2008 Rethink-the-BCS:

Quad One (if beaten, gives 5 points to victor)
Texas
Alabama
Penn St.
Oklahoma
USC
Texas Tech
Florida
Oklahoma St.
Georgia
Ohio St.
LSU
Utah
Boise St.
TCU
Missouri
Georgia Tech

Quad Two (4)
Ball St.
Boston College
BYU
Kansas
Minnesota
Northwestern
Pittsburgh
South Florida
Tulsa
Florida St.
Michigan St.
Cincinnati
Virginia Tech
Maryland
Vanderbilt
Oregon

Quad Three (3)
UNC
Wake Forest
Arizona
Fresno St.
Illiinois
Oregon State
Notre Dame
Virginia
Kentucky
Auburn
West Virginia
South Carolina
Nebraska
Iowa
California
UConn

Quad Four (2)
Colorado
Miami
Air Force
Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Wisconsin
Tenessee
UCLA
Stanford
Mississippi
Clemson
Arkansas
Louisville
San Jose St
Navy
East Carolina

The Rest (1)

All Remaining Teams

Other ways to gain points:

All wins away from home: +1 point

Any win against a top 64 opponent with a 17 point+ margin of victory: +1

Big Ten Commish Speaks Out

Interactive Playoff

Now using my system, I entered the teams seeded according to where each finished in my final standings. Want to know who won?

LSU, Florida, Georgia and Kansas all advanced to the Final Four with LSU topping Georgia for the championship. Earlier, Florida knocked off Oklahoma and Ohio State, while Kansas marched pass USC and Illinois. Pretty fun to play around with and nice to see the system incorporates upsets.

Makes an interesting point about what happens if Hawaii beats Georgia: does the AP split the champions?

1. Having to wait 5 1/2 weeks for the championship game. A tournament would give the nation consistent action to keep the country engaged. By the first week of January, the NFL will firmly be the bigger sports story.

2. Missouri, Missouri, Missouri: they beat Kansas, lose a 2nd time to Oklahoma, and fall out of the BCS while Kansas earns a birth. Wow, even the commentators on FOX had to take a moment to rip the BCS system over this one.

3. Ohio St. not having played in either of the last two weekends is able to idle their way into the championship while other schools beat each other up. OSU only played two rank teams all year and lost to the better of the two (and it was in Columbus).

4. LSU jumps from 7th to 2nd by the goodwill of voters manipulating the system. Meanwhile another idle team, Georgia, actually drops. There is nothing in the BCS rule book about having to win your conference to be BCS eligible. But the voters didnt feel it was fair to give Georgia the Ohio St treatment and dropped them in the poll to help advance LSU. Manipulation of the system by voters is a huge issue here.

5. We had to wait 24 hours to figure out who was playing. The current BCS system is more like the Oscars and less like any sort of legitimate sport. Which ever coach wins the championship better thank the system like an actor thanks the academy.

6. No one is happy. This may be the biggest issue. Yes, LSU and Ohio St. are probably happy, but no true fan feels satisfied. I’ve spoken to a die hard LSU fan and a die hard Buckeye fan and they pretty much echoed one another: something about this whole process feels unfulfilling or anticlimactic. They are both glad about the outcome and mentioned it should be a good matchup, but with the long layoff and the confusion surrounding the system there seems to be a sense that no matter who wins few people will really appreciate the outcome…i.e., there will be no true champion this year.

This last point may be the most significant: never has the BCS system had this much pressure. It’s about to break, I can feel it. And while I think my system fixes a lot about the BCS, I truly hope the momentum carries the NCAA to finally establish a 16 or 8 or even 4 team tournament. Here’s to hoping anyway.

LSU 28
Virginia Tech 24*
————–
Missouri 26**
Oklahoma 24*
Ohio St. 24*
Georgia 24
Kansas 21
West Virginia 20
Hawaii 20
USC 19
Tennessee 18
Arizona St 18
Florida 17
Boston College 15
Illinois 12
South Florida 12
Virginia 12
Connecticut 12
Texas 10
Oregon 9

(Bold means team won their conference)

*Based on strength of overall schedule, the tie breaker goes to Virginia Tech.

**A team must win its conference to qualify for the championship game, meaning Missouri cannot advance to the BCS title game.

So let me also take a moment to clarify: I’m 100% in favor of a playoff. My worry is the powers (and moneys) that be won’t give up the bowl system anytime soon. In that case we need a better BCS and that’s what my system proposes: something more transparent and simple that rids the BCS system of voting and computers.

Note how Vegas has BCS #1 Missouri as 3 point underdogs against Oklahoma.

Interesting, albeit short, article on the BCS process and how conference games hurt teams. Nothing you haven’t heard, except for maybe the opinion of famed oddsmaker Danny Sheridan:

The Mountaineers won the conference title by beating Connecticut, a team that Sheridan said could be beaten by “a high school team in Alabama.”

Also heard Jay Bilas mention how the BCS is simply nonsensical and thankful college basketball has a playoff. He pointed out how impossible it would be in college basketball to try to pick the two best teams at the end of the season to play for the championship. Well, in a sense, the BCS is pretending that their system can do that after 12 or 13 games per team (not even half of the number of games of bball team plays). So with less statistical information, the BCS makes an educated ridiculous guess at who the two best teams are. It’s all about to be exposed this year.

Missouri 28*
West Virginia 26
———–
LSU 26*
Ohio St. 24
Georgia 24
Kansas 21
Virginia Tech 20
Tennessee 20
Oklahoma 20
Hawaii 19
Florida 17
Arizona St 17
Boston College 17
USC 16
Illinois 12
Connecticut 12
South Florida 12
Oregon 12
Virginia 12
Texas 10

*team controls own destiny: if team wins out, they will finish in one of the two top spots.