It Makes Too Much Sense

As has been written earlier in this blog, a college football playoff is the best way to both determine a legitimate national champion and to generate the maximum amount of revenue. Imagine, as the first round of a national championship playoff could be this week. First round games could be played on home fields to maximize revenue. It would be a 16 team bracket, and every conference champion would get an automatic bid. The five best teams to not win their conference would receive an at-large bid. This week’s pairings would be as follows (ratings taken from the final BCS ratings):

#16 Florida Atlantic at #1 Ohio State
#9 West Virginia at #8 Kansas

#12 Florida at #4 Oklahoma
#13 BYU at #5 Georgia
(Florida and Georgia played in the regular season, and would not be allowed to play in the first round of a playoff)

#11 Arizona State at #6 Missouri
#14 UCF at #3 Virginia Tech

#10 Hawaii at #7 USC
#15 Central Michigan at #2 LSU

The first two rounds would be played on the home field of the higher-seeded team in order to maximize revenue and to reward higher-ranked teams. The semi-finals would be held as a doubleheader at a neutral site, in a Final Four-type atmosphere. The national championship game would be held at another neutral site, awarded via a bidding process similar to that of the NCAA basketball tournament.

What about the bowls? There would still be room for bowls. For instance, Penn State and Texas A&M could still meet in the Alamo Bowl. Cities would have the option of keeping their bowls or placing themselves in the bidding for the championship rounds.

This is a treasure chest of money waiting to be earned. Oh, yeah, a champion would be crowned, also.