Often times when I try to sort out an issue, it helps me to write out a list of the "pros" and "cons". I think that using a similar approach to the college football post-season would be beneficial - write out what the opponents of a playoff are concerned about, and what the supporters of a playoff want. By making some shrewd compromises and finding common ground, I think it would be pretty easy to find a solution that makes everyone fairly satisfied. So, here goes. I will provide a brief list for each, and then talk about how to address those issues. Finally I'll make my own proposal for how to solve the issue, and see how it stacks up.

Concerns About A Playoff (Opponents)

• Value and novelty of historic bowl games is reduced by a playoff.
• It would detract from the players' ability to be a student, running into valuable time needed to study.
• (Unstated) There is a lot of money tied up in the BCS, and people who profit off of it don't want a change.
• A playoff diminishes the quality of regular season games. They mean less if a team can lose and still compete for the national title.
• It would subject players to undue risk. By playing another game or two, they may be jeopardizing their NFL careers. 

Support for a Playoff (Proponents)

• The BCS National Championship Game may, or may not, feature a match-up between the two most deserving teams. It is based on subjective rankings.
• The only fair way to settle things is on the field. Utah went undefeated last year, but Florida was the National Champion. Both beat Alabama convincingly. Both didn't play each other.
• The BCS screens certain teams out, but not in an explicit fashion. Strength of schedule and conference are built into some of the computer rankings, as well as some voters minds.
• Every other major sport has a tournament or playoff to determine a champion.

Placating The Detractors

One of the most frequent arguments that you hear against a playoff is that it will make the regular season games meaningless, but this just doesn't seem to be the case. College basketball is touted as an example - and admittedly, regular season games in college basketball don't mean a whole lot. However, college basketball also accepts 65 teams into its tournament field, which means that a team could theoretically go close to 0.500 and still make the bracket. However, a college football tournament would likely only accept 16 teams at most, and more than likely less than that. Even assuming a worst-case-scenario with 16 teams in a playoff, that only amounts to 13% of the eligible teams, or about one out of every eight teams.

If you structure the playoff format right, regular season games will still have meaning. For instance, if you had to win a conference, or have a maximum number of losses, this would keep the meaning in regular season games alive. Any playoff format that I propose below will need to account for meaningful regular season games. I think some games could wind up having more meaning, especially in conferences that don't have a lot of clout, as teams battle for positioning for a playoff berth.

Imagine if TCU and Utah were duking it out for a playoff spot. Wouldn't that make for a great game?

To talk about a playoff being a bad thing for the players is completely absurd. First, the players want a playoff too, and at a greater margin than the fans. According to the graph I posted at the start, 69% of fans in 2007 wanted a playoff format. Before the 2009 season, ESPN Magazine surveyed 85 FBS players. 75% of those players wanted a playoff in college football. What player wouldn't want to be on a huge stage like a college football playoff game, fighting for a championship on national television? Furthermore, even a 16 team playoff would only have four rounds, and only 8 teams in college football would have to play an "extra game" beyond what they already do. Plus, the ESPN survey suggests that the players are willing to sacrifice playing in an extra game or two. 

As far as the money aspect and bowl games go, I think that people could make enormous profits off of a college football playoff. I would argue that most people don't watch meaningless bowl games unless they have some vested interest in the game (like they are a fan of one of the two teams playing), or it just happens to be on TV. A playoff would create so much more meaning and interest. The old bowl games could remain, and in fact could even be embedded in the playoff format. While I do agree that a playoff would diminish the stature of historic bowl games, I  think that bowl games are an outdated way of thinking. Still, to address everyone's concerns, I'll have to try and figure out a way to incorporate the historic bowl games into my playoff format.

Avoiding "Over-Doing" The Playoff

Obviously (if you couldn't tell from my tone so far), I am a supporter of a college football playoff. While I agree with a lot of the arguments for a playoff, we need to make sure we propose ideas that are in moderation, and that can gain some popular support.

First, the playoff has to be kept to a reasonable size. I've heard some people say we should just cut the season short and seed all of the teams into a giant tournament. I don't think that this would ever fly, nor would a 64-team or 32-team playoff. While the BCS rankings clearly favor certain teams and certain conferences, they may be useful for selecting "wild card" teams beyond just conference champions. We can address this in my proposal, but there is potential for the actual BCS rankings to still be useful. 

While it would be interesting to just take a certain number of the highest ranked teams and let them play, that would almost certainly diminish the meaning of a regular season in college football. The one way that almost seems to guarantee meaningful regular season games would be a conference champion format, in which conference champions are granted a berth in the playoff.

Of course, the argument then is that teams will just schedule "cream puffs" for their non-conference schedule, but I honestly don't see how that's any different than what occurs now. This season, Florida had a joke of a non-conference schedule. Teams that contend year-in and year-out tend to schedule weak opponents for the non-con schedule because they don't want to "get eliminated early". Actually, I think that scheduling better non-conference games would occur more often with a playoff system based around conference champions. If all that matters is your conference record, teams would be more willing to schedule high-profile non-con games to test the grit of their team, get them ready for the conference slate, and prepare them for an eventual playoff game. Imagine a Texas vs. Florida match-up in the Swamp the first week of the season, because neither team would be affected by a loss. Wouldn't that be great?

Constructing The Playoff

There are a few themes that recurred when I was discussing how to compromise: (1) conference champions getting berths is important, (2) no more than 16 teams in a playoff, ideally less, (3) find a way to incorporate high-profile bowl games into the playoff, and maintain their integrity.

People have talked at length about making individual playoff games actually be bowl games that are rotated so that each bowl will have a chance to be the "national championship game". I actually think that the bowl games should be played at the outset of the playoff, and that the winners of those bowl games would "qualify" for the playoff. Think of it like this: some procedure is in place to select a pool of eligible teams (conference champions, ranking, etc.). Once those teams are determined, they are seeded into different BCS Bowls and they play each other. The winners advance, and are re-seeded into a playoff bracket. 

Principle:  BCS bowl games will be played in Mid December, and the winners will be re-seeded into the final playoff bracket. The playoff games would be played at pre-determined venues, likely large NFL stadiums.

This way, the bowl games still have their clout, and the winners - the truly deserving teams - will advance to the playoff bracket and play for a national championship in addition to their bowl championship.

There are 11 conferences in the FBS and then there are some Independents like Notre Dame and Navy. Eleven conference champions is an awkward number and makes it difficult to seed them properly. Furthermore, there are only four current BCS bowl games, which would tailor itself nicely to an 8-team playoff (well, actually a 4-team playoff with an 8-team qualifying round). Here's how I think you can get around that. Make it a 12 team playoff with bye rounds after the qualifier (similar to the NFL playoffs). You give every conference a shot to have a champion qualify. However, I don't think that conference champions with terrible records should be accepted either. 

Principle:  Add two bowl games that are prestigious to the ranks of the BCS Bowls. I nominate the Cotton Bowl and the Gator Bowl. This gives a total of 6 BCS Bowls (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, Gator).

Principle:  After the 12 teams that were seeded into the BCS Bowls have played, and 6 teams remain, the highest ranked teams should get a bye. This rewards teams for superb performances in the regular season.

Principle:  While conference champions should get as many slots as possible (11/12), there should be some sort of "cut off" to determine champions that don't deserve to qualify.

Principle:  Remaining teams should be the "best of the rest". 

With those core principles, let's set a standard list of rules, and see how it applies to the 2008 season.

The Dishingoutdimes Playoff System

(1)  Conference champions shall get an automatic berth to one of six BCS Bowls if they have no more than 2 losses.

(2a)  Conference champions shall still qualify if they have more than 2 losses, but are ranked at least 16th in the final regular season BCS standings.

(2b)  The highest ranked Independent team (no conference affiliation) can qualify if they have no more than 2 losses and are at least #16 in the final regular season BCS standings.

(3)  Remaining spots can be filled by play-in games comprised of conference champions that failed to meet the first two criteria. If there is an even number of teams, those teams will play each other in a play-in game at one of the team's stadium. This pool of ineligible conference champions will be ranked in order of number of losses, and ties will be broken by BCS standings. The highest ranked ineligible champion will be hosting the lowest ranked, and so on. If there are an odd number of teams, the lowest ranked team will be thrown out, and the same procedure will be followed again. If just one conference champion is ineligible, then there shall not be a play-in game. These games will be played in the week immediately following the regular season.

(4)  The number of qualified conference champions, in addition to the number of play-in games, shall be subtracted from 12 to determine the number of wild card teams. These wild card teams will be selected in order of BCS ranking in the final regular season standings, with the highest ranked team being the first selected, and so on, until 12 teams are achieved.

(5)  Automatic conference champion qualifiers, and wild cards, will be seeded into BCS Bowl games immediately following the regular season based on the final BCS rankings. If teams are unranked, then number of losses will be the tiebreaker. There will be pre-determined matchups, such as #1 vs. #12. These matchups will rotate among the bowls in a 6-year cycle. Play-in winners will be seeded in behind all of the other teams, after their games are finished, and will follow the same procedure as above.

(6)  Winners of the bowl games will be re-seeded into a playoff following the week of bowl games. The two teams with the highest final regular season BCS ranking will be rewarded with a bye in the opening playoff round. The winner of the #3 vs. #6 game (played at stadium A) will play the #2 team (also at stadium A), and the winner of the #4 vs. #5 game (played at stadium B) will play the #1 team (also at stadium B).

(7)  After two teams remain, they will face off in a national championship game, at a pre-determined venue.

Here's An Example:  2008

Sorry if that seems complicated, but hopefully this example will help clear things up. The season ended on December 6, 2008 and the final BCS rankings were released on December 7, 2008. The following teams were conference champions with 2 or less regular season losses:

Oklahoma (12-1, Big 12), Penn State (11-1, Big 10), Cincinnati (11-2, Big East), Utah (12-0, MWC), Ball State (12-1, MAC), USC (11-1, Pac 10), Florida (12-1, SEC), Boise State (12-0, WAC)

This means that eight teams qualified as conference champions automatically. No independents had two losses or less. There are three conference champions remaining, which is an odd number. Virginia Tech was 9-4 (ACC), Tulsa was 10-3 (CUSA), and Troy was 8-4 (Sun Belt). Since Tulsa has the least number of losses, they will host the play-in game. Virginia Tech was ranked #19 in the final BCS standings, and Troy was unranked, so Virginia Tech will travel to Tulsa.

Virginia Tech plays at Tulsa in a play-in game on December 13, 2008

In the meantime, there are three spots remaining for the playoff. The three highest ranked teams in the BCS standings that aren't conference champions will get these spots. These teams are:

Texas (#3), Alabama (#4), and Texas Tech (#7) qualify.

Seeding begins for the bowl games, which will be played Saturday, December 20, 2008.

Rose Bowl: Oklahoma (#1 BCS) vs. winner of play-in game (Tulsa or Va Tech(#19))
Sugar Bowl:  Florida (#2 BCS) vs.  Ball State (#22 BCS)
Orange Bowl:  Texas (#3 BCS) vs. Cincinnati (#12 BCS)
Fiesta Bowl:  Alabama (#4 BCS) vs.  Boise State (#9 BCS)
Gator Bowl:  USC (#5 BCS) vs. Penn State (#8 BCS)
Cotton Bowl:  Utah (#6 BCS) vs. Texas Tech (#7 BCS)

At this point I started flipping a coin to produce a random winner, and illustrate some points. Virginia Tech beats Tulsa in the play-in game, and the winners of the bowl games are: Oklahoma, Ball State (even though that would probably not happen), Cincinnati, Boise State, USC, and Utah. These teams would then be re-seeded based on their BCS rankings:

From highest to lowest: Oklahoma, USC, Utah, Boise State, Cincinnati, Ball State.
1-seed Oklahoma will play the winner of 3-seed Utah vs. 6-seed Ball State in a regional bracket at Stadium A.
2-seed USC will play the winner of 4-seed Boise State vs. 5-seed Cincinnati in a regional bracket at Stadium B.

The 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 games would be played 10 days after the initial bowl games to allow teams time for travel and preparation. In this case, those quarterfinal games would be played on Tuesday, December 30, 2008. Similarly, the semifinal games would be played another 10 days after the quarterfinals, or on Friday, January 9, 2009. This winds up being only a day later than the national championship game was anyways. The National Championship game would be played on the next Saturday that is a minimum of 7 days in the future. In this case, the national championship game would be played on Saturday, January 17, 2009.

Coin flips again as a random winner generator produce a Utah-Oklahoma semi-final that Oklahoma wins, and a USC-Boise State semi-final that USC wins. The national championship game will be played at Stadium C, and it will feature USC vs. Oklahoma.

Analysis

In the 2008 example, the playoff only extended the season by 9 days, and that extension was only for two teams. It gave opportunities for teams to settle the championship on  the field. For the most part, if you were a conference champion, you are given ample opportunity to qualify for the playoff. The worst conference champion will always be left out, unless all conference champions perform at such a high level that none of them have less than 2 losses. 

The playoff system places a demand on the regular season and teams to win their conference championships. Every regular season game is therefore important. You can see that usually about 3 or 4 teams will get wild card berths, leaving some margin for error in the regular season. However, losing a conference title to someone else will effectively end national championship hopes for most teams. There is an avenue for Independent teams to automatically qualify as well, without being catered to Notre Dame. If Notre Dame, Navy, or Army can compile a season with only 0, 1 or 2 losses, and be ranked higher than #16, I would say they deserve to be in the playoff.

I tried to incorporate major BCS Bowls into the playoff, giving them far more clout than any of the other meaningless bowl games. The other bowl games could still go on, but they would be consolation prizes for anyone not lucky enough to win a conference, or be nearly perfect (like Texas in 2008). 

With that, I think I'm done, although I'll quickly touch on the money aspect of things. I think that you could give BCS-esque payouts to the conferences or Independent teams who have teams qualify for the round of 6. There could be reduced payments for appearing in one of the 6 BCS Bowl games. This would actually help increase parity in college football, as some of the smaller conferences could get huge payouts if they qualify for the playoff.

The scenario presented above was "random". In all likelihood you'll get huge matchups in the playoffs. Imagine a Florida-Texas and Oklahoma-Alabama semi-final round. Imagine all of the hype and viewership for games like that! At the same time, Cinderella teams could still dance their way all the way to the crystal football. Most importantly, this system gives everyone a fair shake without diminishing the regular season or having too large of a field.