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Please. Give me a Playoff
Published: 12/2/2007 7:39 PM
Last Modified: 12/2/2007 7:39 PM

I really don't have a big problem with the Ohio State vs. LSU showdown for the national title.
Those two teams are just as deserving as any of those in contention for the game.
But I could make a good case for Oklahoma and USC, too.
Again, a playoff would eliminate some of the grumbling.
However, even a four-team playoff wouldn't solve the mess this season has created. USC wouldn't be included.
The Trojans would be out at No. 7 while the Sooners barely get in at No. 4. More than a few people believe OU and USC are the best teams.
However, for what the BCS is, Ohio State and LSU are fine.
But there are better ways to do this.
This has been extraordinarily strange season. But, usually, just a plus-one game would work. Put the top four teams in a couple of bowl games and then a week later play for the title.
That's not perfect., There would be plenty of teams deserving. Still, an actual playoff between four teams is far better than the current system.
The computers and some voters select two teams and that's college football's playoff.
It really doesn't seem like it would be so difficult to fix.



Reader Comments 22 Total
T. Bone (5 years ago)

Right on John. The BCS games seem to have less meaning this year than in the past. Really do not care who wins as it has really lost a chance to crown a Mytiical National Champion outright.
Blair (5 years ago)
John, 16 teams, conference winners get in, six at-large. The top-10 is in every year and we can see who the best team in the country actually is.
Croth (5 years ago)
The 6 "major" conference winners and 2 at-large teams should play off using the bowl system.....that's 2 extra rounds and just 2 more games for the winner. The at-large spots would accomodate the Hawaii-type teams. This year we would have OU,LSU, W.Va., Ohio St., USC, Va. Tech, with Hawaii and Georgia as at-large teams. "Final 4" could be OU, LSU, Va. Tech, and USC......fun or what?
Croth (5 years ago)
The 6 "major" conference winners and 2 at-large teams should play off using the bowl system.....that's 2 extra rounds and just 2 more games for the winner. The at-large spots would accomodate the Hawaii-type teams. This year we would have OU,LSU, W.Va., Ohio St., USC, Va. Tech, with Hawaii and Georgia as at-large teams. "Final 4" could be OU, LSU, Va. Tech, and USC......fun or what?
Lilgeneral (5 years ago)
This is a simplicty approach but why not form a 16-Team bracket made up of the top 16 teams as ranked by the Coach's poll and ESPN rankings?

One could go back to the original 10 game season and then start the playoff system. Isn't OU, LSU playing a 14 game schedule this year?
Blair (5 years ago)
Croth, no way. Non-BCS must be included. Get rid of the BCS monopoly and open the door to Cinderella in football. The BCS mentality is a inflaming and ignorant.
Bryan G (5 years ago)
12 teams -- just the conference champ from each Division I conference -- 1 at large. If you don't win your conference then you don't get in. This would make the regular season mean EVERYTHING, and the debate over whether you have a conference championship or not is moot.

Top 4 teams get a bye week 1 (Based on BCS rankings???). Even the MAC and the WAC and the other smaller conferences are given their shot (hey, it may give your second-team a chance to play the first week). In 4 weeks you have a championship game.

I'll bet that the networks would bid this thing up to over $150 million for the whole package....play the championship game in the dead week before the Super Bowl.

All the "Poor Sistes of Charity" Bowls can still go on between 6-6, 7-5 and 8-4 teams. They will still draw about what they draw now (yeeeeaaaaa, we're going to Tempe). But let the champion be decided, not appointed.
Frank B. (5 years ago)
All conference champs plus an at large team should be in a regional playoff. The existing bowls could be the sites for the play-in games. Some schools already play 14 games so the argument that too much time away from class is not valid. Playoffs work in blackball and the lower divisions so why wouldn't they work in the highest division? Get us a playoff so there will be a tru champion instead of one decided by the coaches, computers and media!!!
LP (5 years ago)
I think we have seen just last week that the voting is biased based on the Bowden's and Schnellenberger's votes. The current system is a clear display of quantity of cash mentality vs the reason the game is played. Settle it on the field.
sam mccoy (5 years ago)
John, were you one of the five, out of eleven, tulsa sportswriters that picked Missouri to win the Big 12 championship? why have'nt any of these guys admitted it in any of their articles or blogs?
Harry Willis (5 years ago)
It is dirt simple. Take the 12 conference champions plus 4 at large teams. Seed them. Play it off. Use the current bowls as game sites. All the other bowls select from the remaining bowl eligible teams.
Harry Willis (5 years ago)
It is dirt simple. Take the 12 conference champions plus 4 at large teams. Seed them. Play it off. Use the current bowls as game sites. All the other bowls select from the remaining bowl eligible teams.
RJ (5 years ago)
It would be great but the paying public is not smart enough to not let the power people control them and get rich at it. Simple - boycott these meaningless bowl games and the worthless early regular-season games and demand a playoff. Impose your will!!!
RJ (5 years ago)
It would be great but the paying public is not smart enough to not let the power people control them and get rich at it. Simple - boycott these meaningless bowl games and the worthless early regular-season games and demand a playoff. Impose your will!!!
RJ (5 years ago)
It would be great but the paying public is not smart enough to not let the power people control them and get rich at it. Simple - boycott these meaningless bowl games and the worthless early regular-season games and demand a playoff. Impose your will!!!
RJ (5 years ago)
It would be great but the paying public is not smart enough to not let the power people control them and get rich at it. Simple - boycott these meaningless bowl games and the worthless early regular-season games and demand a playoff. Impose your will!!!
Greg (5 years ago)
A plus-one game would end some grumbling; and that would be great.

I would much prefer the current Bowl system over a silly playoff that exculdes the current reward system.

The Div1-AA playoff is a shame that excludes some conferences and takes an inordinate number from only a few "deserving" conferences.

Besides, with the bowl system you get to write about three local teams in bowls, versus writing repeatedly about one team that advances in a playoff; if any local teams got in, and if they advanced.

I fail to see any real benefit to a playoff system beyond a plus-one game.
christopher s turpin (5 years ago)
Hello John
This is in response to the article you wrote on December 2 of this year about a College football playoff.
I am the President of a Company called GiveMeAPlayoff(dot)com, LLC.
We not only agree that there should be a playoff but have but one together at wwwgivemeaplayoff(dot)com.
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Weeks 2-4 includes a 5 bowl rotation(rose, orange, sugar, fiesta and cotton). Week 2(The Exceptional Eight(TM))has the teams playing in 4 of the above sites. The 5th Bowl site will host the semi-finals(FAN-tastic Four) with a game played in the morning and another at night. The winners stay and the losers go home. The following week that same venue hosts THE MAJOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP(TM)(MCF CHAMPIONSHIP(TM)).
This is a WIN!!!WIN!!!WIN!!! for everyone.
The FANS get a TRUE CHAMPION.
THE SCHOOLS and CONFERENCES get a Zillion Dollars.
The MEDIA has two weeks of incredible hype, excitement and stability.
The Smart NETWORK has a Bonanza of Advertisers spending Hundreds of Millions throughout the 4 weeks.
The COACHES have job stability, win your conference and you’re in, along with bringing millions to your program.
The PLAYERS win with The Major College Football Graduation Program(TM).
The BOWL SYSTEM stays intact, we even subsidize the non-playoff bowls.
The Local CHARITIES benefit from our charitable donations.
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David (5 years ago)
I don't know why Hawaii isn't playing for the title. They are the only undefeated team and they beat Boise State (remember them OU fans)so I think that they have earned a chance to play for the #1 spot. I am not a fan of Hawaii but thier quarterback got robbed of the heisman.We will see who makes it farther in the pro's.
jerry runyan (5 years ago)
What about conference champions currently on NCAA probation? Do these teams deserve to participate in a playoff?
Danny Jacks (5 years ago)
I agree with the four team playoff. That has been my suggestion ever since the inception of the BCS. The very idea that a few goons (biased sports writers, biased coaches) will determine the two teams that will play for the national title is nuts!
Sure, on a rare occaision you will have teams ranked outside of the top four screaming that they deserve a shot. But that will be only rare occaisions like exists this year. I dont see how any team that cant even muster enough support and respect to get a top four ranking could possibly have a legitimate claim that they are the top team in the nation.
All I hear from the powers that be is "not enough time" "will interfere with the tradition of the bowls" etc. etc. I say BULL!
How the heck can they claim that there is not enough time for a playoff when Ohio State will be having what? 51 days between their last game and the title game? Thats NUTS! All it would require is back to back game being held at the same venue. They already do that , look at Tempe Arizona, New Orleans etc. #1vs#4 and #2vs#3, then winner vs winner for the title. Simple as can be. Easy fix to the problem!

One more thing. Am I the only one who thinks that Les Miles is the biggest fraud to ever hot NCAA football? Did NOTHING with OSU, not even the big 12 south. Now with Nick Saban's players (17 senior starters), the media is trying to gift wrap a national title and hand it to him? He better get it done now. He will NEVER have an oppertunity to even get close after these players graduate and he will have his own recruits.
Bonefish (5 years ago)
Unless you and your fellow writers and commentators really think you are bring pressure to bear which will alter the current system, it seems that you could find more pertinent things to write about. The media is filled with what appears to be the sports equivalent of "beating an extremely dead horse". Surely there is something in the sporting world which could more productively be reported on.
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Tulsa World senior sports columnist John Klein is in his fourth decade of covering sports. He started his newspaper career at The Daily Ardmoreite in 1977 and moved to the Tulsa World in 1978. He served 10 years as sports editor for the Tulsa World before being named to his current position in 2005. He also spent five years as the Southwest Conference beat writer for the Houston Post. He has won many writing awards and is a former Oklahoma Sports Writer of the Year.

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