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Oscar McBride's "Oh... by the way." Blog
Play-off System Needed in Division 1-A
Written by Oscar McBride on January, 10th 2008
If there was ever a time that the aforementioned statement is relevant it’s right now. The 2007 college football season didn’t fail to deliver all of the excitement and intensity that each and every viewer around the country expected. No one knew what to expect each week. Underdogs played like champions and champions didn’t play, especially if you held the number two ranking at any time during the season. What the 2007 season didn’t deliver was a true national champion.... at least in my opinion.
Let’s take the recently crowned National Champion LSU Tigers for example. The Bayou Bengals had a season of roller coaster performances, diamond studded with near misses against lesser opponents and ultimately defeated by average SEC football teams Kentucky and Arkansas. Not to say that both Kentucky and Arkansas won’t have several first day draft picks in this year’s 2008 draft, they just don’t have the depth at each position and by no means should have been in the game with a “National Champion-caliber” team like LSU. Agreed? Of course you do.
Secondly, America’s darling the USC Trojans (my personal favorite). At any given time this season there could have been an argument made that the Men of Troy were one of the best teams ever assembled in college football... HOWEVER, with an a horrible home performance against the Cardinal of Stanford (whom Notre Dame even beat on the road) and a road loss at Oregon, I find it a bit difficult to say that the mighty Trojans are best in the land. Got it? Of course you do.
Moving to the Southeastern Conference we have the beasts between the hedges... the Georgia Bulldogs. This young team was viewed by many as the best college football team in the nation the latter part of the season. Starting four true freshmen, all named to the freshman All-American team, anyone can make a case for the Bulldogs, right? But what about their short-comings in 2007? They too had let downs against a below average South Carolina team and was all but humiliated against the Volunteers of Tennessee and let’s not forget to mention the squeaker they pulled out against Vandy as time expired. ‘Nuf said.
Whew!!! That’s a lot of information. What should we do with it? The answer seems to be cut and dried from where I sit. We need a 3 game play-off system that would involve the top six BCS teams at the end of the season. The number one team would play number six, number two would play five and three would play four. After the first round the team that remains with the highest ranking would then get a bye into the National Championship game (I know it seems a bit skewed, but this is the only way to avoid adding more teams and extending the season even longer). After the lower two and three that remain play, their winner would then play (in a week and a half) in the National Championship Game against the current number one. How’s that? NCAA officials if you’re listening, I’m talking to you!
For what it’s worth, I believe we are about 2 years away from having a play-off system in division 1-A. Obviously there should be more research done regarding injuries and academics in relation to extending the football season into later January. I just find it hard to believe that it’s taken this long to institute... can you say “inevitable?” For now, the LSU Tigers reign supreme over the land as College football’s number one team. I’m sure Georgia has their own thoughts about who is number one. I know USC believes otherwise, and somewhere in West Virginia Pat White is licking his chops to get a hold of that LSU defense.
Unfortunately, we’ll never know... at least not in 2007-2008.