At last, I have come up with a college football plan that makes sense. Last year, while the BCS was supposed to come up with the two best teams in college football, it was generally agreed that Miami was screwed (not that most Notre Dame fans minded). So further tweaking was done to allegedly fix the problem.

The real problem is that there is no playoff. Settling the issue on the field is the only fair thing. So many years, there have been controversies as to who the national champion was. Notre Dame was caught in that quagmire: in 1989, Miami (11-1) was voted national champs over ND (12-1) – Miami beat ND on the field. We had a much stronger schedule. In 1993, Florida State (11-1) was handed the title over (11-1) ND, and we beat FSU on the field, and had a stronger schedule. So which year should we have won?

The drawbacks to a playoff are numerous: more games for the kids to get hurt, missed school time, decreased relevance for the bowl games. Also, how many teams do you include? The positives are much more impressive: $$$$$$ for the networks, definitive champion, and more interest in the game.

I have come up with a system that will keep the bowls intact, use the BCS poll, limit the number of games to three (at a maximum), and not create missed school time. And, it will make a national holiday more prominent. So here goes:

The first trick is to figure out how many teams to include. Looking back at history, the lowest seeded team to win the national title on New Year’s Day was #5 (ND in 1977, knocking off #1 Texas while #2, #3, and #4 lost). So, I have chosen 6 teams to play in the playoff.

With six teams, five games are needed to settle a playoff. I will place these games in the five major bowls: Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, and Cotton (remember that game?). Every five years, the national title game will rotate between the games.

The #1 and #2 seeds (say Nebraska and Miami) get byes. In round 1, #3 plays #6, and #4 plays #5. So, using the USA Today poll (I need the 25 teams, not 15 for sake of argument), that would mean Florida vs Tennessee in the Fiesta, and Oklahoma vs Texas in the Cotton (regional rivalries unintended). These games would be played at the beginning of bowl week, around Christmas Day.

In the next round, Nebraska gets the winner of Florida-Tennessee, so let’s say Nebraska vs Florida in the Orange Bowl, and Miami would get the winner of the other game, so let’s say Miami vs Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl. These games would be played on the traditional New Year’s Day, or one week after the first round.

The Rose Bowl gets the national title game. Let’s say it is Nebraska vs Miami. So when should this game be played? I propose on Martin Luther King Day – I’m sure the NFL would accommodate so that there are no playoffs on the Monday – but imagine a 3 PM game on that Monday! It would turn it into the holiday that New Year’s Day is. In the meantime, college kids are back in school for the second semester, which generally starts after MLK Day, so they do not miss any classes.

The drawback is the other bowls. They become insignificant. Not so fast my friends, as Lee Corso would say. The death of the bowl system is due to the conference tie-ins. A bowl is only as strong as the bowl participants. But don’t you think fans in Orlando are sick of seeing Big 11-SEC games every year in the Citrus Bowl? What I propose is more novel: have the polls determine who goes where. Whichever bowl antes up the most $$$ gets the #7-#8 game. The next bowl gets the #9-#10 game. And so on. So, for example:

Citrus: Oregon-BYU

Holiday: Maryland-Washington State

Liberty: Michigan-Illinois

Sun: Syracuse-Washington

Hall of Fame (or whatever it is now called): Stanford-Colorado

Gator: Virginia Tech-Auburn

Alamo: Louisville-Florida State

Insight.com (or whatever it is now called): UCLA-South Carolina

And so on. This would be much more interesting, and produce better matchups than, say, "SEC #3 vs Big East #2".

The conferences may scream, but having better teams protects them. The smaller conferences get to play, too. This system is a winner for all, and should be implemented.

Any thoughts?

John Romanelli, ‘91