If There Was A Playoff ...
2008
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 2008? Here’s the best
guess with the seedings and the results.
Final BCS Ranking In Parentheses
ACC – Virginia Tech (19)
Big East – Cincinnati (12)
Big Ten – Penn State (8)
Big 12 – Oklahoma (1)
Pac 10 – USC (5)
SEC – Florida (2)
Non-BCS – Utah (6)
Wild Card – Texas (3)
Bubble Busted: Alabama
(4), Texas Tech (7), Boise State (9)
Alabama would’ve gone from
No. 1 and unbeaten to out of the tournament after a tough fourth quarter
in the SEC title game. Texas Tech would’ve been ticked that it tied
Oklahoma and Texas for the Big 12 South title yet was left out (and
wouldn’t even be considered). Boise State was one of two unbeaten teams
at the end of the year but would’ve been bumped out of the Non-BCS slot
by Utah.
First Round Matchups
No. 4 Penn State vs. No. 5 USC
No. 2 Florida vs. No. 7 Cincinnati
No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 8
Virginia Tech
No. 3 Texas vs. No. 6 Utah
Matchup Analysis: Cincinnati
would’ve hung around with Florida for about a quarter before the roof
caved in. Virginia Tech wouldn’t have had much of a chance to keep up
with the point-a-minute Oklahoma juggernaut. Texas vs. Utah would’ve
been interesting, and while the Utes proved they could play with the big
boys in the Sugar Bowl blasting of Alabama, they wouldn’t have been able
to deal with the precision of a hot Colt McCoy. It would’ve gone down to
the wire, but no one, including Brian Johnson, was better at coming up
with the big late drive than McCoy. Penn State couldn’t get the offense
going against the all-timer of a USC defense until it was too late in
the loss in the Rose Bowl. The Trojans wouldn’t have won in a walk, but
they would’ve moved on.
Projected Final Four
Rose Bowl – No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Texas
Sugar Bowl – No. 1 Florida vs. No. 5 USC
Matchup Analysis: Texas had
Oklahoma’s number the first time around, but the Oklahoma offense was
playing at a different level by the end of the season. It’s hard to beat
the same team twice, and OU had the linebacker situation figured out
after losing Ryan Reynolds in the first matchup. Don’t discount how big
that was. Reynolds was knocked out, Colt McCoy picked apart the middle
of the field, and UT won. Florida’s defense would’ve stopped the
inconsistent USC offense (don’t forget the Cal and Arizona games), while
the key for the Gator O would’ve been the health of Percy Harvin. Assume
he’s playing, and assume the Gators do to the Trojan defense what Penn
State was able to do in the second half of the Rose Bowl.
Projected National Championship:
No. 1 Florida vs. No. 2 Oklahoma
Projected National Champion:
No. 1 Florida
Matchup Analysis: Florida, as long as Harvin was healthy, was the best team
in America in all areas and would’ve been the pick if Texas had gotten
here. However, don’t forget just how close OU was to pulling off the
win.
What If There Was A Playoff ...
- 2010
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2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004
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2002 |
2001 |
2000 |
1999 |
1998