College Bowl Playoff System

The college bowl system has been under a lot of scrutiny in recent years. Many argue that the current BCS system in college football is not the best way to show who the best teams really are. Some argue that a playoff system would be better. Other changes include adding an additional bowl game and moving some teams around in the bowl games. For example, in the Rose Bowl the tradition has always been the #1 PAC-10 team versus the #1 Big Ten team, unless these teams go to the national championship.

Many people make the case that introducing a playoff system would be bad financially. Others argue that a playoff system would ruin the idea that every game counts in the regular season. Many wonderful opinions can be found of quotes from individuals on their views of introducing a college football playoff over at fox sports.

I myself am a firm believer that if you lose to a team in the regular season and end with the same record as that team then your school should have precedence when it comes to the bowl game. The NFL works this way. If you end the season as the same record as someone else but beat them in the regular season then you go to the playoffs. When it comes to bowl games a lot of the decision is based upon fan base and how well the team will travel. This is because the bowl representatives want a large turnout for the bowl game.

Other talk has been about removing the tradition of bringing a Big Ten team to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. As a Northwestern fan, it is extremely unlikely that we will ever go to a national championship game. Therefore, we have something to look forward to. If we win all of our regular season games we will likely go to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champion. I understand where other conferences and their schools are coming from when it comes to opening up the Rose Bowl. But I feel that if you open up the Rose bowl, it needs to be for all conferences, not just the Big Ten side of the ball.

I understand that the PAC-10 has shown dominance in recent years especially with USC. I also understand that the Big Ten has seemed weak and feeble. Especially after another year where the PAC-10 won all 5 of its bowl games and the Big Ten really struggled down the stretch.

A possible solution to the playoff in the college football world would be to introduce an additional BCS game and have 5 BCS college football games. You would then send a representative of the winner of each conference to each bowl game. However, there are 11 conferences and a few independent teams so the details would have to be ironed out. You then would have voters decide on which two teams should attend a National Championship game that would be played a week or so later.