A modest proposal

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Some tweets back and forth with Stewart Mandel the other day, as well as the comment thread on my post about Dan Wetzel’s BCS article, has gotten me thinking, once again, about a college football playoff proposal.

Everyone talks about either a “plus-one” (basically a four-team playoff) or an eight-team playoff simply taking the Top 8 teams in the final standings. The problem with these proposals, even the more ambitious Top 8 idea, is that they don’t reward conference championships properly (IMHO), and more crucially, they don’t guarantee access to undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences.

Yeah, the Boise States and TCUs, who start the season ranked and live up to expectations, will usually finish in the Top 8 if they win ’em all. But what about unheralded unbeatens, who have to claw their way into the picture? They might not ever reach the promised land. And that’s just unacceptable. As John Feinstein points out in an admirably rantish post about the BCS:

It is NOT a real competition if you can go undefeated and not be allowed to play for the championship. The apologists of course point out “strength of schedule.” To start with this is a joke because the power schools won’t play the non-power schools. … Beyond that, what was George Mason’s “strength of schedule,” like three years ago? How about Gonzaga when it became Cinderella and made its run to the final eight in 1999? If someone goes undefeated you let them tee it up in postseason and see how they do. Maybe they turn out to be Hawaii. Maybe they turn out to be Utah. You can’t find out unless you let them compete.

Exactly. That’s why my preferred solution is a 16-team playoff, with automatic bids for the champions of all 11 conferences, plus 5 at-larges. This would guarantee that every undefeated team gets a shot, with the possible exception of the Big Ten, which can theoretically produce multiple unbeatens — but, undoubtedly, any “non-champion” unbeaten would be among the five at-large teams anyway.

I recognize, though, there are legitimate objections to this proposal, most notably that it would de-value the regular season too much. That is Mandel’s primary concern about any playoff beyond a “plus-one.” Personally, however, I think a happy medium can be reached, one that would preserve enough of the regular season’s significance while solving the problems that cannot be fixed by tweaking the BCS or even creating a plus-one (in particular, guaranteeing that overachieving off-the-radar teams have a legit shot to earn a championship).

On such possible happy medium, it seems to me, is a 12-team playoff.

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BWAHAHAHAHA TEEHEE *snort* LOL

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Just a few days ago, I stumbled upon an early-August column by ESPN’s Rick Reilly titled “Remember us? We’re UCLA football.” Reilly writes about Bruin coach Rick Neuheisel’s little-brother complex, his hyperactive desire to catch up with Pete Carroll and the big bad Trojans across town. It’s almost sad, really. And yet, ultimately, more funny than sad, because it involves UCLA sucking, which is always, always funny.

Funniest part: the advertisement that UCLA put in the Los Angeles Times last year, and the Trojan photoshop thereof:

uclaad0825 uclaad0825-1

So, anyway, it is with unrestrained glee that I learn how poor wittle Ricky boy rather blatantly expressed jealousy of the attention paid to USC last Saturday in the press room after his squad’s latest date with mediocrity. So reports the Daily Bruin, in an article brilliantly headlined “Mediocre team frustrates coach”:

In the press room beneath the Rose Bowl there are four big plasma screen televisions. One of these televisions was showing the thrilling game between USC and Notre Dame Saturday afternoon. Media that gathered in the press room had clustered to watch the dramatic finish.

At that moment UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel walked into the room, sunburned and exasperated after his team’s 45-26 defeat to rival Cal.

Almost no one moved. Necks remained craned toward the USC game until a frustrated Neuheisel spoke sharply.

“Would everyone like to watch the end of that ball game?” Neuheisel asked. “I am more than willing to wait.”

There was a hint of bitterness in Neuheisel’s voice, a slight sign of the wounded pride of UCLA football.

Neuheisel wants his team to be playing in those electrifying games. The Bruins want to receive the attention reserved for college football’s best teams – the attention that is reserved in this town for USC.

But for now, UCLA is playing mediocre football.

Of course they are. They’re UCLA. That’s what they do.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.