Fan playoff plans and BCS fixes
The BCS has about as much value to college football fans in 2008 as tech stocks did after the dot-com bubble burst earlier this decade.
Those fans may have little influence over the poll voting, team scheduling or the entrenched bowl system, but that hasn't silenced their criticism. The vast majority who blog on ESPN.com favor a playoff system, and even those who want to keep the bowls have suggested tweaks that would make the BCS better.
Regardless of the concept, fans are tired of seeing one-loss teams from major conferences, such as Texas, and undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences, such as Boise State, shut out of the title game.
Below are some of the best playoff plans posted in fan blogs. Just to add to the controversy, we provided an arbitrary ranking. More BCS championship footballs indicate our non-computer judgment of the plans' chances of being implemented.
Click on the avatar to respond directly to the bloggers.
| Playoff plans | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blogger | Scope | Who's in? | Details | Chances |
 daknowntruth
|
16 teams | Top 5 plus reps of 11 conferences | Re-aligned conferences with title games; 10-game season. |
 |
 Ghostsof1948
|
16 teams | Automatic qualifiers from current system plus at-large teams. | First round is second week of December. Conference can have 3 teams. |
 |
 steve24plnt
|
16 teams | Winners of 16 new regional divisions. | No home games in playoffs after 10-game regular season. |
|
 msun2011
|
12 teams | BCS ratings determine field to be played in bowl games. | Top 4 teams get a bye. Adds two bowls for semis. |
 |
 dodgersgale
|
12 teams | Top teams from radical soccer-style league play NFL-like playoff. | Of the 28 teams in "First Division," six relegated each year. |
|
 Stuartgross
|
8 teams | 6 conference champs and 2 at-large teams. | Pac-10, Big Ten, Big East add title games. Bowl games used for playoff. |
|
 jmik58
|
8 teams | Top 8 in BCS after conference title games. | First round played in December with later rounds in regular bowls. |
 |
 Sportsguru6
|
4 teams | BCS rankings used to seed best four after regular bowls played. | Teams in non-BCS bowls could get title shot. |
 |
 bradvanralt
|
2 teams | Top 2 after four BCS bowls and Cotton Bowl played. | Non-BCS conference undefeateds can prove they belong. |
 |
"College football tradition and rivalries and all sorts of bowl games with history," blogs tacmetz. "I think it would be better for college not to have a playoff system to preserve the regular season."
Looking out for the current non-BCS teams, mikevcampbell offers this solution:
"Because a playoff system will likely never happen, at least one that will include more than four teams, perhaps a temporary solution would be to make one more BCS conference. Take the best: BYU, Utah, TCU, Boise State, Hawaii, Fresno State, Tulsa, ECU, and Ball State."
In defense of the power conferences, gailhallttu argues that a Top 10 finish should result in a BCS bowl even if that means the SEC, Big 12 or some other conference gets three BCS bids.
"Computer rankings should be given more weight than human polls," she writes. "Humans can be (and are) biased. They can be swayed and lobbied; they can be influenced by winning traditions and past accomplishments and dynasties. None of that sort of thing should matter in the crowning of a champion."
On the polls, but with a different bent, jdebose004 points an accusing finger at flawed preseason rankings. He advocates a cumulative voting system with points for a team's performance each week, a tournament of conference champions and the use of "more qualified" voters.
Unconvinced by the logic, confused by the myriad options or sure nothing will change?
Join bjblinst, who throws up his hands at the whole circus and turns to Dr. Seuss for a solution.
"College Football needs a Sylvester McMonkey McBean to come in and give the non-BCS schools their stars and begin the whirlwind that will lead to all schools realizing that there are football teams and they should all be treated the same."
