What If There Was A Playoff? ... 2000
Miami QB Ken Dorsey
Miami QB Ken Dorsey
CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Mar 16, 2009


With all the fun every year with March Madness, it's a shame college football isn't able to come up with a similar way to come up with a champion. What if there was an eight team college football playoff in 2000? What likely would've happened? CFN tries to figure out how a playoff would've gone.

What If There Was A Playoff? ... 2000

Looking at what might have happened over the years

By Pete Fiutak 

What If There Was A Playoff ...
CFN Playoff Explanation | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006
- 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 

Take the six BCS conference champions and give them automatic bids. Take the highest ranked non-BCS team (Notre Dame included), and give it an automatic bid. The eighth and final slot would be a Wild Card going to the top ranked team in the BCS that isn’t already in. With that in mind, here are the eight teams that would be in and the best guess about what would happen.

Final BCS Ranking in parentheses

ACC – Florida State (2)
Big East – Miami (3)
Big Ten – Purdue (NR)
Big 12 – Oklahoma (1)
Pac 10 – Washington (4)
SEC – Florida (7)
Non-BCS – Notre Dame (11)
Wild Card – Virginia Tech (5)

Bubble Busted:
Northwestern (NR), Michigan (16), Oregon State (6), Oregon (10), Nebraska (8), Kansas State (9)
There would’ve been a really, really wild and fun debate. Virginia Tech, the hot team coming into the year led by Michael Vick, would’ve been a wee bit of a no-brainer for the Wild Card having gone 10-1 with the lone defeat coming to a phenomenal Miami team. However, the Pac 10 would’ve been screaming. Oregon State, led by Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmanzadeh, went 10-1 (and eventually destroyed Notre Dame 41-9 in the Fiesta Bowl) with the lone loss a 33-30 war at Washington. However, before the win over the Irish, they only beat one team, Oregon, that finished with a winning record. The Huskies’ lone loss came at Oregon and they were the only team to beat Miami, but they got the overall tie-breaker to get to the Rose Bowl and would’ve gotten the automatic bid into the playoff. The Big Ten would’ve had even more issues. Michigan finished higher than Purdue in the BCS rankings, but the Boilermakers won the head-to-head battle and didn’t play Northwestern, the third team to earn a share of the Big Ten title. The Wolverines lost to Northwestern in a classic 54-51.

First Round Matchups

Indianapolis – No. 3 Miami vs. No. 6 Purdue
Miami – No. 2 Florida State vs. No. 7 Notre Dame
Dallas – No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 8 Florida
Phoenix – No. 4 Washington vs. No. 5 Virginia Tech  

Matchup Analysis: Remembering the economics of the playoff and the necessity to fill stadiums, Purdue would’ve been bumped up to a No. 6 seed to play a killer Hurricane team. Drew Brees and the Boilermakers were good, but Miami was growing into a juggernaut and would’ve had way too much talent. Florida should be a No. 7 seed, if not a 6, but Florida State beat the Gators 30-7 in the final game of the regular season and no one would want to see a rematch, even if it was played in Miami. Getting Notre Dame would appease the Miami game’s officials who would’ve wanted the Gators. It wouldn’t have mattered; FSU would’ve won in a blowout. Florida won the SEC title by easily beating Auburn, but this wasn’t a dominant Gator team and would’ve struggled against the rock-solid Oklahoma defense playing a home game in Dallas. Washington vs. Virginia Tech would’ve been a classic with the Washington defense having to keep Michael Vick under wraps. It wouldn’t have been able to do it. This wasn’t a special Washington defense, while the Hokie D that stopped Woody Dantzler and Clemson in a 41-20 Gator Bowl win would’ve gotten the job done against Marques Tuisasosopo.

Projected Final Four
Rose Bowl – No. 2 Florida State vs. No. 3 Miami
Sugar Bowl – No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 5 Virginia Tech

Matchup Analysis: Oklahoma’s defensive front wasn’t athletic and it wasn’t full of future NFL stars, but it didn’t give up much of anything. Rocky Calmus and the linebacking corps would’ve gotten the job done against Vick, while the offense would’ve powered its way to the national title game. The Seminole-Hurricane matchup would’ve been the one everyone was waiting for after the Canes won a 27-24 classic the first time around. Miami wouldn’t have lost the rematch even though the Noles were rolling over the second half of the year with destructions of fantastic NC State, Clemson, and Florida teams. After beating Vick and Virginia Tech 41-21, the Canes beat Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College, all good teams that finished with winning records, by a combined score of 113 to 13 to close out the regular season.

Projected National Championship: No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Miami
Projected National Champion: No. 3 Miami

Matchup Analysis: Oklahoma’s defense came up with an all-time of a stunner to beat Florida State 13-2 in the Orange Bowl for the national title, but Miami was loaded. LOADED. That team had 19 players drafted over the next two seasons and had 13 players drafted in the first round over the next three years. By comparison, the Sooners had four players taken in the draft over the following two seasons (Roy Williams, Rocky Calmus, Torrance Marshall and Josh Heupel). Oklahoma was special and was a true team in every measure of the word, but there wouldn’t have been enough firepower to keep up with a Cane team that, unlike Florida State, played with a serious attitude.


What If There Was A Playoff ...
CFN Playoff Explanation | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006
- 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 

 



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