If There Was A Playoff ...
2006
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 2006? Here’s the best
guess with the seedings and the results.
Final BCS Ranking In Parentheses
ACC – Wake Forest (14)
Big East – Louisville (6)
Big Ten – Ohio State (1)
Big 12 – Oklahoma (10)
Pac 10 – USC (5)
SEC – Florida (2)
Non-BCS – Boise State (8)
Wild Card – Michigan (3)
Bubble Busted: LSU (4),
Wisconsin (7)
LSU was deserving of getting in the Wild
Card, but it would’ve had to settle for a Sugar Bowl appearance and a 41-14 destruction
of Notre Dame. Wisconsin would’ve had the biggest
complaint after going 11-1 with the lone loss coming at Michigan. There
weren’t any big wins, the only one of note coming against a good Penn
State team, but the Badgers proved they could play with a Capital One
Bowl win over Arkansas. Had the BCS allowed three teams from the same
conference to get in, Wisconsin almost certainly would’ve knocked out
Boise State to play Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
First Round Matchups
No. 1 Ohio State vs.
No. 8 Wake Forest
No. 2 Florida vs. No. 7 Boise State
No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 6 Oklahoma
No. 4 USC vs.
No. 5. Louisville
Matchup Analysis: Wake Forest was mistake-free and plucky, but Ohio State’s
offense would’ve been too potent in the home field environment. Boise
State would’ve thrown everything and the kitchen sink against Florida,
but the Gators were tougher than Oklahoma, especially on defense, and
wouldn’t have melted down. Michigan ended the season with a major
disappointment after losing an epic war against Ohio State before going
to the Rose Bowl to lose to USC. Oklahoma was good, but it wasn’t one of
Bob Stoops’ juggernauts. Adrian Peterson would’ve run wild, but Michigan
would’ve moved on. No one is better in the big games than USC, but a
major assumption is being made here: the team wouldn’t be healthy.
The
Trojans blew their shot to play for the national title with a 13-9 loss
to UCLA in the season finale mainly because QB John David Booty had
little mobility. In a playoff, he would’ve only had two weeks, roughly,
to heal up, while the offensive consistency would’ve been an issue.
Brian Brohm and Louisville were the real deal and should’ve been given
more consideration for the national title game after beating seven teams
that finished with a winning record.
Projected Final Four
Rose
Bowl – No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 5 Louisville
Sugar Bowl – No. 2
Florida vs. No. 3 Michigan
Matchup Analysis: Let’s assume Ohio State is the potent,
efficient machine that ripped through the regular season and not the
fat, lazy team that didn’t show up against Florida. Louisville had the
offense to put up big numbers on the Buckeye D, but Heisman winner Troy
Smith and the Buckeye passing game would’ve gotten the job done. Florida
managed to come up with close win after close win and was hitting its
peak as the season ended. Michigan’s offense wouldn’t have been able to
handle the swarming Gator D.
Projected National Championship:
No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Florida
Projected National Champion:
No. 2 Florida
Matchup Analysis: Remember, this is a tournament. Ohio State wouldn’t have
had the seven weeks off it had between the Michigan win and the Debacle
in the Desert and wouldn’t have been blown out. Even so, the Gators
would’ve been too athletic and too efficient for a Buckeye team that was
great, but showed holes against the Wolverines.
What If There Was A Playoff ...
- 2010
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2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004
- 2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000 |
1999 |
1998