If There Was A Playoff ...
2011
What If There Was A Playoff ...
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It's that time of year ... the second guessing season.
What might happen if Oklahoma State got its shot?
How would TCU have done if it got its shot at Auburn at the end of the 2010 season? How about if Boise State got a chance at Alabama in 2009 or if several other BCS fiascos were decided on the field?.
Forget basketball's gimmicky
post-season, where a seventh best team in
a conference gets a shot to play for the
national title, rendering the regular
season relatively meaningless. CFN has
created the best of all possible worlds
for a playoff to make sure the regular
season still holds the weight it does
now, if not more, while providing the
solution everyone wants (outside of Bill
Hancock, the
college presidents, the yellow-jacket
bowl kids, and 99% of the
coaches). Here’s the plan …
Take
the six BCS conference champions and
give them automatic bids. Take the
highest ranked non-BCS league champion (Notre Dame
included), and give it an automatic bid.
The eighth and final slot would be a
Wild Card, which would go to the top ranked team
in the BCS that isn’t already in.
We’d have to keep this in the land of the real with
the geographic and economic concerns in mind by
rewarding the top four teams with a first round home
game - fan bases aren't going to travel to three
neutral field sites if their team goes to the
national championship.
The seeds wouldn’t
necessarily go according to BCS ranking,
again, with the idea to put teams close
to the right region to make sure the
opposing fans can get there as easily as
possible.
The Final Four games
would be held in Pasadena and New
Orleans, and the national title would
rotate sites like it does now. Meanwhile
the rest of the bowl system would be
kept in place. If you watched the
Liberty Bowl before, you’d still watch
it if there's an eight team playoff.
So
what would’ve likely happened had the
CFN system been in place since the BCS
was in place in 2011? Here’s the best
guess with the seedings and the results.
Final BCS Ranking In Parentheses
ACC – Clemson (15)
Big East – West Virginia (23)
Big Ten – Wisconsin (10)
Big 12 – Oklahoma State (3)
Pac 10 – Oregon (5)
SEC – LSU (1)
Non-BCS – TCU (18)
Wild Card – Alabama (2)
Bubble Busted: Stanford
(4), Arkansas (6), Boise State (7), South Carolina
(9)
Stanford might have been the No. 4 team in the final in the final
BCS rankings, but it didn't win its own division,
much less the Pac-12 title. Oregon would've been
ranked lower, but it won the title and blew away the
Cardinal along the way. Arkansas lost to the top two
teams in the BCS and would be screaming about
deserving a spot in, but again, if you can't even
win your division title, you don't have a beef. The
same goes for Boise State, who lost the Mountain
West title to TCU, and South Carolina, who didn't
even win the East.
First Round Matchups
No. 8 West Virginia
at No. 1 LSU
No. 7 TCU at No. 2 Alabama
No. 6 Clemson at No. 3 Oklahoma State
No. 5 Wisconsin at No. 4 Oregon
Matchup Analysis: The Mountaineers might have
gotten the passing game going in the rematch with
LSU, and the Tigers might let down a little bit
thinking they could easily win the second time
around, but the outcome would be the same. LSU would
get through in more of a dogfight than it would
like. TCU's offense would have a hard time getting
going against the Tide D, and the Horned Frog run
defense would show that things aren't quite the same
as previous seasons. Clemson and Oklahoma State
would come up with an up-and-down the field shootout
with the Cowboys coming through in a game that would
obliterate the over. Speaking of high scoring
shootouts, the last team with the ball would win in
the Oregon - Wisconsin matchup. The Ducks would be
too strong in the second half.
Projected Final Four
Rose
Bowl – No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Oklahoma State
Sugar Bowl – No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Oregon
Matchup Analysis: The LSU - Oregon rematch
would be a bit different. The Duck running game
would work with far more production on the outside
than in the first game, but LSU's power running game
will take over in the second half and hold on to the
ball long enough to control the battle. Oklahoma
State would wing the ball around the yard 50 times,
but the Tide would come up with three picks and the
balanced offense would be enough to come up with a
good, decisive win.
Projected National Championship:
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama
Projected National Champion:
No. 2 Alabama
Matchup Analysis: The Alabama defense would
shut down the LSU offense cold, and while the Tide
attack wouldn't come up with an even performance, it
would do enough to move the ball to set up a slew of
field goal attempts. The Tigers offense won't have
any answers as the jacked up Tide D will make a
statement in a dominant national championship
victory.
What If There Was A Playoff ...
- 2011 | 2010
| 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005
- 2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000 |
1999 |
1998