I have a simple solution to the theory that the BCS system is flawed and that we need a playoff. Now let me preface this by saying:

1) There is no way this will ever happen.
2) I am sure there are some flaws I am missing, so feel free to help me out.

mgoblog had a very good post that got me thinking about something missing from the BCS. There aren’t enough inter conference games. According to that post, the Big Ten didn’t play an SEC school and only played one ACC school in non-conference games.

So my multi-phase approach is this…

First, in order to be eligible for any BCS bowl require all BCS conference schools to play at least 11 games against BCS conference opponents and require all non-BCS conference schools to play at least 4 games against BCS conference opponents. This does a multitude of things. First, it forces teams in weaker BCS conferences (ACC, *ahem* Big Ten) to beat schools in other BCS conferences as opposed to playing 4 cupcakes and rolling through an easy conference schedule. Second, it creates far more comparable resumes across conferences. So it’s more likely that Ohio St. and LSU would have common opponents so it would be easier to separate them in rankings. Thirdly, it forces these non-BCS “wannabes” to play 4 teams who have all played a ton of other BCS schools, again to make separately them more difficult. The caveat to this would be that anytime can opt out. For example, if Indiana doesn’t think they are going to compete they can opt to play some cupcakes and get some wins, but risk not being eligible for a BCS bowl game.

Second, the way these match-ups would be setup is more of a class system. What this means is that when Florida is scheduling it’s non-conference games, it has to schedule them against higher tier teams. So when they schedule a Pac 10 team, they would be more likely to get USC than Washington St. This keeps better schools from constantly piling on to weaker schools. Games could be scheduled two years in advance, so right now the games for 2011 would be scheduled and the “classes” would be based on the 2009 results. There would be some numbers to crunch to figure out how you would set the classes up, but you get the idea.

Big picture, you maintain the existing format of the season, no added games, no de-valuing of bowls or regular season games. Basically you find a way to make the BCS more efficient without making drastic changes to the current setup.

So lets talk pros and cons.

Pros

  • No changes to the current structure of the season
  • No extra games
  • Bowls don’t change so this can happen immediately
  • Much better regular season games
  • No more Florida blowouts over Alaska A&M

Cons

  • The FBS schools no longer get paydays to get a beating
  • Complicated scheduling
  • Non-conference rivalries would die on the vine
  • BCS schools who “opted out” would draw ire from the fans.