If There Was A Playoff ...
2009
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 2009? Here’s the best
guess with the seedings and the results.
Final BCS Ranking In Parentheses
ACC – Georgia Tech (9)
Big East – Cincinnati (3)
Big Ten – Ohio State (8)
Big 12 – Texas (2)
Pac 10 – Oregon (7)
SEC – Alabama (1)
Non-BCS – TCU (4)
Wild Card – Florida (5)
Bubble Busted: Boise
State (6), Iowa (10)
There would've been a tremendous theoretical debate; do you take a
one-loss SEC team that might be the second best team
in America, or do you take an unbeaten Boise State
to make it two non-AQ teams in the dance? The humans
ended up voting the Gators fifth and the Broncos
sixth, but if there was a playoff, the sentiment
might have been there to put in the unbeaten Broncos
to see what they could do. However, that Gator team
was a monster that might have woken up, and might
have played better in the SEC Championship loss to
Alabama, with the pressure off and with a playoff to
fall back on. Iowa's tremendous 10-2 season might
have been worth of a second shot for the Big Ten,
but there's no way to justify the Wild Card bid over
Florida or Boise State.
First Round Matchups
No. 3 Cincinnati vs. No. 6 Oregon
No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 8 Georgia
Tech
No. 2 Texas vs. No. 7 Ohio State
No. 4 TCU vs. No. 5 Florida
Matchup Analysis: Alabama's defense would've
stoned the Georgia Tech rushing attack, but it
would've been a bit of a fight before the Tide
attack put the game away. Texas vs. Ohio State
would've been the best matchup by far, and while the
Buckeye defense was good enough to have kept it
close, in Dallas, a healthy Colt McCoy would've
outdueled Terrelle Pryor in a bit of a shootout.
This was a good OSU team, but it would've buckled
late against the Longhorn D. Assume Brian Kelly
doesn't leave for Notre Dame with his Bearcats in
the playoff, and also assume that the Oregon offense
rolls through the Bearcat defense, doesn't make a
slew of mistakes, and wins in a wild back-and-forth,
pinball machine battle that might be among the most
fun games of the season. TCU was tough, athletic,
and plucky, but it would've struggled when stepping
up into the big time. Forget about getting by Tim
Tebow and company in a big bowl game.
Projected Final Four
Rose
Bowl – No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Florida
Sugar Bowl
– No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 6 Oregon
Matchup Analysis: Having dealt with the
Georgia Tech offense the week before, and having
already beaten Florida in the SEC Championship, the
Alabama defense would've been more than ready for
the Oregon spread. The Tide offense would've gone to
the power running game and would've gotten by a game
Duck team that would've provided a major scare well
into the second half. Tebow vs. McCoy would be the
marquee matchup, and the Gators would've come
through with a great defensive effort to keep the
score low. McCoy would outplay Tebow, but not by
enough to get by in a hard-hitting battle that would
leave Urban Meyer's club beaten, battered and
bruised.
Projected National Championship:
No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 5 Florida
Projected National Champion:
No. 1 Alabama
Matchup Analysis: There wouldn't be a repeat
in the rematch of the 32-13 SEC Championship
stomping, but the Bama offensive line would still be
more physical than the Florida defensive front,
while the the Gator offense would come up with a few
extra wrinkles with a second shot. It wouldn't be
enough as Mark Ingram would pound away for more than
100 yards in a bruising title win.
What If There Was A Playoff ...
- 2010
| 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004
- 2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000 |
1999 |
1998