I am going to be writing most of this post about the championships, bowl and postseason play in NCAA (National College Athletics Association) football in the FBS (Football Bowl Schools) level of college football. However, I want to say first that I am really looking forward to the NFL (National Football League) playoffs and Superbowl. I hope the Saints take it all and it means quite a bit to me. But here is my proposal for the NCAA Football National Championship.
So Here is my Twelve point plan:
First, I understand the outreach going on as the Big Twelve takes in the TCU teams and the PAC Ten may become the PAC Twelve. That these conferences are trying to be responsible citizens and preserve the BCS and they should be recognized for their efforts. A small percentage of all revenues from the BCS should provide a Bowl Heritage Foundation and raise funds to integrate not only traditional conferences but also build showcases for traditional sponsors even while giving top billing to the new corporate sponsors. A Commissioner for this BHF should be among the top directors of the reformed BCS system.
Second, the NCAA should require all conferences to have a conference championship within a thirteen day period and this thirteen day period should be the official NCAA Tournament for which they will keep records.
Third, during the this thirteen day period the NCAA should host six wild card bowls. The NCAA should contract with the thirty or so college bowl which are not BCS bowls to help promote them and share in a small percentage of their income every year with the agreement that they will shift off their regular schedule about every third to tenth year averaging one fifth of all years to host one of six wild card games to be held during the thirteen day tournament. Within that range of years some bowls could host more or less often. If possible, the NCAA will contract with them to have eight bowls available to change each year with two falling back to their normal date. That way those bowls that can be used in a game with their traditional conferences would get their rotation on such a year as that.
Fourth, the NCAA and the BCS should come up with a plan in which BCS official rankings form half the points and an NCAA ranking forms half the points by which teams are ranked. The twelve teams with the highest rank which are not playing for the Conference Championships will get bids to the six wild card bowls.
Fifth, the NCAA shall not schedule two BCS member conference teams against another such untill all outside conference teams have played against BCS teams. The NCAA will also host a Consolation Bowl each year for the two most deserving teams which have lost their bowl to a wild card game and did not make it into the National Championship Series. This shall be in the same place every year. They would host the Consolation Bowl each year and share revenues with the thirty bowl systems they would have joined with and they would also host a Contention Game the same weekend that would pit the highest ranked team that lost its conference championship against the most dominant wild card winner. At the end of these games the NCAA would issue an official letter and trophy to all conference champions and runners-up, all wild card contenders and its two bowl winners and contenders. It would also record teams that had beaten the BCS conference teams at this level and conferences that had.
Sixth, the BCS would agree to a temporary and relatively minor portion revenue sharing plan with schools and conferences which best the BCS in the NCAA tournament in the year following such a win. The BCS will also allow for ranking the member conferences in its quality of conferences and their power rankings. teams would earn more credit for beating a higher ranked team.
Seventh, the BCS would have a short period to announce whether this would be a no new rung, two rung or three rung play- off year depending on how well first and second place teams distinguished themselves from the rest. In a three rung play-off game year the first and second ranked teams would have a bye and two of the BCS Bowls would host play off games while the other two were traditional bowls and the BCS would have an extra BCS National Championship Game later in the year with the NCAA co-hosting. These years the other two would still follow the conference structure. The first and second teams would play the winners of a third and sixth game and a fourth and fifth place game which would be held by the BCS unless contenders happened to come from the conferences which were leftover from the NCAA’s eight teams available for flexible service that year. In a two rung year two BCS Bowls would host play-off games and two would play in structure and the BCS would hold a National Championship Game and the NCAA would join in hosting it. In other years the system would proceed as it does now with the game being hosted by the Bowl whose turn it was to host the Championship.
Eighth, the NCAA and the BCS would have a joint standards committee which would publish in detail the differences necessary to trigger each of the types of championships. This committee would join the BCS in announcing the points each team had at each rank in the top ten when the end of the year was announced.
Ninth, the BCS Conferences and their bowls and the NCAA’s selection of Senior class bowls (such as the Cotton Bowl) would also work with the development of bowl tradition among schools and conferences which may produce good teams but have not built up the bowl tradition and would also seek to preserve their own bowls. All thirty would contribute a small part of their revenue to the NCAA Football Bowl Heritage Foundation.
Tenth, power rankings used by the NCAA system would have a computer part in which real consequences from the previous years wildcard and bowl games would affect conference ratings within limits. There would also be a rating derived from other factors of course. But this would be a scrutinized part of the special NCAA published system.
Eleventh, there would be a standard of deviation by rankings. However, the wildcard games would normally be eight BCS Conference Teams and four non BCS conference teams which would be the structure into which things would fall when there was conflict in the rankings. But where things were clear on the points the top twelve not playing for the championship would be the only issue. There would also be a carry-over from the previous year. These things would control rank splits which were less than some minimum level of difference for example they would decide instead of points where there was a score of 126.006 and 126.01 but how far above that such a tendency would play out could be decided in a lot of good ways.
Twelfth, if a single conference not in the BCS wins the championship three times in ten years then they should be brought into the BCS. If two new conferences join then the weakest conference might be asked to leave.
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