BCS Playoff - Conference Champions Only

UNTflyer · May 3, 2012

CHICAGO -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said Wednesday that one possible way of determining which teams advance to the four-team playoff in 2014 is a conference champion model that would be capped by the team's national ranking.

Delany, who met with CBSSports.com and other reporters on Wednesday in Chicago, said one proposal being considered is the conference champion only model, but that the conference champion would have to be ranked among the top six teams in the country to qualify.

If a conference champion was among the top six in the rankings, it would automatically qualify for the four-team playoff. The top four ranked conference champions among the top six would qualify and if less than four conference champions were among the top six teams then the remaining spots would be filled by the highest ranked non-conference champions or an independent (Notre Dame, BYU, Army or Navy).

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/18938708

UNT90 · May 3, 2012

What if Notre Dame is the #1 ranked team at the end of the season with conference champs in spots 2, 3, 4 ,and 5? Norte Dame doesn't get to play in the Championship game?

Weird.

UNTflyer · May 3, 2012

Sounds like it... can this force the independents into a conference??

gksmith · May 3, 2012

There are only 3 independents: Notre Dame, BYU, and Army or Navy (I think).

Conference Champions only...that will make for a strange number of teams (not devisable by 8). Leaves out some really good teams.

VideoEagle · May 3, 2012

Delaney wants whats best for the B1g, not college football. He didn't like the BCS as it kept the B1g out of several Rose Bowls. He will fight hard against allow two school from the same conference to be in the Championship game again as it is very unlikely it would ever be two B1G schools. He'd also love ND to join the B1G and making life tough for them otherwise helps the B1G.

UNTLifer · May 3, 2012

Delaney needs to concentrate on cleaning up the programs in his conference.

glick1980 · May 3, 2012

If this is the case ND will have to enter a conference and that would be devastating for the BE because they damn sure wouldn't be joining them.

oldguystudent · May 3, 2012

Those rules would still have resulted in LSU/Alabama last year. No real change whatsoever.

VideoEagle · May 3, 2012

Those rules would still have resulted in LSU/Alabama last year. No real change whatsoever.

Not sure about that as I don't remember exactly the BCS standings before the game. LSU was 1 and a conference champ so they would be in. OSU was a conference champ and 3 so they would be in. But the only way Bama gets in if if there are not two champions at 4, 5, or 6. It is a four team playoff so four get to go.

Edited May 3, 2012 by VideoEagle

Baby Arm! · May 3, 2012

If this was in place last season the 4 teams would have been 1) LSU, 2) Oklahoma State, 3) Oregon, 4) Alabama The last BCS standing of the season had the next conference champ, Boise St. at #7. Bama wasnt a conference champ but was the highest ranked non champ

Mark Gommesen · May 3, 2012

I like the Delaney plan. I would also add the provision that for a conference champion to qualify the conference must have no fewer than twelve teams and the conference champion must be determined by a championship game.

glick1980 · May 3, 2012

If this was in place last season the 4 teams would have been 1) LSU, 2) Oklahoma State, 3) Oregon, 4) Alabama The last BCS standing of the season had the next conference champ, Boise St. at #7. Bama wasnt a conference champ but was the highest ranked non champ

Boise wasn't a conference champ either.

mgfan · May 4, 2012

How about stop screwing over the little guy and have a 16 team playoff. Each conference champion will be in the playoffs with the rest having to recieve at large bids. Each game can be sponsored like a bowl game. This will generate plenty of money from tv coverage, ticket sells, souvenirs, sponors, etc etc. The FCS has a big playoff so does DIV II and DIV III.

1 TIMOTHY 6:10

Rudy · May 4, 2012

Just take the conference champ from each Conference. Logic says that the "big boys" will most likely defeat the "smaller" schools, but at least they have a chance. The rest of FBS gets to go to bowls.

Problem solved.

UNTflyer · May 4, 2012

If this was in place last season the 4 teams would have been 1) LSU, 2) Oklahoma State, 3) Oregon, 4) Alabama

No, it would have been LSU, OK State, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Alabama would have been out.

greenminer · May 4, 2012

Just take the conference champ from each Conference. Logic says that the "big boys" will most likely defeat the "smaller" schools, but at least they have a chance. The rest of FBS gets to go to bowls.

Problem solved.

Strong possibility for two national championships: AP + whatever...

Mark Gommesen · May 4, 2012

So if the conference champion from the C-USA or MWC is rated in the top six, they would be an automatic qualifier to the playoffs and a chance at a National Championship. That's a BIG change boys and girls. The independents should be left out. BYU and Notre Dame have monopolize television money to the disadvantage of the conferences.

gksmith · May 4, 2012

This may be too early for some in this crowd, but the NCAA D1 Basketball tournament used to be only 32 teams...and only conference champions went to the tournament. In 1972 (I think), Maryland lost out to UNC in the ACC tournament. Maryland was #2 in the nation. Maryland did not go to the NCAA tournament. The following year the tournament was expanded to 64 teams to allow at large bids and teams that win the regular season but lost in the conference tournament. This eliminated the chance of a highly ranked from being snubed.

If football is going to do the same mistake, then when the #2 or #3 team in the nation gets left out, smarter heads will prevail and the situation will be corrected the following year.

So who will be the #2 or #3 team to be left out in the cold? (PLEASE be LSU...)

CMJ · May 4, 2012

This may be too early for some in this crowd, but the NCAA D1 Basketball tournament used to be only 32 teams...and only conference champions went to the tournament. In 1972 (I think), Maryland lost out to UNC in the ACC tournament. Maryland was #2 in the nation. Maryland did not go to the NCAA tournament. The following year the tournament was expanded to 64 teams to allow at large bids and teams that win the regular season but lost in the conference tournament. This eliminated the chance of a highly ranked from being snubed.

Not exactly true. The history of NCAA expansion was much more gradual.

1939–1950: eight teams
1951–1952: 16 teams
1953–1974: varied between 22 and 25 teams
1975–1978: 32 teams
1979: 40 teams
1980–1982: 48 teams
1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament)
1984: 53 teams (five play-in games before the tournament)
1985–2000: 64 teams
2001–2010: 65 teams (with an opening round game to determine whether the 64th or 65th team plays in the first round)
2011–present: 68 teams (four games in the "first four" round before all remaining teams compete in the second round)

DT 90 · May 4, 2012

Boise wasn't a conference champ either.

Nope! TCU was.

No Division 2nd place team should have ever been allowed to play in the National Championship game.

Edited May 4, 2012 by DT 90

Baby Arm! · May 4, 2012

No, it would have been LSU, OK State, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Alabama would have been out.

Wisconsin wasnt ranked in the top 6 at the end of the season.

Mark Gommesen · May 4, 2012

Nope! TCU was.

No Division 2nd place team should have ever been allowed to play in the National Championship game.

Under the proposed formula, It is only true if the top six ranked teams were also conference champions. If a conference champion is not ranked in the top six they do not qualify. The slot would be filled by the next highest ranking non-champion team. which could be a 2nd,3rd, 4th, 5th place team. In theory all of slots could be filled by one conference if the six of the teams were ranked in the top six. I would not be opposed to restricting a single school from each conference participating in the playoffs. I would also not allow the independents to participate.

untjim1995 · May 4, 2012

This actually makes some sense--get the conference champions in the foursome, but leave room for an outlier. I'm sure that ND and BYU would get consideration as a "conference champion" if they were ranked that high. To me, you just take the top 4 teams, but no more than two teams from one conference. So if Alabama and LSU are ranked in the top 4, then they both make it, along with Oklahoma State and Stanford. Those four were the best teams last year, so they would have all be included.

Here's the best part for the Mean Green. Now, being in CUSA, if certain things worked out, you can get ranked highly from this conference, especially if you beat a tough OOC schedule. Not saying that the CUSA champ could realistically get included, but its certainly more of a possibility than the champ of the SBC would get. Heck, its probably as good as the MWC or the Big East, which brings me to the funny part. So SMU just jumped ship from a regional conference that didn't really draw many fans already to the most far-flung conference that man has ever created. If I was a SMU fan, I like getting a game against Boise State and still like playing Houston, but when they play San Diego State or UConn, I doubt very seriously that there will be any more butts-in-seats at Ford Stadium than when they played in CUSA, but the travel bill will be extremely higher than before when they travel all over the country. The Big East AQ TV money is a lot better right now, but I am not sure that will stay that way when the conference loses its other top teams (Louisville, USF, Uconn, Rutgers and Cincy will all be targets of the Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12) and when the BE basketball powers finally decide to start their own basketball-only league again (see Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, St. John's, DePaul, Seton Hall, and Providence add a few other CAA or A-10 teams). Those CUSA departees will probably have to look again at what makes sense for them as conference members. SMU probably just pissed away any chance of getting back here, since UNT has the support of Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, and UTEP, along with UTSA and La Tech. How ironic would it be to finally get the chance to be the one that gets to determine if SMU can join a conference we are a member in? Its not that crazy to see this outcome occur over the next 5-10 years.

Edited May 4, 2012 by untjim1995

UNTflyer · May 4, 2012

So if the conference champion from the C-USA or MWC is rated in the top six, they would be an automatic qualifier to the playoffs and a chance at a National Championship. That's a BIG change boys and girls. The independents should be left out. BYU and Notre Dame have monopolize television money to the disadvantage of the conferences.

If I'm reading this right, then yes we would have a chance.

We need to promote this model, because eventually it will expand to include all conference champions.

Edited May 4, 2012 by UNTflyer

gksmith · May 9, 2012

Not exactly true. The history of NCAA expansion was much more gradual.

1939–1950: eight teams
1951–1952: 16 teams
1953–1974: varied between 22 and 25 teams
1975–1978: 32 teams
1979: 40 teams
1980–1982: 48 teams
1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament)
1984: 53 teams (five play-in games before the tournament)
1985–2000: 64 teams
2001–2010: 65 teams (with an opening round game to determine whether the 64th or 65th team plays in the first round)
2011–present: 68 teams (four games in the "first four" round before all remaining teams compete in the second round)

I must have been asleep between 1979 and 1984. I don't remember the NCAA going 40, 48 52 and 53 teams. I may have the dates wrong on Maryland but I do remember the story. Point is - the #2 team in the country should be in the tournament regardless of losing in the conference tournament.