The rest of the article is interesting and entertaining and backs up why he came up with this proposal, I'd recommend reading it in its entirety.MGoBlog wrote: Four. Current proposal.
A. Six teams. Six is a good number. Six teams means two byes for the top two teams in the country and makes one loss a big deal and a second loss a bigger deal.
B. No autobids. As a natural consequence of things there will often be conference champions in the playoff, but as much as I think Wake Forest is a cute story, they would be dead weight in a tightly constrained playoff field like this one.
C. Home games. Eliminate ludicrous travel requirements and up regular-season importance in one fell swoop. If you're higher ranked you get to play the game on your home field in the first two rounds.
D. Pick your poison. Seed only as far as you have to, then let teams draft their opponents. In this current format, the #3 team would have a choice between the 5 and 6 teams with the #4 getting the leftovers. The #1 team would get its choice of the first round survivors.
E. By committee. A dedicated team of people who do this year-round who are geographically distributed.
F. Final. At the Rose Bowl.
Five. Hypothetical this-year bracket.
#1 Ohio State versus #4 USC / #5 LSU
#2 Michigan versus #3 Florida / #6 Louisville.
Interchange Florida and Michigan if you so desire.
Point on two loss national champions promised earlier: if USC or LSU slogs through 1) USC or LSU, 2) Ohio State on the road, and 3) Michigan/Florida/Louisville, than they would have a mountain of skulls unmatched by any of its competitors. Keeping the top two seeds out of first round games is a mighty incentive to finish in the top two that also provides the neat service of damping any claims of robbery should those teams lose by preventing them from claiming another victory over top competition.
Looking at it for the current season, putting the teams closer to where they will actually be playing this year, the first round would be Michigan vs. USC in Ann Arbor rather than Pasedena, and LSU playing Louisville in Baton Rouge (or wherever they are). Florida and Ohio State would both have the week off. Michigan wins, gets an away game at Florida. LSU wins, gets an away game in Columbus. If Florida and Ohio State are the #1 and #2 teams that the polls currently say they are, they win one extra game, at home, before meeting on neutral turf to decide the National Championship. If they lose, at home and with an extra week of rest than their opponent, they're out.
It would still allow the possibility of a rematch game, but I think in that situation the original loser of the game would have more of a claim than Michigan would have vs. Ohio State if they were having a rematch this year that Michigan won. Again, fitting the current into the proposal, Michigan would have to beat a top six team, then travel to the home field of the #2 team, then beat #1 Ohio State on neutral territory. Ohio state would have another win in there but against a weaker opponent (if that's what they chose) at home. OSU would end up 14-1, having beaten Texas, Michigan, and LSU. Michigan ends up 15-1 having beaten Notre Dame, USC, Florida and Ohio State. In that hypothetical, I think you could legitimately call the winner of that rematch game the unquestionable #1 in the country. As it stands now, a Michigan victory in a rematch would be less compelling.
Thoughts? I kind of like the idea, and I think it would leave a lot less room for anyone claiming they got screwed than any of the current or past implementations.
