As I said before, conference standings are all that matter in this. If you don't win a non-conference game, but win your conference, that's ok. That's kinda how it is now; conference champions go to the BCS, regardless of how much they sucked in the non-conference. The difference here is that they still have an opportunity to win a National Championship. To me, that's ok.
So here's the earth-shattering formula to determine teams who qualify for the playoff:
- 1st and 2nd place teams in the 1st-tier leagues
That's it. Its beauty is in its simplicity.
True, it excludes the 2nd-tier teams, but how many of those would ever be in the discussion anyway? If a BCS team finished in last place in its league one year, it's not going to be National Championship caliber the next season. If a non-BCS team couldn't finish in the top 2 of its league the year before, it's not either. AND, any team can play their way here, theoretically, in 2 years.
Example: Idaho really sucked in 2008. Let's say in 2009 they improve leaps and bounds and win the WAC. Congratulations -- now you're in the PAC10. If they continue to improve and can finish in the top 2, they're in the playoff and can, theoretically, win a National Championship. Ask Boise State what needs to be done now to win a National Championship from the WAC. Impossible.
Anyway, back to the playoff format. We've got 12 teams, and this is where some sort of BCS-type formula is needed, and where non-conference games matter, somewhat. I can't emphasize this enough: BCS standings are NOT used for inclusion into the playoff, only for seeding within the playoff. There will be no debate over which teams deserve to play for a National Championship. If you can't finish in the top 2 of your league, you don't deserve to win it all anyway. So here's how this works:
- Teams seeded based on BCS ranking
- Top 4 teams get byes into the 2nd round; team must be a conference champion to receive a bye
- Teams get re-seeded after 1st round games
- Teams from the same conference can't meet in the 1st or 2nd rounds
More specifics about the playoffs in the next post.
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