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Playoffs?- Yes I’m talking about playoffs

Written by Michael Hoffman, Online Editor

    What’s that?  Ah—playoffs?  Don’t talk about—playoffs?!  You kidding me?!  Playoffs?!

   Former Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora may get pretty pissed off at me, but that is exactly what I am going to talk about.  Rest assured Jim, I’m not going to talk about the NFL playoffs like you seemed to have such as distaste to talk about because the NFL playoffs are perfectly fine just the way they are.  The NFL’s little brother, college football, however, needs a little talking to about playoffs.

   The discussion has come up over and over again about whether College Football should keep the BCS system it has or whether it should crossover to the more popular playoff format.  The debate has been intense over the past ten years so for the past ten years the BCS has survived, however, what happened Sunday night may very well be the death of the BCS.

   Here’s a recap of what happened leading up to Sunday night.  The previous week, the BCS standings came out with the top six including LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Houston in that order.  Of the six, experts agreed that only four of them had any chance whatsoever of making it to the championship game (LSU, Bama, Okie State and Houston).  Additionally, since Houston isn’t in a Big six conference, their only hope was for anarchy to ensue so we’ll cross them out.  Experts and fans across the nation also agreed that the only way for Okie State to make it to the Championship game was for them to convincingly beat Oklahoma in their final game.  The stage was set.

   Saturday came along, and as Bama lost its division race to LSU, they got to watch the games unfold from the comfort of their sofas.  The games started at noon, and by one o’clock it was already a foregone conclusion that Houston had blown its chance as it was already down 42-21 in the fourth quarter.  After Houston completes their disappointing loss to Southern Miss., they are officially out of the mix leaving it up to LSU, Bama and Okie State.  LSU is the next team to start its game, and it’s looking bad for the Tigers as they are losing in the SEC championship to Georgia.  Some people begin to ponder what would happen if LSU loses.  Would they still get to play in the National Championship game?  Spoiler alert, LSU scores 42 unanswered points to win the game 42-10 and complete its perfect season.  So there’s one ticket punched to the National Championship. 

   It all comes down to Okie State now, we should think.  If they do anything other than earn a convincing win against their rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners, they will not be going to the national Championship game.  Their season is on the line and…they play by far their best game of the year to dominate Oklahoma by the score of 44-10.  Alabama is already in the club house with a -12 score.  It’s as if Okie State just sunk a 70 foot Eagle putt to tie the tournament up at -12.  Who do you pick in that situation if there is no playoff?  The smart thing for the BCS to do would be to pick the team who had just sunk the metaphorical Eagle putt, right?

   Although, 80 percent of Sportsnation agrees with that statement, the BCS, for some reason didn’t.  They stupidly decided on a rematch of a 9-6 game that LSU won earlier in the season at Bama over an explosive team that did everything right and who, by the way, hadn’t already lost to LSU earlier this season.  Moreover, they chose a team who didn’t even play for its conference championship over a team who won its conference championship, a team who had went two and one versus the three ranked teams it played all year versus a team who went 5-0 versus ranked teams and a team that had just played in the National Championship two years ago over a team that had never played in a National Championship.  COME ON MAN!!!

All of this, and I haven’t even mentioned the even greater mistake that the BCS made Sunday night when it announced the bowl schedule.  Scanning down the BCS games, one sees LSU vs. Bama (terrible but not quite apocalyptic), Oklahoma State vs. Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl (Wow, this should be an amazing game), Oregon vs. Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl (Good, the classic Big 10 Pac 12 matchup), West Virginia vs. Clemson in the Orange Bowl (Well…the BCS was obligated to put these two teams in the BCS.  Someone from the Big East and ACC had to make it.) and Michigan vs. Virginia Tech??? What’s that?  Ah—Virginia Tech?  Don’t talk about—Virginia Tech?!  You kidding me?!  Virginia Tech?!  Do you mean that same Virginia Tech who played one ranked team all year, Clemson (twice) and got beaten down in both games similar to the 62-7 whooping New Orleans put on the Colts in the NFL earlier this year?  Oh, I think I see it better now, BCS.  You meant to pencil in a K-a-n-s-a-s  S-t-a-t-e  or a B-o-i-s-e  S-t-a-t-e  and you just accidentally spelled it V-i-r-g-i-n-i-a  T-e-c-h.  No, you’re seriously telling me you did not make a syntax error on that one?  Huhhhhh.

   If the BCS’ first mistake of the night was a stab in its back, its second mistake was surely attempted suicide and probably a legitimate suicide at that.  As a result of those two major gaffes, the BCS has put the final nails in its coffin.  It was a bad run, but yeah, as I was saying it was a bad run.  The BCS has screwed up College Football too many times in its fourteen year history, and enough is finally enough.  After the Big 12 threatens to sue the BCS this year for conference discrimination, as it rightfully should, (I mean it was only rated by none other than the BCS itself to be the best conference in the country.  Then the BCS goes ahead and screws the Big 12 over on the two accounts.  If I was the BCS and my system had chosen a specific conference as the best conference, I would certainly put a team from that conference in the National Championship or at the very least reward that conference by giving it two BCS teams like the BCS gave the inferior SEC, Pac 12, Big 10 and ACC.)  I’m just saying that that might have been the less suicidal option, but hey, I’m not complaining.  We’ve finally got ourselves a (Jim Mora in the background screaming at the top of his lungs, “Don’t say what I’m thinking you are going to say.”) playoff!!!

   To celebrate a much improved new system I’ll show you how a 12 team playoff system would have panned out had the BCS been ousted before this year like it should have been.  (Top four conference champions get a first round bye in this system, the other two don’t and the remaining six are the six highest ranked at large teams.  No conference can enter more than three teams.)

Week 1: LSU, OSU, Oregon and Wisconsin receive byes

Game 1: Boise State vs. Kansas State (two snubs)

Game 2: Alabama vs. West Virginia (Possible blow-out but still worth watching)

Game 3: Arkansas vs. Clemson (Which team is overrated?)

Game 4: Stanford vs. Baylor (Battle of the Heisman trophy finalists)

Week 2:

Game 1: LSU vs. Boise State/K-State (The snubs get their chance at the “best team in the country”)

Game 2: Wisconsin vs. Alabama/WVU (Assuming Bama beats WVU, what an amazing matchup)

Game 3: Oregon vs. Arkansas/Clemson (Oregon will finally get a shot to beat a great team that isn’t called Stanford)

Game 4: OSU vs. Stanford/Baylor (Another great quarterback matchup awaits no matter what)

 Week 3:

Game 1: LSU/BSU/K-State vs. Wisconsin/Alabama/WVU (There is a possibility that you would see the current National Championship game between LSU and Alabama, only this way it would be earned and wouldn’t guarantee the SEC a National Championship because this is only the Semi’s)

Game 2: Oregon/Arkansas/Clemson vs. OSU/Stanford/Baylor (This side is as wide open as it gets.  Any one of these teams has a shot to make it to the National Championship Game.)

Week 4: National Championship Game (For the first time ever, college football would have an undisputed National Championship.)