First off, in the BCS world, there are 6 major conferences within the BCS; The Pac-10, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, SEC, and the ACC conferences. Now the problem though is in the wake of teams like Appalachian State (A D-I subdivision school), Boise State, and Utah all pulling off upsets there’s a new kink in the system- parity. Since parity is becoming so big in college football, in addition to the 6 major conferences the mid-major conferences need to be considered as well. In order to do this there should be 2 options; Find a way to make the powerhouse schools in the mid-majors play more BCS teams or have those conferences become a part of the BCS.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Why make the “weaker” conferences a part of the BCS?”.  The answer- so that no school can make accusations of intentionally holding schools out of the BCS Title game or any BCS Bowl for that matter. Now how would that work? Well here’s where the BCS standings play a part. So, my playoff system would be a 16 team system based on the BCS polls at the end of the year. Now since there would be 11 conferences plus the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) Independents here’s what would happen.

The champions from the 6 major conferences would be seeded 1^st through 6^th based on their finish in the BCS standings. The other 2 seeds would be from the two highest ranked champions from the mid-major conferences based again on BCS standings. Now if there were to be let’s say only one team from one of those conferences in the top 25 put them in the 7^th spot and the next highest ranking BCS team in the 8^th spot or if no mid-major team made the top 25 put the next 2 BCS teams in line for that spot.

Now the challenge would be making it work. I mean there are 29 bowl games plus 5 from the BCS so how would you be able to keep it from taking away the other bowl games? Well, firstly in the first 8 games of the playoffs (Field of 16) the teams would be in some of the “lower rated” bowl games such as Cotton Bowl, Gator Bowl, Sun Bowl, etc. but those would be rotated every year with 8 other random bowls, allowing there to be exposure for those “other” bowl games.

Now, the BCS bowls get tricky since there are five and the BCS Title Game would obviously be in the last round of the playoffs. So in the quarterfinals (Round of eight) the 4 other BCS bowls would be held; the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. So, now your next question would be, “Why would you do that when there’s still the semis and what would happen with those games?” Well, my thinking is that the top 8 teams in the nation at that point should be rewarded for making it that far, thus justifying using the 4 major bowl games there. So in the semis the teams would once again play in 2 more bowl games, which would provide incentives to the sponsors and hosts to hype those bowl games up in order to gain more exposure for their games. After that round you would have the BCS Title Game to decide the championship thus ending the season.

Now like any system, this one isn’t perfect and has obvious flaws in it. Firstly, the bowl contracts with conferences would have to be terminated which would cause revenue loss for schools that would normally make it to a bowl game. In addition to that, the bowl games for the teams that barely make eligibility would be getting taken over by teams that could potentially play in 4 bowl games, reaping massive revenue that could otherwise be proliferated amongst other schools. My solution instead of bowl games for the first and semifinal round of the playoffs, keep the contracts and play the playoff games at the home of the higher seeded team. Now for the quarterfinals the BCS bowls should still be kept as primarily a reward for making it that far in the season. Since 2 of those teams would still be in the BCS Championship their schools would be paid normally for the BCS Title and the bowl game as an incentive to keep on winning.

Now, another argument could be would it drag the season on for the student-athletes? Not at all and here’s how it works. On Monday-Friday during the playoffs, the non-playoff bowl games would be played out, to still keep exposure to fans and television. So on 4 straight Saturdays, playoff games would be held in order to keep the season short and keep the college football season on track.

This is a just a theory I came up with to show how a potential playoff system could work. Since it seems like this a major topic every single year when the bowl season comes around I decided to try to come up with a system that could make as many people happy as possible without taking away from the meaning of bowl games. The current structure of the BCS is fine with me and there will probably never be a playoff but oh well you can’t always get what you want right?