Time for a Playoff

Everybody loves March Madness. On the night of Selection Sunday, or the Monday after, every sports fan prints out their brackets and make their predictions for the next three weekends of excitement. Everybody knows exactly what is going to happen, or so they think. And for the next month the world revolves around college basketball and 65 team's quests to be the national champion.

The money raised by the NCAA from their Division 1 College Basketball Tournament is astounding. Over $500 million dollars is raised, and the NCAA uses the money to fund itself and many other tournaments, along with giving money from it to the conferences and the individual schools.

Now imagine another March Madness. One in say, mid-December to early January. Call it Holiday Madness. Another large amount of money in for the NCAA, another month of excitement and self-promotion for the NCAA. Another excuse for ESPN and other sports networks to turn a tournament into something bigger, a part of the national culture.

It's time for the BCS to go. Not go all the way away, but it is time for the Bowl Championship Series to become just that- a Series. Not a bunch of exhibitions at the end of the season, with one counting as the National Championship. It's not fair, it's not right, and it's not fun. It's time for a new system to be put in place that will stop the questions that the BCS always creates. The BCS committee is meeting Tuesday about possible changes to the system, but wide-ranging changes, such as a playoff with more than 4 teams, are considered unlikely.

I'm not just saying it's time for a change, I have a proposal as well. It will be a sixteen team playoff bracket. The winner of each conference gets an automatic bid. If it was this year, this would give automatic berths to 11 teams, starting next year it will be 10 teams (Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference are combining into one conference next season). Independents would be eligible for automatic bids to this tournament in the same way that Notre Dame would currently be eligible for a BCS berth now- at least 10 wins and a top 8 BCS ranking, or as an at-large bid. The remaining spots would go to the highest ranked teams according to the BCS rankings. Seeds would be given out by the BCS rankings (which would need to be expanded beyond 25 teams). Each team would play one game per weekend, starting two weeks from the conference championship games. Games would keep their Bowl names and sponsors, and there would be other bowl games on the side for non-playoff teams, and traditional New Year's Day Games will still be held.

Let's use what this year would look like for an example. This would be the first round of the bracket. (If a team was unranked in the BCS poll, I went to the USA Today Coaches Poll)

First Round

1 LSU (SEC Champions) vs. 16 Louisiana Tech (WAC Champions)

Armed Forces Bowl- Thursday December 15- 4:00

8 Kansas State (At-Large) vs. 9 Wisconsin (Big 10 Champions)

Chick-Fil-A Bowl- Thursday December 15- 8:30

5 Oregon (Pac 12 Champions) vs. 12 Southern Miss (C-USA Champs)

Sun Bowl- Friday December 16- 1:00

4 Stanford (At-Large) vs. 13 West Virginia (Big East Champions)

Alamo Bowl- Friday December 16- 4:15

3 Oklahoma State (Big 12 Champions) vs. 14 Northern Illinois (MAC Champions)

Champs Sports Bowl- Friday December 16- 8:30

6 Arkansas (At-Large) vs. 11 TCU (Mountain West Champions)

Pinstripe Bowl- Saturday December 17- 1:00

7 Boise State (At-Large) vs. 10 Clemson (ACC Champions)

Outback Bowl- Saturday December 17- 4:15

2 Alabama (At-Large) vs. 15 Arkansas State (Sun Belt Champions)

Capital One Bowl- Saturday December 17- 8:30

Second Round

1/16 vs. 8/9

Gator Bowl- Friday December 23- 4:15

5/12 vs. 4/13

Cotton Bowl- Friday December 23- 8:30

3/14 vs. 6/11

Orange Bowl- Saturday December 24- 4:15

7/10 vs. 2/15

Sugar Bowl- Saturday December 24- 8:30

Third Round

1/16/8/9 vs. 5/12/4/13

Rose Bowl- Monday January 2- 4:15

3/14/6/11 vs. 7/10/2/15

Fiesta Bowl- Monday January 2- 8:30

National Championship

Allstate BCS National Championship Game

Monday January 9- 8:30

This proposal isn't without it's flaws. There are teams that seem more worthy than some conference champions are left out (Michigan, Virginia Tech, South Carolina). However, there will be bubble teams in any system. Another problem would be deciding which bowl and time slots would get which matchups, however they could be a committee created which would decide this.

What do you guys think? Feel free to leave any comments, questions, or other problems or proposals in the comments section.