Why would a "plus one" system not make nearly everyone happy?
Go back to the bowl system that existed before all of this BCS garbage started.
1. - Personally, I would love to get rid of half of the "minor" bowl games that hardly anybody outside of the two teams playing in them care anything at all about. I would also raise the number of wins for bowl eligibility to be 7. I might even require bowl eligible teams to have at least a .500 winning percentage in their conference.
Whatever bowl games, in actuality, are about today, they SHOULD be about rewarding excellence and a season well-played, not mediocrity. At the very least, a team should have won more games on their schedule than they lost. Getting a bowl bid after winning only half of your games overall or winning less than half of your conference games is almost like getting a ribbon for participation.
I realize that getting rid of bowls and upping the requirements for bowl eligibility aren't gonna happen, because its all about the money nowadays, so I won't be holding my breath on that. That's not important in determining a national champion anyway, so I can live with it.
2. - Go back to the old bowl alliances: B1G and Pac 12 in the Rose Bowl EVERY year, Big 12 champ to the Orange Bowl, etc. etc. The SEC goes to the Sugar Bowl??? Is that correct?
3. - All Bowl games must be played not later than January 1st and only the traditional January 1st bowl games will play on January 1st. Back to having major bowl games, and only major bowl games, on New Year's Day from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed.
4. - After all of the bowls have played out, a final round of voting is made (you could even keep the current sytem used by the BCS if you wanted to) and THEN the two top teams are identified.
5. - Seven to ten to fourteen days after January 1st, the two top teams would meet at a neutral location (maybe they could even find a location equidistant from and/or between both schools) to play the National Championship game. Personally, I would wait two weeks and play the NC games around January 15th. This would give the teams some extra time to heal up from the long season and do some in depth game planning. This would also give the fan bases some time to rebound from the bowls and make travel plans.
How does that not make all parties involved (fans, schools, bowls, media) happy, or at least content? The bowls live on. Money is made by all. Traditions are retained, and even brought back. January 1st becomes college football heaven again. The BCS dies the death it mercifully deserves. Playoff proponents get another round, albeit only one game.
A full playoff would be great in theory, but the logistics may just be too much to overcome (even though every other division of college football somehow manages to pull it off), and the bowl games are too beloved and too lucrative to ever go away.
Go back to the bowl system that existed before all of this BCS garbage started.
1. - Personally, I would love to get rid of half of the "minor" bowl games that hardly anybody outside of the two teams playing in them care anything at all about. I would also raise the number of wins for bowl eligibility to be 7. I might even require bowl eligible teams to have at least a .500 winning percentage in their conference.
Whatever bowl games, in actuality, are about today, they SHOULD be about rewarding excellence and a season well-played, not mediocrity. At the very least, a team should have won more games on their schedule than they lost. Getting a bowl bid after winning only half of your games overall or winning less than half of your conference games is almost like getting a ribbon for participation.
I realize that getting rid of bowls and upping the requirements for bowl eligibility aren't gonna happen, because its all about the money nowadays, so I won't be holding my breath on that. That's not important in determining a national champion anyway, so I can live with it.
2. - Go back to the old bowl alliances: B1G and Pac 12 in the Rose Bowl EVERY year, Big 12 champ to the Orange Bowl, etc. etc. The SEC goes to the Sugar Bowl??? Is that correct?
3. - All Bowl games must be played not later than January 1st and only the traditional January 1st bowl games will play on January 1st. Back to having major bowl games, and only major bowl games, on New Year's Day from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed.
4. - After all of the bowls have played out, a final round of voting is made (you could even keep the current sytem used by the BCS if you wanted to) and THEN the two top teams are identified.
5. - Seven to ten to fourteen days after January 1st, the two top teams would meet at a neutral location (maybe they could even find a location equidistant from and/or between both schools) to play the National Championship game. Personally, I would wait two weeks and play the NC games around January 15th. This would give the teams some extra time to heal up from the long season and do some in depth game planning. This would also give the fan bases some time to rebound from the bowls and make travel plans.
How does that not make all parties involved (fans, schools, bowls, media) happy, or at least content? The bowls live on. Money is made by all. Traditions are retained, and even brought back. January 1st becomes college football heaven again. The BCS dies the death it mercifully deserves. Playoff proponents get another round, albeit only one game.
A full playoff would be great in theory, but the logistics may just be too much to overcome (even though every other division of college football somehow manages to pull it off), and the bowl games are too beloved and too lucrative to ever go away.
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