Division I-A college football playoff

There is a solution to the endless struggle toward college football playoffs and an earned national title.  There is a way to crown a true national champion and preserve the bowl tradition.  We can have all we have now and more. Here is how it works:

• Conference championship games played Thanksgiving weekend
• Conferences without championship games pair off in Thanksgiving bowls
• Sixteen-team bracket of Thanksgiving winners and highest-ranked non-winners is seeded, first round is the following weekend
• Second round cuts the field to four, and final four games are played Christmas weekend
• The traditional New Year bowl lineup is played
• Christmas winners face off for a true national championship the next Saturday

Bowl invitations can be offered a week earlier in some cases than under the existing system, and all but 16 teams can accept invitations by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.  After the first weekend in December, only four bowl invitations are left unclaimed.  This solution delivers not only a 16-team bracket, but earlier planning for most bowls.  It is win-win.

This is how it would play out this year (regular-season games scheduled for 11/26 or later having been rescheduled to earlier in the year):

Sat, Nov 26 (and surrounding days)

• SEC Championship
• ACC Championship
• Big 12 Championship
• Conference USA Championship
• MAC Championship
• Big Ten Champ vs.  Pac Ten Champ
• Big East Champ vs. Mountain West Champ
• WAC Champ vs. Sun Belt Champ
• Winners earn playoff spots
• Eight highest-ranked teams remaining complete playoff bracket
• A flurry of bowl bids after bracket is announced
• Many bowl invites already offered and accepted

Sat, Dec. 3 (and surrounding days)

• Eight first-round playoff games
• As few as four bowl invites remain after games

Sat, Dec. 10

• Four playoff games
• Last four bowl invites go to losers

Sat, Dec. 17

• Bye week in preparation for Final Four

Sat, Dec. 24 (and surrounding days)

• Final Four games
• Traditional early bowl games

Sat, Dec. 31

• Consolation Bowl featuring the Final Four losers (not actually played, but simulated repeatedly on PlayStation in games between members of the losing teams)
• Traditional bowl lineup on this day and surrounding days
• Week off for national champ contenders to prepare

Sat, Jan. 6 National Championship game

The traditional bowl system operates alongside and hardly knows the playoff system is there.  To adopt this solution, all that is necessary is a slight compression of the regular season.  Many teams already wrap up their seasons before Thanksgiving, and that is what this solution requires.

New York City could work college football into its Thanksgiving tradition, hosting the Macy's Day Parade on Thursday, on Friday the Cranberry Bowl at Columbia's field featuring the WAC v. Sun Belt champs.  Saturday, the Jets' field hosts the Big East v. Mountain West matchup and the Giants' field hosts the Big Ten v. Pac Ten game.  Sunday, the Jets and Giants play.  That's a party.  Bite it, big apple.

There is also a bounty of playoff games for other cities to wring tourism dollars from by hosting one or more playoff games.  Is there a downside I'm missing?

Comments

[SayUncle]

HEh. TN wouldn't even make it to the Consolation Bowl.

[Lurch]

I've always thought College football bowl watching was one of the most interesting sexual fetishes in America.

[persimmon]

16-team bracket for this season:

Conference champs:
Florida St
Texas
Tulsa
Georgia
Akron

Intraconference qualifiers:
Penn St 46, Ark St 10
Southern Cal 62, Boise St 15
West Virginia 37, Texas Christian 29

First round with seeding:
1 Southern Cal 55, 16 Akron 25
9 Virginia Tech 29, 8 Oregon 16
5 Georgia 45, 12 Texas Tech 27
4 Notre Dame 31, 13 Louisville 21
3 Penn St 23, 14 Florida St 21
6 Ohio St 25, 11 Louisiana St 20
7 Auburn 38, 10 West Virginia 20
2 Texas 44, 15 Tulsa 16

Second round:

Southern Cal 27, Virginia Tech 24
Notre Dame 31, Georgia 20
Ohio St 26, Penn St 25
Auburn 34, Texas 30

Final Four:
Notre Dame 30, Southern Cal 24
Ohio St 19, Auburn 17

National Championship:
Notre Dame 22, Ohio St 20