BCS vs Playoff vs Dynamic (Flex) Scheduling
A couple friends and I were discussing college football last night (we have all the answers of course) and talking about how to decide a true national champion. I’m not against the BCS completely myself, but I see where it has a few flaws. I also think that a playoff system diminishes the regular season and thus I’m not in favor of anything more than a +1 format where 1 plays 4, 2 plays 3 and the winners square off for a title game.
However, last night, I came up with a better idea that would still give us just one title game 1 vs 2. It’s still a work in progress in my head, but I wanted to get the idea out there and get some feedback.
Part of the problem people have with the BCS is unbalanced scheduling. Penn State this year could get to the National title game having played a MUCH lighter schedule than Texas or Alabama. Many say Ohio State has benefitted from the weakness of the Big 10 the last 2 years. So, let’s play 2 out of conference games and 8 conference games (the 2 out of conference games allows a powder puff team and allows you to keep an out of conference rival). Then, we feed all the results into the computer and it comes up with match ups for your final two games. Now, you can’t have Penn State play Texas and USC, because that makes those teams schedule even tougher. But you would end up with, for example, Penn State vs Boston College and Kansas to close out the season. Texas, with their tough Big 12 schedule, pulls Washington State and Purdue. Those last two weeks could have some exciting matchups of teams that would normally never play. Think of all the possibilities of matchups. Penn State would either prove their ranking or fumble it away. So would all the other teams. It doesn’t have to be super difficult home/away wise. If you are in the top 10% of teams record wise, you get both at home, lower 10% and you get both away, middle 70% and you get one at home and one away. You can even break it down to upper 35% of that 70% get home in week 1 and lower 35% get second week at home or some variation of that so teams can have an idea which they will be 2-3 weeks out. And the computer could decide the matchups and then a human panel reviews them for logistically possibility and fairness (possibly the NCAA selection committee) and they matchups come out 2 weeks before they are to be played to give teams and fans time to prepare. Season still ends at the same time, same number of games for each team. Then you have a much more balanced schedule for the BCS computers to use to rank your #1 and #2, who play in January. And fans can’t argue as well that so-and-so got there because they played 4 cream puff out of conference games and played in a weak schedule. Hey, it’s a pipe dream, but a guy can dream, right?
Thoughts? Ideas?