There is lots of talk of a plus-one system finally coming to college football. Although it’s not ideal, it is a good start. All the BCS commissioners seem to be for it except the Big Ten and Pac-10. Why would these two conferences want to stop the rest of America from getting a plus-one system? The answer leads to the traditions of one bowl game: The Rose Bowl.

Lets see…

1. The Big 10 does not have a conference championship game.
2. The Pac-10 does not have a conference championship game.
3. The Rose Bowl has been complaining that they are loosing the Pac-10 or Big Ten champion every year to the National championship game (Ohio state or USC over the last few years.

All this adds up to moving the Rose Bowl to championship weekend. The new date would bring back the tradition of the Pac-10 champion and Big Ten champion playing each other. The only difference would be the game would be played a month earlier.

I’m guessing the “Rose Bowl” name would stay with the game played on New Years Day and the parade, but I’m sure a new name can be found. With the additional millions of dollars for a new TV contract and corporate sponsorship, a new name could be found real quickly.

Date	Game	BCS Playoff Game		Location
Dec 13	Quarter Final #1			Rose Bowl
Dec 14	Quarter Final #2			Fiesta Bowl
Dec 15	Quarter Final #3			Orange Bowl
Dec 15	Quarter Final #4			Sugar Bowl
Jan 1	Semi-Final #1	?		Rose Bowl
Jan 2	Semi-Final #2	?		Orange Bowl
Jan 7	National Championship	?		Suagr Bowl

The reason why Pac-10, Big 12 and Big Ten are grouped together is to keep the location of the games close to fans. The same reason applies to why the Big East, ACC, and SEC are grouped together. The locations are up for debate, but keeping the current BCS bowl locations might entice the current BCS commissioners into a playoff system. After all, this is the group that decided to place the 5th BCS bowl game within the original four locations.

The semi-final dates and national championship dates were easy to decide on since they fit within the current structure. The quarter final dates were chosen to be two weeks after the Dec first conference championship date, and a week before the Christmas holidays. That would be one crazy college football weekend.

The 2006 Conference Champion Based Playoffs that never was:

Date	Game	BCS Playoff Game		Location
Dec 14	Quarter Final #1			Fiesta Bowl
Dec 15	Quarter Final #2			Orange Bowl
Dec 16	Quarter Final #3			Sugar Bowl
Dec 16	Quarter Final #4			Rose Bowl
Jan 1	Semi-Final #1	?		Rose Bowl
Jan 2	Semi-Final #2	?		Orange Bowl
Jan 8	National Championship	?		Fiesta Bowl

People have noticed that Boise State is not included in my champion based playoff system, and rightly so. The WAC conference is nowhere near the caliber of the other 6 major conferences. Saying Boise State deserves a shot at Florida is like saying the Division II champion deserves a chance for the national title. If Boise State was good enough, they would have been ranked higher than Michigan or LSU and received one of the two at-large bids.

Vanderbilt could have gone undefeated playing Boise’s schedule; would Vanderbilt deserve a chance at a national title? The clear answer is no. Oklahoma is not the same Oklahoma from the past, and beating Hawaii does not constitute a chance at a national title.

It doesn’t happen often, but it looks like the BCS actually got it right this year. My previous Michigan vs. Florida schedule comparison as well as the BCS bowl games this past week showed that the weak Big 10 didn’t deserve to have two teams ranked number one and two. The only other team with an argument is Boise State, and I don’t buy it. This obviously wasn’t the same Oklahoma from the past, and beating Hawaii does not constitute a chance for the national title.

The BCS got it right this year, but what about next year or the year after?

Notre Dame was destroyed by LSU 41-14 and lost its 9th straight bowl game. The trend is pretty simple to analyze. Notre Dame keeps getting invited to bowl games it doesn’t deserve to be in. Money speaks volumes in the current BCS system, and Notre Dame has lots of it. Unfourtantly, Notre Dame is going to keep getting invited over other deserving teams until a playoff system is established.

According to this St. Pete Times story, even big time UF donors can’t get tickets to the national championship game. “There are people who have been ticket holders for 30 to 35 years who didn’t get tickets,” said UF ticket manager Bill Holloway.

Now, isn’t “fans won’t travel to the games” one of the big arguments against a playoff system? I get the feeling that UF fans would travel to more than one playoff game. I’m also sure that most of the big time programs would gladly travel with their team. The smaller schools might have trouble filling seats, but what are the chances a smaller school will play a smaller school in a playoff game?

State senators Mark Schauer and Mike Bishop of Michigan are fed up with the current BCS system, and are calling for a playoff format. “The BCS system is clearly not working and consumers in Michigan and around the country are paying a very real price,” Schauer said. That “real price” includes 10 million dollars the Big Ten won’t recive because Michigan is going to the Rose Bowl instead of the national championship game.

Here’s hoping that state senators Mark Schauer and Mike Bishop get their playoff wish.

The annual BCS controversy continues with the Florida Gators jumping over ideal Michigan to reach the national championship game. This is the second straight week a team has jumped Michigan in the BCS standings with USC accomplishing this feet last week.

So what changed the voter’s mind? Did pollsters not want a rematch game? Is it less risky to put Florida in since Michigan already had its shot? We may never know, but it’s hard to argue with Lloyd Carr’s argument that Michigan would be ranked #3 and Florida #4 if USC beat UCLA.

One thing is for certain is that the national championship will continue to be disputed until the teams are allowed to settle it on the field.

On Yahoo by Terry Bowden

Article Here

Terry sets up his own 1vs8 bracket. We still prefer ours, but his bracket is definitely better than the BCS system we have today.