National Championship Playoff Solution: College Football

As If we really need the government involved in anything more, a bill introduced by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), would bring the extended argument over the NCCA College Football Division 1-A National Championship to an end. Why in the world this government of ours feels it needs to get involved in every aspect of American life I will never know.

This bill and the endless hearings will be as much a waste of the people’s time and money as the hearings into Major League Baseball were. This is not the type of business the people need our representatives in government to be flouting their time and effort on. Certainly this is nothing more than an attempt at mass distraction to keep our eyes off the real issues of healthcare and Cap in Trade.

I must give the President a small amount of credit for at least following through on one of his campaign promises, not one we were interested in, and certainly one of misdirection, but a small amount of kudos are due, since he has proven he is not a 100% deceiver, only 99%. Interestingly, and this is an example of the two party system no longer working for the good of the people they represent, this bill was introduced by a Republican, and in true Bipartisan fashion endorsed by a Democrat. Do you smell a closed-door deal here? Did the president buy a Cap in Trade vote?

With all the this political crappolla going on I propose to settle the issue. Yes little old conservative, teabagging, loud mouth, gun toting, right wing extremist nut job, me, putting aside all my traitorous thoughts to assist the government and the people of this great nation with a simple solution for the “problem” at hand.

Below I have charted a 32 team playoff system that includes all but one bowl game, the Armed Forces Bowl, and should end all the whining. This proposal includes the top 32 ranked teams so there should be no room for complaining any team of merit or recognition being left out and includes all 37-bowl games excluding only the one stated above.

The Chart below employs only the rankings from Sagrin and assigns bowls in no particular order other than the traditional date order. The teams, rankings, bowls & dates applied were from this year. The arguing over that can be done later, and outside the chambers of government. Wins in this chart are mythical, with the winner of each game chosen in an every other one method, to demonstrate advancement only. The Championship Series format is similar to the NCCA basketball tourney, three rounds with a bye week in between round one & two, then round three, the semi-final games and the Championship game. The tourney play dates take into account traditional Holidays and extends the season approximately one week past this year's final game.

Given this year's game was a bit of a letdown since Texas appears it was only a one man show this format should provide everything a college football fan would want , and the networks should covet.

You may have noticed games are assigned initially via ranking or cede. With highest always matched with lowest. As shown above #1 plays #32, # 2 plays #31 and so on. The highest ceded winning team is always matched with the lowest ranking advancing team for the succeeding rounds.

Rankings for all teams should not commence until the fifth week of the season, which should increase the level of competition and excitement through out the year. All bowl & conference tie ins and agreements have to be scrapped, but certainly all conference champions would be included in the top 32 teams as well as the “have nots” that have been left out of the mix for many years. Bowl revenues should go through the roof and as in Basketball the final winner will have proven itself to be the best team in the country and should keep the government's great big bureacratic nose out of college football.