6 NCAA Division 1-A Football post-season solutions

Here is one

SOLUTION #1: a national elimination tournament where 15 traditional bowl games would host playoff sites for the top 16 teams in the country. The Bowl Championship Series rankings would be utilized to determine the brackets.

BCS Poll would serve as the official ranking system

1) USC (9)Miami (FL)
2) Oklahoma (10)Louisville
3) Auburn (11)Iowa
4) California (12)Michigan
5) Texas (13)LSU
6) Utah (14)Virginia Tech.
7) Boise State (15)Tennessee
8) Georgia (16)Arizona State

Playoff schedule
FIRST ROUND: Played two weeks after the regular season. (Approximately the second week in December)

QUARTERFINALS: Played one week after the first round.

SEMIFINALS: Played on New Year's Weekend.

THE FINAL: National Championship played the weekend before the Super Bowl.

ADVANTAGES
1) A post season playoff system that will determine an undisputed national champion on an annual basis (settling the annual debate and confusion),

2) Keeping the same Bowl Games of today, but utilizing them as playoff sites, (preventing the current unpopularity and demise of the bowls, financially and publicly),

3) All Bowls, even the minor bowls, would increase gate and television revenue due to the significance of the games and the quality of higher ranked teams (higher caliber teams competing against one another, rather than a meaningless game between teams with no or poor rankings),

4) All Bowls will capture a greater television audience and revenue, because the major bowls will not be competing against one another on January 1st for viewership (currently there are six bowl games competing against one another on New Year's Day and the television ratings are steadily decreasing),

5) Schools are less likely to patsy their schedules to guarantee a perfect or near perfect season so that they may in the (one game) BCS championship at the end of the year. Instead the emphasis will be one of the Top 16 teams and qualify for the post season tournament.

6) The post season time frame would not be extended, thus not exceeding the NCAA's 22 week season regulation. (Actual season = 20 Weeks)

7) It would be easier to obtain and retain quality corporate sponsors for the structured playoff games as television ratings increase significantly,

8) The NCAA would receive a substantial increase in revenue to aid all, both male and female, team and individual intercollegiate sports,

9) The increase in revenue generated by the playoff structure could be distributed amongst all participating and nonparticipating schools. Even if your division I-A school never makes it to the tournament, it is still benefiting from the structure. It is a WIN-WIN situation for all Division I-A Athletic Programs. Earnings can be distributed proportionally.

Revenue Example
(projected revenues are strictly estimates that could vary significantly)

$200,000,000 - Generated by Playoffs (Television, gate, and associated revenue)

$100,000,000 - Distributed proportionately amongst the playoff school participants (16 schools averaging $6.25 million each)

$100,000,000 - Distributed evenly amongst the schools that did not qualify for the playoffs (100 schools averaging $1 million each)

PLAYOFF PAYOUT DISTRIBUTION PLAN EXAMPLE
First Round Games ($5 Million per game - $2.5 Million per team - 8 games & 16 teams)

Quarterfinal Games ($6 Million per game - $3 Million per team - 4 games & 8 teams)

Semifinal Games ($9.5 Million per game - $4.75 Million per team - 2 games & 4 teams)

Championship Game ($10 Million for champion & $7.5 Million for Runner-up - 1 game & 2 teams)

A total of $20.25 million would go to the champions school's athletic program, $17.75 million to the runner-up, $10.2.5 million to the semifinalist, $5.5 to the quarterfinalist, and $2.5 million to schools that lost in the first round of the playoff.

Link has playoff graphic as well as 5 other proposals.
http://www.sportsfansofamerica.com/FansInAction/Football/playoffs1.htm#SOLUTION%201:

Does the same bowl get to be the championship bowl? Or does it rotate? And if it rotates, what happens to the bowl? Does it become a Sweet 16 Bowl? A Quarterfinal bowl? etc.?

I imagine if they did take up this proposal they would rotate between Cotton, Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange bowl. I would guess after this year(If this was the current system) the Sugar Bowl would host an Elite 8 Round game two years in a row, host a Final 4 Round game 2 years in a row and then host a NC once again. But I suppose they should've included that scenario.

if they are playing those first round games in early to mid December?

I love college football, but I refuse to feed the Beast (i.e. TV). Go back to the traditional format, tie conference championships to the major bowls and let a lot of schools end on a high note. Everybody's happy. But then again, I'm a commie lib.

and they all stretch into December. So are you saying that a big school; Big Ten, SEC, etc. education is more important than a smaller school education? I mean if it disrupts finals in Division 1, why doesn't it disrupt finals at smaller schools? That statement doesn't hold water. University of Iowa is no better than Northern Iowa University just because U of I is much larger. U of I just generates much more income. And what about the NCAA Tournament? Are basketball players lesser people than football players? The hoopsters are certainly getting classes disrupted during tournament time. Note- I use Iowa schools because I live here, but it is the same logic for all D1 schools vs. D1AA schools, not to mention Division 2 and Division 3 schools. The NCAA is hypocritical.

My take would be that Division 1 is doing it right, or at least has done it right in the past. I really just don't care at the end who wins the championship, or how they got there. It just isn't that important to me. Every year, I just shake my head at the energy being expended by people figuring out how the networks can make more money.

D2, D1AA, etc. are having their playoffs NOW, not late December. Ergo, they are done before finals and don't interfere. And, frankly, I don't know where you get your argument about basketball players, since finals aren't held in March.

they don't bother to analyze any potential disadvantages in their plans, the chief of which is that you are (1) prolonging the season even farther, all for the benefit of lazy-ass, whiny couch potatos who want "resolution." Specifically, fans of those teams who didn't get a chance to play for the national title.

(2) What happens to the tradition of those bowls? Why even call them bowls anymore? They're just playoff games. Bowls have been a part of college football for a hundred years, and tradition is extremely important in the sport.

Maybe if we stop relying on humans, who CAN'T WATCH EVERY GAME to do the rankings, we wouldn't have these problems. Instead, we get preseason bullshit polls, then media hype, and so on, preventing teams from moving too much.

You raise a good point.

...Why should the college presidents be forced to cater to fools who don't see major colleges as educational institutions, but as support systems for a football team?