Quote:Before the committee system was implemented my favorite idea was a six team playoff structured as follows.

 

Conference champions of the three toughest conferences determined by the average BCS rating of the top half of the conference. (Because whether Vanderbilt or Wake Forest stink more shouldn't matter for a playoff)

 

Three at-large bids.

 

Two teams get a bye and the first two games are played at the colleges, not at bowl sites. So #1-4 each get one home playoff game.

 

Obviously we'd have to change that up now with the BCS being defunct, but it's not that hard to come up with an objective measure for conference strength. I'd even be happy doing it by committee if they did it before the conference championship games.

 

For example this year, by any measure I think you'd find that the SEC, Big 12, and PAC 12 have the toughest upper half of their conference. So we'd have SEC Champ, Big 12 Champ, and PAC 12 champ. Even if it was a 2-3 loss Missouri team for example. That way a lot of teams are in it a lot longer. Also good for ratings because now FSU fan cares even more about VT vs. Ohio State at the beginning of the year. At large teams this year would likely be FSU, a second SEC team, and the Michigan State v. Ohio State winner or Notre Dame.

 

The main purpose behind this system however, was not necessarily fairness, but to encourage tougher out of conference scheduling. If you're Alabama, if you win your conference, you're in pretty much every year. However, on those years when you don't win your conference, you need some quality wins OOC to make up for losses in conference. Therefore, teams from the top conferences are incentivized to schedule tougher OOC games.

 

That's very interesting. Personally, I think that getting a bye and home field advantage is way too "rewarding". A team that has to travel back-to-back weeks and play against a team who had an extra week of rest/preparation is stacking the deck against them. Even if the 5 or 6 seed was the best team in the country, the odds of winning the championship are incredibly low.

 

Also, you'd absolutely HAVE to re-seed 1 through 6 after the bids are earned. If you give seeds 1 through 3 to conference champions from the #1, #2, and #3 conferences then you'd run into some major problems.

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