SEC PROVES PLAYOFF IS RIGHT THING TO DO
Monday 11/26/01
Well after all the theorizing, after all the calculating, things have finally come down maybe a once in a lifetime scenario for the SEC. Two major end of season games will completely decide who goes to the SEC title game. Obviously we wish these game would have never been postponed but they were. Now the winner of Tennessee/Florida and Auburn/LSU will go up against each other in the SEC title game. It is like a 4 team playoff. Is everybody around the country paying attention? This shows you how much fun a college football playoff would be. Think of it. Match up the top 8 teams in the BCS in a playoff.
Use the traditional bowls for the playoff. The host sites would be the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and the Orange Bowl. They could rotate through the big games like they do now. You would probably need 3 more sites to save three of these bowls for the semifinals and then the championship game. Do you think that 3 bowls would be waiting with money in hand to be part of a national playoff? There is no doubt. Let’s say 3 more bowls stepped up to be part of this. Let’s say… the Cotton Bowl, the Citrus Bowl and the Gator Bowl. You could start right when all the bowls start now. There is a way to get around the NFL. They play a few Saturday regular season games when college football ends but that could easily stop. They only have playoff games on Saturday during the Wildcard.
Let’s say the BCS rankings stayed the same to end the season. Check out this scenario… Miami (#1 seed) would face Illinois (#8) in the Citrus Bowl. Florida (#2 seed) would face Colorado (#7) in the Outback Bowl. Texas (#3 seed) would face Tennessee (#6) in the Cotton Bowl. Nebraska (#4 seed) would face Oregon (#5) in the Fiesta Bowl. The southern warm weather teams have a sort of homefield advantage but it has always been like that and won’t change. The games will be played outdoors in warm weather states. Nothing is perfect but like I said it has always been like that. How many times did Nebraska and Oklahoma go to the Orange Bowl to play Florida St or Miami… A lot.
OK. You play those 4 playoff games and I guarantee those bowls and the NCAA would make more money than they do now. You have to keep saying that because it will always be the greatest motivation to do this. OK so then you have the 4 teams come out of the first round. You play those 2 semifinal games at the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl a week later and then you play the Championship game at the Rose Bowl another week later. Three weeks. The exact timeframe of the NCAA basketball tournament I believe. This is just not that hard to set up. I just don’t understand why we don’t do it.
Now of course there will be arguing over how to select the top 8 teams. There will always be arguments that somebody should be in that got left out and somebody who is in should not be. Whatever. You will never be able to get totally away from that. The bottom line is this would be a much much better way to do it than the ridiculous way they do it now. It will happen it is just a question of when. I just don’t understand why we are waiting. The scenario above keeps the bowl system intact and a lot richer. It really would not be that hard to schedule. Let’s do it!!!