Fix the Bowls and Playoff

Mike Jackson · December 4, 2017

I am not a fan of the SEC invitational they have set up. The original purpose of the bowl games were to reward the teams with a nice trip and see a good out of conference opponent that otherwise they would never play. With that in mind I have never understood the knee jerk reaction to eliminate most of the bowl season from determining the national championship. Also the current system has 2 problems. 1. The top ranked team doesn't really get a reward for being rank number 1 at the end of the regular season 2. G5 teams (and some P5 teams that aren't ranked at the beginning of the year) have virtually no shot at the playoff. For instance Mississippi State could have had the exact same resume as Alabama did this year and they would not be in the playoff over Ohio State. I have always thought a bowl game win should be a prerequisite for getting to a playoff or a championship game. So here is what I propose; return to the old bowl system with some tweaks and have a 4 team playoff of bowl winners. Top ranked team gets to chose their bowl and select any opponent they want ranked 6-10. Rose Bowl returns to Pac 10 champ vs Big 10 champ (which the winner of most years is guaranteed a birth in the playoff by their ranking going into the game)* A breakdown is below how it would have worked out this year. I believe it would be awesome to see UCF get a shot at Clemson. We would finally get to see the best the G5 has to offer in a given year and the best the P5 has to offer in a given year on a "neutral field" with something meaningful on the line. And the number 1 team deserves "cake walk game" into the playoff in my opinion.

*The Big 10 and Pac 12 may or may not like this but I threw this rule in because the Rose Bowl was the last holdout of the old system before the BCS.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Rose Bowl	Ohio State vs USC	Big 10 Champ vs Pac 12 Champ
Cotton Bowl	Oklahoma vs Alabama	Big 12 Champ vs at Large (in top 12)
Sugar Bowl	Georgia vs TCU	SEC Champ vs at Large (in top 12)
Orange Bowl	Clemson vs UCF	ACC Champ vs at Large (in top 12)
Fiesta Bowl	Wisconsin vs Miami	Top 12 at Top 10 at Large
Peach Bowl	Auburn vs Penn State	Top 12 at Top 10 at Large

GMG_Dallas · December 4, 2017

My issue with people saying "do you really believe UCF can compete with Clemson or these other teams" is that some of these top 10 P5 teams with even just 1 loss have really bad 1 losses. Clemson lost to Syracuse (yes, I understand Clemon's qb was hurt), Miami lost to Pitt and had they beat Clemson in the ACC championship would be in the playoffs, Ohio State got smoked by Iowa, TCU and OU both lost to Iowa State who is hard to read, and I could go on. UCF could definitely best Syracuse, Iowa State, Pitt, and Iowa so if those teams are good enough to beat these playoff contenders, UCF has a shot just like Houston had a shot the past 2 years. At least give the top G5 a shot. After all, that is why they play the game.

untjim1995 · December 4, 2017

6 hours ago, Mike Jackson said:

I am not a fan of the SEC invitational they have set up. The original purpose of the bowl games were to reward the teams with a nice trip and see a good out of conference opponent that otherwise they would never play. With that in mind I have never understood the knee jerk reaction to eliminate most of the bowl season from determining the national championship. Also the current system has 2 problems. 1. The top ranked team doesn't really get a reward for being rank number 1 at the end of the regular season 2. G5 teams (and some P5 teams that aren't ranked at the beginning of the year) have virtually no shot at the playoff. For instance Mississippi State could have had the exact same resume as Alabama did this year and they would not be in the playoff over Ohio State. I have always thought a bowl game win should be a prerequisite for getting to a playoff or a championship game. So here is what I propose; return to the old bowl system with some tweaks and have a 4 team playoff of bowl winners. Top ranked team gets to chose their bowl and select any opponent they want ranked 6-10. Rose Bowl returns to Pac 10 champ vs Big 10 champ (which the winner of most years is guaranteed a birth in the playoff by their ranking going into the game)* A breakdown is below how it would have worked out this year. I believe it would be awesome to see UCF get a shot at Clemson. We would finally get to see the best the G5 has to offer in a given year and the best the P5 has to offer in a given year on a "neutral field" with something meaningful on the line. And the number 1 team deserves "cake walk game" into the playoff in my opinion.

*The Big 10 and Pac 12 may or may not like this but I threw this rule in because the Rose Bowl was the last holdout of the old system before the BCS.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Rose Bowl

Ohio State vs USC

Big 10 Champ vs Pac 12 Champ

Cotton Bowl

Oklahoma vs Alabama

Big 12 Champ vs at Large (in top 12)

Sugar Bowl

Georgia vs TCU

SEC Champ vs at Large (in top 12)

Orange Bowl

Clemson vs UCF

ACC Champ vs at Large (in top 12)

Fiesta Bowl

Wisconsin vs Miami

Top 12 at Top 10 at Large

Peach Bowl

Auburn vs Penn State

Top 12 at Top 10 at Large

It was a better college football world when the champions of these conferences went automatically to the bowl games listed above and you played an at large team or another conference champion. New Years Day was such a great day because you knew who was playing where and that the games were set for a reason. It didn’t satisfy the national championship process real well, so maybe a game after this would have settled it. But make no mistake, the big bowl games on NYD used to be absolute greatness and money, greed, and power killed it off like it does so many other things in sports.

PlummMeanGreen · December 4, 2017

An 8 to 16 team play off would be more fair but none of this is about being fair--it's about greed.

Mean Green Matt · December 4, 2017

The G5 will never have a shot. Because if the G5 has a shot more parity will ensue and ultimately the slice of the pie for the P5 is smaller.

Unfortunately, splitting off would probably make the G5 less relevant than it already is.

Mike Jackson · December 4, 2017

2 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

It was a better college football world when the champions of these conferences went automatically to the bowl games listed above and you played an at large team or another conference champion. New Years Day was such a great day because you knew who was playing where and that the games were set for a reason. It didn’t satisfy the national championship process real well, so maybe a game after this would have settled it. But make no mistake, the big bowl games on NYD used to be absolute greatness and money, greed, and power killed it off like it does so many other things in sports.

Exactly and this is why I am not passionate about the debate surrounding NCAA players getting paid. They have ruined so many things about FBS and made things academically harder with conferences with more taxing travel for road games. And it was all in the pursuit of money.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Mike Jackson

keith · December 4, 2017

Conference champions plus whatever number of at-large bids is necessary to create a 16 team playoff. If you win your conference you are guaranteed a shot at winning the national championship. Winning a conference championship is a significant season-long accomplishment and should mean something. If that's too many teams then cut back on the at-large bids and give the top two or four teams first round byes.

Edited December 4, 2017 by keith

MeanGreenTexan · December 4, 2017

The following teams get in based on CFP rankings:
SEC Champs
B1G Champs
ACC Champs
Big12 Champs
Pac12 Champs
G5 highest ranked team
2 at-larges. You know, just in case Alabama is not the SEC champ.

And for the folks who would argue that a G5 team has no business in there, the G5 team would have virtually every fan from every single other G5 conference pulling for them. The G5 team would likely have the most fans in the entire playoff... because we'd all want to see David slay Goliath 3 times.

I'd love this, but I doubt it will ever happen.

TIgreen01 · December 4, 2017

We're getting further and further away from the bowls being meaningful or fun. Look at the matchups for CUSA this year and tell me that any of them are worth a damn. Then look at the entire bowl schedule. Very few games that are either going to be good matchups on the field, or even matchups that I'd care to watch.

It's a problem that 78 teams get to make a bowl. When 8-9 teams from every single conference get a bowl game, it weakens the reward. It's even further weakened when there is no longer a pecking order to the bowl games. FAU staying close to home to play Akron? Are you freaking kidding me? That's a joke. The conference champions need to be rewarded. It may be more of a trip for their fanbase, but if this is the system going forward then I say scrap it. I'd rather know that there isn't a bowl game to look forward to and then make plans to travel to the conference championship game, personally.

MeanGreenTexan · December 4, 2017

6 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

We're getting further and further away from the bowls being meaningful or fun. Look at the matchups for CUSA this year and tell me that any of them are worth a damn. Then look at the entire bowl schedule. Very few games that are either going to be good matchups on the field, or even matchups that I'd care to watch.

It's a problem that 78 teams get to make a bowl. When 8-9 teams from every single conference get a bowl game, it weakens the reward. It's even further weakened when there is no longer a pecking order to the bowl games. FAU staying close to home to play Akron? Are you freaking kidding me? That's a joke. The conference champions need to be rewarded. It may be more of a trip for their fanbase, but if this is the system going forward then I say scrap it. I'd rather know that there isn't a bowl game to look forward to and then make plans to travel to the conference championship game, personally.

Would you trade the HoD Bowl games (even 2013) for NT to sit at home?

TIgreen01 · December 4, 2017

1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Would you trade the HoD Bowl games (even 2013) for NT to sit at home?

That's a good question. Part of the problem there is that the HoD bowl in 2013 felt more important than it did even last year. It had a Jan 1 date back then, which by default made it feel more important. It felt like a good reward for a very good season....even though we didn't win the conference.

I think, and this is my opinion today---it might change by tomorrow :), that I'd much rather prefer a system where only the conference champions got bowl invites. Possibly including runner-ups, but no more than that.

TreeFiddy · December 4, 2017

9 hours ago, GMG_Dallas said:

My issue with people saying "do you really believe UCF can compete with Clemson or these other teams" is that some of these top 10 P5 teams with even just 1 loss have really bad 1 losses. Clemson lost to Syracuse (yes, I understand Clemon's qb was hurt), Miami lost to Pitt and had they beat Clemson in the ACC championship would be in the playoffs, Ohio State got smoked by Iowa, TCU and OU both lost to Iowa State who is hard to read, and I could go on. UCF could definitely best Syracuse, Iowa State, Pitt, and Iowa so if those teams are good enough to beat these playoff contenders, UCF has a shot just like Houston had a shot the past 2 years. At least give the top G5 a shot. After all, that is why they play the game.

Psssttt...the system is rigged.