Looking back at my last post, it's been over five years since I last wrote a blog post. It's been on my mind these last five years on restarting this blog. My interest has been growing lately in resuming writing. I put out a feeler on Facebook in the form of a poll, the reaction was lukewarm at best. But, I've basically said to myself, if you're going to write, just write and not give a crap whatever anyone else thinks.
So, now that I'm going to be back writing, what am I going to write about? A lot of rants about certain subjects. So, if you weren't turned off by the first paragraph, feel free to keep reading and perhaps you will get ticked off at my opinions.
Now, after telling you why I'm back writing, I'm going to tell you what I'm writing about. That is Division 1-A college football and the College Football Playoff (CFP). The reason why I'm writing 1-A instead of Football Bowl Subdivision is because I find that term to be stupid and too long. The CFP is a great thing, don't get me wrong. But, in my opinion, four teams is not enough. A true playoff would consist on 16 teams.
Why 16 teams? Easy, take the conference winner from every conference in 1-A plus six at-large teams. The reason for this many teams is simple, you actually give every team a chance. Currently, for those who don't know, the CFP is only four teams, and essentially excludes the "group of five" conferences. Those conferences being: the American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt. Plus, it guarantees that at least one of the "power five" conferences, gets excluded. Those conferences being: the Atlantic Coast, B1G or Big Ten, Big XII, Pacific 12, and Southeastern. The B1G, and Big XII are deceiving in their names considering the B1G and XII actually have 14 and ten schools in their respective conferences, but I digress.
Here is my perfect playoff and bowl structure: first round: all eight games at the higher seed. Second and third rounds: the next six games at rotating bowl games, the New Year's six of the Cotton, Peach, Fiesta, Sugar, Rose, and Orange Bowls. Four will host the quarterfinals, and the other two will host the semifinals. The championship would then be held anywhere in the lower 48. Sorry Alaska and Hawaii, just not enough people and Aloha Stadium, from what I've heard, isn't very good. I mean ANYWHERE! Including cold weather cities like Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Plus, of course warm weather cities like Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, and San Antonio.
Now, bowl structure after those 16 teams are selected: the second team from each group of five conference faces a power five team in another bowl, and then third team faces another power five team. That comes out to another ten bowl games. Why am I limiting it to only ten? Because there are far too many bowl games right now. Currently, there are 40 bowl games, and with only 130 teams in 1-A college football, it means there could be 5-7 records going to a bowl. Teams with losing records should not be allowed to compete in what is essentially a reward. Plus, why am I having it only be a power five school versus group of 5? Because then we get to see how a "inferior" school does against the big colleges of the day. Plus, it's more fun this way instead of seeing complete mediocrity rule the day in the bowl games.
Now, how would it look this season? Assuming we just take everything as it is right now and select the playoff field based on a combination of the CFP rankings and the standings in each conference.
No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 16 Troy
No. 2 Clemson vs. No. 15 University of Alabama-Birmingham
No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 14 University of Buffalo
No. 4 Michigan vs. No. 13 Fresno State
No. 5 Oklahoma vs. No. 12 Georgia
No. 6 University of Central Florida vs. No. 11 LSU
No. 7 West Virginia vs. No. 10 Ohio State
No. 8 Kentucky vs. No. 9 Syracuse
Why would I do it this way? Because I'd have undefeated and one loss teams seeded higher, with the group of five traveling for the most part. This is the maximum number of teams I'd every put into a playoff as well, considering the fact that football is a much more dangerous sport than basketball. Plus, you'd have some interesting games in this format. Would a Sun Belt team ever beat the best team from the SEC? Probably not, but as Ric Flair once famously said: "in order to be the man, you've gotta beat the man! Whooooo!"
Plus, this system still favors the power five conferences, with those schools having more opportunity to play more games, and unless you're a team like Central Florida who has won 22 straight going back to last season, the group of five wouldn't get a home game. So it's a win-win for everybody involved. Finally, it's a way to get the lower teams involved.
Now, another rant, which is going to be much shorter. Whenever you hear why a team like Central Florida is out of the playoff conversation it's because "their schedule is too weak." "Their strength of schedule is awful." Guess what? They can't control it right now because college football schedules are made five years in advance, at minimum! Nobody can predict if a team is going to be good or not in five years! Heck, Central Florida in 2015 was 0-12. Now, they're the talk of the American conference. Please don't bring that up as to why a case can't be made for Central Florida, or Utah State, or Fresno State, or Washington State. They can only beat teams on their schedule! If you want to make it somewhat fairer, give up scheduling so far down the road and only schedule maybe a year or possibly two in advance, that way it's a better gauge of how a school is faring recently. Don't believe me on schedules? Go to fbschedules.com and look at future schedules of Oklahoma, Alabama, and Stanford to name a few.
Thank you for reading, and I hope to bring out a few more blogs soon. Please comment as to what other topics you'd like me to cover. Either here or on facebook.
