Mexico St, Utah St, Nevada, San Jose St, Idaho, Colorado St, Wyoming, San Diego St, Western Kentucky, Army, Navy

Notes: I chose to exclude these schools from the BCS for many reasons. But the one that kept sticking out in my mind was the fact that all of these schools have either not been relevant for a long, LONG time, or never all at all. When I think of these teams, they are the first to come to mind when a major school schedules a pancake. With that said, I feel that these teams will have the opportunity to still make it to the BCS playoff that I will discuss shortly. All they will have to do is schedule some tough games and try to build their program with big wins. Maybe in the future, I would even put in a clause that they could replace another failing team from a BCS conference if they have a string of consecutive winning seasons and upset, a la English Premier League soccer (I refuse to call it football!). But that is for another blog, on another day…maybe in another life.

Here is my BCS Playoff Proposal:

1) Each conference will have a championship game held after the completion of the regular season. The winner of each division in the conference will represent their division in the championship game. The winner of said game to gain an automatic spot into the BCS playoff, regardless of their position in the BCS standings.

2) The remaining eight (8) “at-large” slots will be determined by the eight highest teams in the BCS standings, not already guaranteed a spot in the playoff tournament.

3) At most, three (3) teams from one conference can be represented in the playoff tournament.

4) At most one (1) team from a non-BCS conference can participate in the playoff tournament.

5) The seeding of the tournament will be determined by the final BCS standings, which will be released shortly after all of the conference championship games.

6) First and Second round games would be played at the home stadium of the team with the higher seed.

Imagine the possibilities of having a championship tournament. Every conference can have their chance to shine. A true champion will be determined. Also, the bowl system will still stay mostly in tact. For example, every bowl will have the opportunity to select teams after they have been eliminated from the tournament. All teams not in the tournament that have a winning record will still have the same chance of playing in a bowl game. The first place game will be the BCS National Championship game, and the 3^rd place game can move to each of the current BCS bowl locations every four years, guaranteeing a premier matchup in that game.

Here is an example of what could happen:

Championship Game Results

SEC: Florida (2) defeats Alabama

Big 12: Oklahoma (1) defeats Missouri

Big 10 + 2: Ohio St (11) defeats Iowa

ACC: North Carolina (12) defeats Florida St

Pac 12: Southern Cal (4) defeats Boise St

Big Kinda Northeast: Penn St (8) defeats West Virginia

Conference USA: Ball St (13) defeats Louisville

Southwestern: Utah (5) defeats TCU

The remaining eight highest BCS teams could be:

Texas (3)

Alabama (6)

Texas Tech (7)

Georgia (9)

Boise St (10)

Michigan St (14)

Oregon (15)

West Virginia (16)