Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Alternate College Football playoff plan

This is the alternate plan. The main plan is here. I believe the main plan is better than the alternate plan but the alternate plan is pretty good as well. Alternate plan is also more likely to be implemented.
Here it is:
6 Automatic bids. (1 for each winner of a power 5 conference(Big Ten,SEC,ACC,B12,P12) as well as 1 automatic bid for the strongest team(has to still be a conference champion) of the group of 5(non power 5) conferences(not including independent teams, which will have to rely on at-large.). The "strongest" non power 5 champion would be determined by selection committee.
2 At-Large bids, determined by selection committee(or maybe because it's only 2 it could be determined by a computer formula or a poll. This part is flexible.)
Rest of teams get bowl games.
Committee seeds teams from 1(best) to 8(worst). 1 plays 8. 2 plays 7. 3 plays 8 and so on. Typical 8 team bracket(like NBA playoffs), winner of 1v8 plays winner of 4v5 and so on.
Optional: First round games are home games for higher seed(perhaps even played before bowl season). Semifinal games tied in with major Jan 1st bowls like current system. Final game played on usual date(2nd monday on january). 
Optional:  Remove conference championship games(so conference champ game loser doesn't get punished for losing when it comes to at-large bids. The leagues themselves will determine tie breakers)

My defense of this proposal:
For giving autobid to best of group of 5 conference conference champion: Non power schools have always had biases work against them. For the sake of fairness, they should be given a shot. It erases all doubt for an elite midmajor school, particularly one that goes unbeaten. Time and time, again many of these non-power schools have proven themselves against big time competition. They deserve a shot and if the best midmajor conference champion isn't a strong team, then consider it a reward for the number 1 team in the country. Best team in the country is rewarded with a 1st round breather.

Criticisms for this plan and the responses to it would be similar for the ones for the other one. If anyone finds one specifically for this one. Send it my way through the comments or something. If you want to see those criticisms and my responses, just click the link to the other plan and scroll down.

How this format solves the flaw of  "the possibility that the best team that is undefeated and postseason eligible not getting a shot at a title": It doesn't solve the problem as well as the other plan. For example: two unbeaten non-power conference champions, 1 gets the autobid. But the other played too weak of a schedule and is left out. Turns out the other team was legit(and could have been best in country; perhaps they dominated a bowl game against very good competition) and the team that got in got destroyed. But it would be a major step in the right direction, nonetheless and it would even the discrimination against mid-majors that is unique to college football.(It's strange that college basketball embraces the mid-major and gives them a shot at it all. And it makes the postseason much more exciting, when those small conference teams make runs. An AAC team won the college basketball title in 2014, albeit a traditional powerhouse AAC team. I digress.) 

Sample College Football Playoff(using 2014 season excluding Conference championship games):
Automatic Bids: Alabama(SEC), Baylor(B12 tiebreaker;Baylor beat TCU ), Ohio State(B10), Oregon(P12),  Florida State(ACC),Boise State(Mtn West, highest ranked non power 5)
At-Large Bids(trying to think like commitee)- TCU, Mississippi State(SEC bias)
 Snubs(aka potential complainers with sort of decent argument): 
Arizona(Response: Loss to USC is not a bad loss but worse than Miss St losses...I guess. Probably should be in with a win over Oregon but SEC bias is real.)
Michigan State(Response: No bad losses but no notable wins either)
Georgia Tech(Response: Lost to two basketball schools)
Wisconsin (Response: Lost to 7 loss Northwestern)
 Missouri(Response: lost to 8 loss Indiana at home LOL)

Seedings/First round matchups(trying to seed/rank them like the committee would):
1.Alabama vs 8.Boise State
2.Oregon vs 7. Mississippi State
3.Florida State vs 6.TCU
4.Ohio State vs 5. Baylor

My comments: I like my main proposal better(more great teams, more chances for great upsets) but this wouldn't be so bad. If Boise would upset 'Bama, it would be monumental. And after seeing the results of the 2014-15 bowl season, with Alabama's overrated defense being torched by Ohio State and Boise defeating a very good Arizona team, that kind of upset could happen. Boise would then be one more upset away from a "Cinderella" run to the title game. The other matchups are great(especially without using hindsight vision) and it would be an improvement over the current system.

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