College Football Play Off

The 2006 football season starts-next week. All the talk in Memphis is geared around Memphis at Mississippi. My eyes will be glued to the Southern Miss - Florida game.

I know its early to be talking about it, but with all of the recent flaws in the BCS I think the NCAA should adapt a playoff system for Division 1 football. The system already works perfectly at other levels, why not D1?

For year's I have proposed a simple playoff plan, similar to the basketball tournament. Each conference champion would have at least one team represented in the playoffs and there would be 5 at-large bids. For those who can't add quickly, its a 16 team playoff that would last 4 weeks. Seeding would be determined by current BCS poll. At-large teams would be selected from the highest ranked non-conference champions.

Locations would be tough, but definitely something that could be managed. Round 1 would be played on the home field of the highest seeded team. The remaining 7 games (round 2 -4) would be played at bowl sites (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange, Cotton, Holiday and Liberty). The semi-finals and championship games could only be played at the Big 4 bowl stadiums.

Using this format, I put together this year's playoff based on the CNNSI pre-season rankings. The field would be:
#16 Louisiana-Lafayette (Sunbelt Champion)
#15 Northern Illinois (MAC Champion)
#14 Central Florida (CUSA Champion)
#13 Boise State (WAC Champion)
#12 TCU (MWC Champion)
#11 Floridat State (ACC Champion)
#10 Michigan (At-large - Big 10)
# 9 Florida (At-large - SEC)
# 8 California (At-large - Pac 10)
# 7 Auburn (At-large - SEC)
# 6 West Virginia (Big East Champion)
# 5 USC (PAC 10 Champion)
# 4 LSU (SEC Champion)
# 3 Texas (Big 12 Champion)
# 2 Notre Dame (At-large - Independent)
# 1 Ohio State (Big 10 Champion)

If all of the higher seeds win round 1,round 2 would be loaded with some great games. Ohio State vs Cal, USC vs LSU, WVU vs Texas, Auburn vs Notre Dame...who wouldn't want to watch these games and the following weeks?

I know there are some flaws here, but I don't claim to be an expert. I'm happy with or without the playoff.