http://gopetition.com/info.php?petid=1701 NCAA Division I-A football is the only men's or women's sport in America for which no playoff system exists. The Bowl Championship Series attempts to create a championship game each year by having the top 2 teams from their polling system play against each other. This system has been controversial since it's inception and needs to address the issue at hand. An undisputed national champion can only be decided on the field of play through a playoff system as in every other sport. We, the undersigned fans of NCAA football, are disgusted by the constant controversy surrounding the BCS and the BCS National Title Game. We want to see a playoff system instituted in NCAA Division I football that would include more than a fraternity of six conferences and one independent team. Historically, mid-major conferences have been ignored when it comes time to decide on a champion thus alienating millions of fans. A playoff system similar to that in NCAA basketball is what the fans want; yet we are continually ignored. Fan interest will continue to wane as controversy rages. We understand that the current contracts expire after the 2005-6 season, which gives you plenty of time to come up with a more acceptable system and to start transitioning toward it. Put the attention back on the field where it belongs! CLICK HERE TO SIGN
I'm cool with that for the most part, except for that quote. Mid-major conferences are ignored in college football for a reason, because they aren't ever going to put a dent in the top tier. It's just too hard. With an 8 team playoff, I want to see the best 8 teams, not the 7 best teams plus 1 good mid-major team. I don't recall any mid-major team in recent years finishing in the top 8, but I could be totally wrong, anyone remember one?
Re: Re: Petition for college football playoffs BYU won the national title in 1984 out of the WAC. If you consider the WAC a major, no.
Thanks, that's what I was looking for. Tulane schedule strength in '98, they went 12-0 with the 100th ranked schedule. Talk about a cupcake schedule, they play two decent teams in BYU and Southern Miss and the rest anyone could trounce over. 52-34 ( 2 - 9 102) @Cincinnati 31-21 ( 5 - 7 64) @Southern Methodist 42-24 ( 3 - 8 96) Navy 21-7 ( 7 - 5 45) Southern Mississippi 28-22 ( 7 - 5 58) Louisville 52-24 ( 5 - 6 73) @Rutgers 72-20 ( 2 - 9 111) Louisiana Lafayette 41-31 ( 2 - 9 94) @Memphis 49-35 ( 3 - 8 84) @Army 48-20 ( 3 - 8 78) Houston 63-30 ( 6 - 6 65) Louisiana Tech 41-27 ( 9 - 5 52) Brigham Young BYU went 14-1 with the 85th ranked schedule. 41-37 ( 6 - 6 47) Texas A&M 58-9 ( 4 - 7 108) Arkansas State Loss 17-29 ( 9 - 3 10) @Washington 17-14 ( 6 - 5 69) New Mexico 31-3 ( 5 - 6 62) Southern Methodist 45-17 ( 6 - 5 75) @Utah State 63-28 ( 1 - 11 101) UNLV 55-30 ( 4 - 7 82) @Tulsa 45-21 ( 4 - 7 84) @Texas Christian 40-18 ( 2 - 9 103) Texas El Paso 49-0 ( 7 - 4 41) Rice 45-14 ( 2 - 10 102) @Hawaii 37-17 ( 8 - 4 44) @Utah 28-25 ( 10 - 2 37) Wyoming 19-15 ( 9 - 3 20) Kansas State They had their shot against Washington and they lost, if you lose a game to a major conference team, you are done, cause 99% of the time there will be a 1 loss major team in the top 8. Too bad. Utah went 10-2 with this schedule, no way should they sniff a chance at being in a playoff. 32-17 ( 3 - 8 - 0 86) @Utah State 66-0 ( 0 - 1 - 0 0) Idaho State 34-16 ( 9 - 4 - 0 14) @Oregon 41-7 ( 6 - 6 - 0 56) Wyoming 38-22 ( 4 - 7 - 0 67) @San Diego State 14-3 ( 3 - 8 - 1 77) Hawaii 45-31 ( 10 - 2 - 0 17) @Colorado State 52-7 ( 3 - 7 - 1 81) Texas El Paso 21-23 ( 5 - 7 - 0 70) @New Mexico 33-40 ( 8 - 4 - 0 35) @Air Force 34-31 ( 10 - 3 - 0 25) Brigham Young 16-13 ( 8 - 4 - 0 24) Arizona A recap of the last 10 years 2001 - Louisville went 11-2 2000 - TCU went 10-2 1999 - Marshall went 13-0 with the 107th ranked schedule (remember, that is out of 114 1-A teams) 1998 - Tulane went 12-0 with the 100th ranked schedule. Biggest win was against 7-5 Southern Miss. 1997 - Colorado state went 11-2 1996 - BYU with the 85th ranked schedule. Biggest game was that loss to Washington 1995 - Toledo went 10-0-1 with the 97th ranked schedule. Biggest game was a tie vs. Miami (Ohio) 1994 - Utah went 10-2 with the 52nd ranked schedule. They won against some good major teams but choked against WAC teams. 1993 - Louisville went 9-3 with the 49th ranked schedule. 1992 - Hawaii went 11-2 with the 86th ranked schedule So based off of that, there should be a provision to allow teams not in the big 6 into the playoffs, but they absolutely must be undefeated to justify taking a spot away from most likely the 8th ranked team in the country. The only teams that should have had a chance in the past 10 years at getting into an 8 team playoff was '98 Marshall and '99 Tulane. *******************************8 My plan for a playoff system? I still think 8 teams is too many, cause how many times is the 8th ranked team going to knock off the #1 team? Very rarely. I honestly just think it should include any 1 loss major teams or any undefeated mid-major teams. That would likely include 4-6 teams each year. - If you have an odd number of teams then the highest ranked team gets a bye. - If you lost during the season to one of the other teams involved, you are not allowed. I absolutely do not want to see Miami vs. Florida State for the national championship when Miami might have beaten Florida State earlier in the season. They already proved they were better, why need to do it again? So if you have two losses, too bad, you blew your shot, twice. Here's how it would have worked out in the past. 2001 - Miami, Oregon, Illinois, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Maryland. Funny how you have it as 1 team from each conference. (Florida already eliminated for loss to Tennessee.) 2000 - Washington vs Miami with an Oklahoma bye. (Florida State eliminated for loss to Miami.) 1999 - Florida State vs Marshall, Nebraska vs. Virginia Tech. (Kansas State eliminted for loss to Nebraska.) I think that is all correct. Seems like the idea would work out pretty good, nobody get screwed, everyone know what they have to do to get there. I dunno, there's probably a flaw or two with it, I haven't put a whole lot of thought into it. That... or just make it the 6 conference winners with two at-large teams.
Basically most of the cores of the conferences were founded years and years ago. It's basically you join whichever conference wants you. But it's not really just random pickings, usually regional and size of the school. For example... the Big XII is all the major universities in the midwest/south-midwest and the Pac-10 is all the major universities in the west coast. Advantage is sharing money for TV contracts and prize money and such. Occasionally conferences will add teams or split up, but most of the major conferences are maxed out as it is. Hope that helped.
The only major independant team is Notre Dame as mentioned, but there's 6 indy teams in 1-A football. Notre Dame South Florida Connecticut Troy State Utah State Navy Those teams are just independant in football though, they have conferences they belong to in basketball and presumably other sports as well. (i.e. Notre Dame & UConn are in the Big East in basketball, but indy in football.)
I believe the NCAA Football Tournament should be a 32 team field. Use the existing bowls as playoff rounds. Also, UCONN is due to join the Big East in 2005(?). They're building a brand new stadium in East Hartford with 40,000 seats and 40 luxury boxes. But if attendence doesn't increase, they'll get sent back down to I-AA.
College football games have traditionally been extremely meaningful and the problem that I see with 32 teams is you are going to have teams with 4-5 losses. With only a little over 100 teams in 1-A football, you are looking at allowing almost 1/3rd of the teams in? Seems like way too many to me, but then again... that's just me.
I agree that 16 or 32 teams are too many. Eight teams is enough. The champion from each of the six major conferences (SEC, ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, and PAC 10). Use the BCS formula to figure out the two at-large teams. This leaves a chance for Notre Dame or an unusually strong mid-major to get in. Use the BCS formula to seed the eight teams and then have them go at it. 1 v. 8, 2 v. 7, 3 v. 6, and 4 v. 5.
I would have a 16 team playoff, same as they do in I-AA. -The Big East,ACC,SEC,Big 10,Big 12 and Pac 10 champs would automatically qualiify. The other 10 teams would be at-large bids based on computer rankings. This would probably mean that a MAC,MWC or Con USA team that goes undefeated could very well qualify. -Eliminate the conference championship in the SEC and Big 12. -To avoid the complaint by some college administrators in regard to a playoff interfering with final exams...The round of 16 would be played on Thanksgiving weekend with the higher seeded teams hosting their respective games. This would fit with the regular season....This year, most teams played their first game on Labor Day weekend. So teams would have 13 Saturdays to play an 11 or 12 game schedule. -The round of 8 would be played on the folliwing Saturday, once again at the campus of the higher seeded team. -The semifinals and final would be played at a neutral site....A Final Four just like basketball. My preference would be to have the Final Four played annually at the Rose Bowl mainly because it's the oldest,has the most tradition,the biggest stadium ect., of all the Bowls. Or, the final could be rotated to a different site yearly like the Superbowl. The semi's would be played the day after X-mas and the final on New Year's Day.
Make a conference championship actually count for something. That is as good a reason to keep it to eight as any. Of course, if it started at eight, it would soon grow to 16 or 32 as soon as the major conferences realize how much of a cash cow this would be.
This is the only way for these two conference to choose a true conference champion. The Big 11 conference champion is always suspect because they have no championsip game, and the best teams don't always play head to head (like Iowa and Ohio State this year).