Proposal for an FBS Playoff System

With college football's Bowl Subdivision kicking off its season today, the debate of bowls or playoffs will once again resume. It seems, however, that no one has ever considered the possibility that both can co-exist, but I have a proposal that should make everyone believe they can.

ESPN had its own fantasy playoff bracket not too long ago, but I feel it was too self-serving. That is why I thought up of my own proposal

First, let us start off with the rankings. I believe all 25 ranked teams should participate in the playoffs. Taking an idea from the Final Four Men's Basketball Tournament, the 24th and 25th ranked teams can play a play-in game at the higher seed's stadium.If you start the playoffs right after the conference championships, everything should work fine.

Once the 24 teams are established, they could then be broken up into four divisions of six teams each--much like the Final Four tournament breaks off into regions. The top six ranked teams then get to be the automatic top seeds of each division. Then, similar to the NFL Playoffs, the top two seeds of each division will have a bye week. A playoff committee will decide what team goes to what division.The higher seeded team of each playoff game will play their games at their home fields.

As the playoff teams lose, many coaches and players will want one more chance at redemption; this is where the bowls come into play. The schools that participate in bowls get paid in dollars. The players that participate get free stuff ranging from t-shirts to an Xbox 360. The stadiums that host the bowls genrate revenue for its owners and even the cities that contain all this action enjoy the extra income brought in by the bowls. Therefore, for anyone saying that a playoff system would destroy the bowl games is wrong. One too many bowl games are too steeped in college football tradition that they will not simply go away. For the reasons I stated earlier, organizers of the bowl games will ensure that they stay around. I even believe that perhaps the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), Division II, and Division III champions should be called to play in some of the bowl games. Appalachian State defeated Michigan a while back, wouldn't it be exciting to see if it can happen again. Let us not forget, not every team that plays a bowl game is ranked.

Returning to the last remaining six teams, once again the very top two seeds will have bye weeks. The rankings will be determined by the coaches' and writers' weekly polls that we go by today. The first two playoff games will be played at the higher-seeds' home field. From here a new tradition will be started.

The following round's games will be played as either the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta or Rose Bowl--depending on what the playoff committee decides what bowl should be what game. For instance, the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl can start off being the semifinal games. The winners then go on to the championship game which will be the Rose Bowl. I know what you are thinking, 'what happens to the Fiesta Bowl?' The Fiesta Bowl will be played on the same day as the Rose Bowl, but before it. It will be something new to our brand of American football: a third-place game. This will ensure that the NCAA FBS season ends with a double header of college football exicitement. Unlike ESPN's version, which left one of the BCS bowls hanging by itself with no built-up enthusiasm. Finally, like the days before the advent of the FBS Championship game, the BCS bowls can rotate being the semifinal games, third-place game and championship game every year.

So you see, playoffs and bowls can co-exist, a proper system simply had not been thought of yet--until now.