Quote:
Originally Posted by flip
Ok, so I'm not the biggest CFB fan in the world and I'm sure I'll get laughed out of the thread for suggesting this but here goes.
How about instead of a true playoff formant, the NCAA begins to (somewhat) mandate what the schedules look like?
Sure they have to keep their conference play and still have a few easy games at the beginning of the year to get warmed up (well at least 1 game against a joke of a team to get warmed up).
Also, the NCAA could require teams have a fairly open ended schedule towards the latter part of the season. Obviously this would cause problems for people who want to book travel arrangements to games that are far away (USC vs pretty much anyone in the east for example)
Basically teams would be held accountable for their strength of schedule WAY more than they do now.
You want to make it to the NC game? Then you MUST play at least 2-3 teams in the top 20 and obviously win more than you lose.
Now people might point that this makes lower end schools not have much hope. Quite the opposite IMO. If you are clearly playing above your school's reputation, so to speak, then your schedule gets harder and you play the best of the best. If you can beat them then you are in contention.
Force teams ranked really high to play each other more often. Make it so that a team like Utah (from last year) can't bitch that they weren't given a shot. If they are ranked high and want a BCS bid then you MUST play someone (or multiple teams) in the top 10. If teams in the top 10 refuse to play other difficult teams then by default they cannot be NC caliber teams. This is where the NCAA involvement would come in, because they would have to make sure that teams wouldn't gang up and all agree not to play an opponent like Utah just to keep them out of contention. Then teams could actually get rewarded for playing (and even losing) to high ranked schools.
Say team A plays only ok teams and has a strength of schedule that is mediocre, they only play one top 10 team and win convincingly, but they go 12-0. Team B plays opponents ranked 2, 5, 10 but loses 2 of the three games and go 10-2. In all three games they clearly establish that they aren't out of place and belong at the top of the heap (ie lose by less than 4 points). I'd give team B the BCS shot and let Team A sit at home.
As it is too much emphasis is placed on going undefeated, not who is the best team.
Obviously there are numerous intricacies to be worked out but I think it is the only way. Use the first part of the season to set up rankings, then use the last 6-8 weeks to really determine who is the best of the best by having them play each other.
Sure it would cause some wrinkles in current conference play but I'm sure teams could work around it.
Then you wouldn't have teams like Boise this year who have no more difficult teams on their schedule. If you don't make a hard schedule, then you are automatically ineligible for BSC contention.
I know it'll never happen, but that is what I'd do. Then the last half of the regular season act as a playoff system in essence and you can still have a one off NC without (IMO) as much of a sh**storm as there is now.
Right now CFB is the biggest joke in ALL of pro sports world wide in determining a champion. that includes sports in sketchy ass countries where the outcome is likely fixed or baseball where half the players used to dope.
It would be more fitting to just flip a coin based on the current system. At least that would be fair.
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Pretty easy response from the NCAA: non-conference schedules are arranged 5+ years in advance. How does a team know what ranking their opponent will have years in advance (even if they are playing a Texas or an OU)? Hell, even if they made them in the off-season before there's no way of knowing.
And, again, the reality of the situation is that non-conference opponent scheduling has very little to do with National Title aspirations. From SI's Stewart Mandel:
"there are only a handful of schools that realistically feel they have a shot at the national title on a regular basis. Many factors play into a school's schedule -- budgetary concerns, filling seats, television, which dates are available. Impressing BCS voters is generally not one of them."