Wednesday, January 4, 2012
A Unique Way To Solve The FBS Football Championship Problem
Posted on 8:27 PM by Unknown
There have been about one thousand solutions to our Division 1-A/FBS Championship problem since 2001 when Nebraska somehow made the National Championship Game with only a #4 ranking in the AP Poll. They, of course, were destroyed by the Miami Hurricanes ensuring pandemonium and controversy over the accuracy of the BCS. Most recently people have been screaming for a playoff and for good reason, but the biggest problem has been the divorce of the NCAA and the wild profits associated with the 30+ bowls in the bowl season. Here's a way to avoid the elimination of the bowl sponsors and still have a playoff.
Let's say that they up the BCS rankings from the top 12 to the top 16. 16 teams will give us 5 rounds for a National Championship. You might be saying that's a ton of games for college kids, but at most teams will play 19 games, that's one less than the pros. Plus, for most of the BCS teams they have a 2 to 3 week buffer between their last game and their bowl game, so why not fill them with games? There will be 16 games in total and therefore 16 "bowl games." I understand we're eliminating 19 bowl games, but we would be increasing the importance of those 11 non-BCS traditional bowls by infinity. We'd obviously have to choose the most historic bowls with the most lucrative sponsors in order to secure the most profits for teams involved. So here are my round-by-round bowl game selections:
Round 1:
Champs Sports Bowl
Liberty Bowl
Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl
Outback Bowl
Capital One Bowl
Alamo Bowl
Independence Bowl
Sun Bowl
The first round of bowls are really the first bowls we actually watch. I mean we can't seriously have first round match ups being named the Godaddy.com Bowl or the Beef O'Brady's bowl. But, we can have the sponsors changed for each bowl. We'd have sponsors bid on each bowl and the highest bidder would obviously win and be able to put their name on the bowl or "present it." For example, the Valero Alamo Bowl or the Alamo Bowl presented by Valero. This competition would increase profits because not only will there be less opportunities to sponsor bowls, but also, the importance of each bowl has increased by a considerable amount.
Round 2:
Cotton Bowl
Orange Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Gator Bowl
The second round will of course feature the same sort of competitive bidding, but at a way higher price. Also the sponsors will not be able to put their name in front of the classic bowl game, they will only be able to "present it." While the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl are both considered "BCS" bowl games in this current format, the Cotton Bowl and Gator Bowl also carry serious historical prestige. It would be nice to bring these two bowls back into the college football limelight.
Round 3:
Rose Bowl
Fiesta Bowl
The newest version of the "Final Four." I debated between the Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl for the other Final Four game, but the Rose Bowl is clearly the most prestigious of the four big time bowls. Both bowls have serious parades before them that would only add to the allure and excitement of their National Semi-Finals status.
Round 4:
The BCS National Championship Game
The only thing that would change year from year with the BCS National Championship Game would be the stadium at which it was played. I'd say you do a six year rotation with:
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.
Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, TX.
Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA.
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
Sun Life Stadium in Miami, FL.
Louisiana Dome in New Orleans, LA.
These six stadiums represent not only completely suitable venues but also their locations are prime.
I understand this would be still be somewhat a dramatic of a change, but you don't even have to eliminate the other 19 bowls. These bowls can serve as a consolation for the teams that do not make the BCS top 16. If you think there would be a problem with viewership of those 33 bowls, you are wildly mistaken. No one watches them now, why would it be any different then?
Keep the bowls, just make them matter more. Please?
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