After hearing word of the exchange between President-Elect Obama and ACC Commissioner Swofford (current BCS chair) I feel called to post how I would "save" the BCS and College Football - a BCS playoff that preserves the bowl system while respecting the needs of fans and the student-athletes.
Step 0 - Prerequisite: All conference championships & regular season play must conclude by December 2. In some years this would be Thanksgiving weekend.
Step 1 - BCS Seeding: Select the top 12 teams in the nation, all will play in exactly one major bowl or the BCS Championship game. [Yes, I realize this adds another BCS bowl game, and suggest bringing back the Cotton Bowl - in the new Cowboys stadium it should regain major bowl status.] Seed them 1 thru 12 [not my problem how!] Seeds 1-8 are bracketed to play in the BCS Campus Round, with winners of that round advancing to the BCS Final Four. Of course seeding makes the regular season critical.
Step 2 - BCS Campus Round: On the first Saturday after December 2, the top 8 teams will play at the campus sites of the higher seed as follows:
Step 3 - Bowl Selection Sunday: The Five Major bowls announce their selections, which include seeds 9-12 and the campus losers. There are two options for how to include the BCS Final Four losers. My preferred method would be to allow 2 bowls to "defer" selection until after the BCS Final Four - this means every bowl has at least one team to start promoting no later than December 10. These selections could be pre-announced, as there are only 4 possible BCS Final Four outcomes. Fans have plenty of time to make travel plans, and only two teams will play after December 10, making sure almost all players do not have final exam conflicts. The non-preferred method would be for one bowl to have both BCS Final Four losers, which I would not endorse - it reeks of a consolation game and no bowl should be the "Loser Bowl".
Step 4 - BCS Final Four. The next Saturday, at predetermined neutral site or sites, two games are played- Winner of Campus Game 1 vs. Winner of Campus Game 4; Winner of Campus Game 2 vs. Winner of Campus Game 3. This could be a day/night doubleheader at one site, or games at two sites. The critical element is that a school knows what site at which it will be placed should it win the Campus round. Winners advance to BCS Championship, losers advance to the major bowl as selected.
So what does this all mean? Major bowls retain their importance and prestige. College football fans get two more weekends of outstanding football and a football bracket. 4 lucky schools get the revenue of a super-meaningful December game. And I think everybody makes money hand over fist. ESPN's networks would be particularly well suited for the Campus Round
BCS supporters, tell me how this hurts college football and who the loser is...
This article was also posted to Facebook Notes