The BCS: An Attempted Playoff, Part II

Let's speculate as to what might happen if the top eight teams in the BCS were entered into a playoff.

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"Blow the whole thing up."

We're sitting at the bar during Steelers vs. Cowboys yesterday with our roommate; FOX starts promoting the BCS Selection Show and he turns to us and says, "Has anyone just tried to mock up a playoff? Like, to see what would happen?" We respond: "Yea, we actually did that." He looks sheepish and goes, "Oh" before awkwardly escaping to the bathroom. With the final regular-season BCS Standings now out, we decided to rampantly speculate on an eight-team playoff format again. Why not 12 or 16? It seems too many teams. Let's K.I.S.S., ya know? We could do the "1 and 2 get a bye, 3-8 play in" but we're a big fan of the pure 1 vs. 8, 4 vs. 5, etc model, so we're just going with that. Here's the main thing we learned: in a bowl season not marked by a ton of great games, this would certainly add some excitement that may be lacking in, say, South Carolina vs. Iowa. Here goes nothing.

No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 8 Penn State
Interesting matchup. It's pretty much impossible to keep Oklahoma off the board these days, and while PSU's defense was underrated—Aaron Maybin and Navorro Bowman are pretty nasty—we think the Sooners would take this one. Should be noted here that it might be one small argument for the Rose Bowl's traditionalism, since we're more interested in Pete Carroll vs. JoePa than in Bob Stoops vs. JoePa for some reason.

No. 2 Florida vs. No. 7 Texas Tech
Hm, this would be an interesting game. Crabtree and Harvin! We think Florida probably has too many weapons to drop this one, when it's all said and done.

No. 3 Texas vs No. 6 Utah
This is the same matchup we had last week in this slot, and we're still going with Texas. In our mind, this would be a much cooler game to get hyped for and ultimately watch than Alabama vs. Utah and Texas vs. Ohio State. We still fervently believe the Fiesta Bowl shoulda been Utah vs. Boise State.

No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 5 USC
Oooh, now this is exciting, and much better than 'Bama/Utah. Saban vs. Carroll! ("The Kinda-Sorta Belichick Bowl.") Seeing as how Florida got the better of Rammer Hammer sans Harvin and Gainey and USC has a ton of playmakers on offense, we'll take the Trojans here in a game we'd be super excited to watch.

No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 5 USC
Oh yea. Stoops looks for revenge from the Orange Bowl thrasing he got at USC's hands a few years back. This is a massive showcase of offensive talent, and we have no idea how to pick it. Seeing as how USC's D is good, and Oklahoma's is good but did allow over 40 points to Oklahoma State, well, we'll take USC in a thriller. Oh, now things are interesting.

No. 2 Florida vs. No. 3 Texas
Another sweet game. McCoy vs. Tebow! Texas had the best defense in the Big 12 this year, which is akin to saying absolutely nothing at all, as it was ranked No. 50 nationally. If Florida is at full strength, we just think they have too many dudes for the Longhorns, even though Texas would be out to prove a ton within this format.

No. 2 Florida vs No. 5 USC
Interesting that we got to this title game, eh? (We could be completely off-base with that Oklahoma/USC pick, though.) It should tell you something about Pac 10 scheduling or just that USC needs a smidge more focus during the regular season. This game would get as much hype as Oklahoma vs. Florida will, and have the same "whichever coach wins is the first coach to win 2 BCS Titles" element. Again, we have no idea how to pick it, so we'll do this: UF would be coming into this game off battles with Texas Tech and Texas; USC woulda slugged it out with 'Bama and Oklahoma. That seems to benefit Florida, strength-wise. USC's D could probably keep UF's playmakers from getting into space—to a point. We're taking Florida, although it's close.

If Florida downs Oklahoma, then, our mock eight-team playoff ends the same way the BCS would have, at least in terms of No. 1. But the process above is so much cooler for the fans, no? Cue Liz Lemon regarding our thoughts on a playoff system: "I want to go to there."

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