What If There
Was A Playoff?
Looking at what might have happened over the years
By Pete Fiutak
What If There Was A Playoff ...
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CFN Playoff Explanation
| 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006
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2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000 |
1999 |
1998
With all the excitement surrounding March Madness, office pools, and
people filling out their brackets
despite being unable to name two college
basketball players, just imagine how
amazing a college football playoff would
be.
Forget the hoops 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 so, while providing the
solution everyone wants (outside of the
college presidents 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 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.
We’d have to keep this in the land
of the real with the geographic and
economic concerns in mind. There would
be four sites for the first round: Miami
(for the top SEC, ACC or Big East
teams), Dallas (for the top Big 12 or
SEC teams), Phoenix (for the Pac 10) and
Indianapolis (for the top Big Ten or Big
East teams).
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
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 with an eight team playoff.
So
what would’ve likely happened had the
CFN system been in place since the BCS
was in place in 1998? Here’s the best
guess with the seedings and the results.
What If There Was A Playoff ...
-
CFN Playoff Explanation |
2009
|
2008
|
2007
|
2006
-
2005
|
2004
|
2003
|
2002
|
2001
|
2000
|
1999 |
1998