The BCS National Championship Tournament

After a year's absence, it's back. The concoction I've worked on for several years. I've tweaked it a little to allow more teams and still have the same great action. Normally, I've put in 16 teams (11 conference champions and 5 at-large bids) and one year I expanded to 24 (11 & 13), so I'm going in the middle with 20 (11 & 9). FCS or Division I-AA went to this format last year, so I'm experimenting with their idea.

In recent years, some people do not want the non-Super Six conference champions (Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and WAC) to participate. IMO, its only fair for those teams to participate because they won their conference. While it might not be game-worthy to some, those participants would love to try to win a national title.

Once again....We have an individual on this forum that has an opinion that a playoff should not happen. That's fine. However, if this person (or anyone) can't post without hurling insults or other degrading comments at others who disagree....THEN DON'T POST. This is for the people who want the tournament and to have some fun.


Seedings

Due to the involvement of the BCS, the seedings for this tournament come from the Final BCS poll. Should a team not be ranked in the Final BCS poll, for the sake of time they will be seeded by best schedule for the regular season minus the conference championship game (if applicable).

The last time I did this, I caught hell by the half acre about using the BCS poll after I denounced it. For the record, I do not like the BCS to determine the two best teams in the nation for the national championships because more times than none, they've gotten it wrong, and another team was most decisively had a stronger claim for that spot. This year is no different with Oklahoma State. And Im sure Stanford, Boise State, and others will make a claim they can win it all too.

HOWEVER....It can be practical to use the BCS Formula to seed the teams for a tournament. But again, using the BCS is the only thing I have go off of. A pattern, if you please. If you can come up with something better, feel free to share.

When it comes to Independents, they can only qualify by an at-large bid. They would have to get into the top ten just to get a shot.


Venues

Locations for games are as follows:

First Round/Round of 16: Nearest bowl site of the higher seed

Quarterfinals (In Order): Fiesta, Cotton, Gator, Outback

Semifinals (In Order): Orange, Rose

National Championship Final: Sugar

In the quarters, the BCS bowl comes first. Since the Fiesta Bowl was last year's national championship game, it goes back to the back and and works its way back up. So with this format, it goes back to the quarterfinals. The highest seed goes to the Fiesta Bowl, second highest to the Cotton Bowl and down the line. Semifinals the same way with the Orange Bowl (next year's title game) to the highest seed, then Rose. Semifinal winners play for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl.



Payouts

Ive tried to come up with some sort of payout formula, but each participant should only make the minimum of $325,000, which is the smallest payout (R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl) of a regular bowl game and to the maximum of $18 million, which is the max payout for a current BCS bowl game.

With the addition of more teams, the payout schedule is tweaked so a team makes the bare minimum while the national champion makes the maximum. In the first round, the winner only makes $250,000 while the loser gets the minimum of $325,000. The first round winner will get to make more money the next week either way. The winner will double their money, the loser gets additional $150,000 to separate themselves from those that were one and done in the tournament. So the more you win, the more money you make.

The best I've come up is this:

First Round: Loser - $325,000 / Winner - $250,000

Round of 16:
1st Game: Loser - $325,000 / Winner - $500,000
2nd Game: Loser - $150,000 / Winner - $250,000

Quarterfinals: Loser - $1,250,000 / Winner - $2,500,000

Semifinals: Loser - $2,500,000 / Winner -$5,000,000

National Championship Game: Loser - $5,000,000 / Champion - $10,000,000

Minimum Total: $325,000
Maximum Total: $18,000,000



Brackets


(#): Seeds

Conference Champions (Automatic Bids)
Atlantic Coast: Clemson (14)
Big East: West Virginia (17)
Big Ten: Wisconsin (10)
Big XII: Oklahoma State (3)
Conference USA: Southern Mississippi (16)
Mid-American: Northern Illinois (19)
Mountain West: TCU (15)
Pac-12: Oregon (5)
Southeastern: LSU (1)
Sun Belt: Arkansas State (18)
Western Athletic: Louisiana Tech (20)


At-Large Bids
Alabama (2)
Stanford (4)
Arkansas (6)
Boise State (7)
Kansas State (8)
South Carolina (9)
Virginia Tech (11)
Baylor (12)
Michigan (13)

***Games simulated with winners in BOLD***

First Round

GoDaddy.com Bowl
Ladd Peebles Stadium - Mobile, AL
(17) West Virginia
(16) Southern Mississippi


Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
Ford Field - Detroit, MI
(20) Louisiana Tech
(13) Michigan


Belk Bowl
Bank of America Stadium - Charlotte, NC
(19) Northern Illinois
(14) Clemson


Valero Alamo Bowl
Alamodome - San Antonio, TX
(18) Arkansas State
(15) TCU




Round of 16

Advocare V100 Independence Bowl
Independence Stadium - Shreveport, LA (Hey, another rematch!)
(17) West Virginia
(1) LSU


TicketCity Bowl
Cotton Bowl - Dallas, TX
(9) South Carolina
(8) Kansas State


Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Bronco Stadium - Boise, ID
(12) Baylor
(5) Oregon


Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
AT&T Park - San Francisco, CA
(13) Michigan
(4) Stanford


Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl
Gerald J. Ford Stadium - Fort Worth, TX
(14) Clemson
(3) Oklahoma State


AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Liberty Bowl Stadium - Memphis, TN
(11) Virginia Tech
(6) Arkansas


MAACO Las Vegas Bowl
Sam Boyd Stadium - Las Vegas, NV
(10) Wisconsin
(7) Boise State


BBVA Compass Bowl
Legion Field - Birmingham, AL
(15) TCU
(2) Alabama


Quarterfinals

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
University of Phoenix Stadium - Glendale, AZ
(8) Kansas State
(1) LSU


Outback Bowl
Raymond James Stadium - Tampa, FL
(5) Oregon
(4) Stanford


Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl
EverBank Field - Jacksonville, FL
(11) Virginia Tech
(3) Oklahoma State


AT&T Cotton Bowl
Cowboys Stadium - Dallas, TX
(10) Wisconsin
(2) Alabama



Semifinals

Discover Orange Bowl
Sun Life Stadium - Miami, FL (Another rematch!)
(5) Oregon
(1) LSU


The Rose Bowl Game presented by Visio
Rose Bowl Stadium - Pasadena, CA
(3) Oklahoma State
(2) Alabama


National Championship Game

Allstate Sugar Bowl
Mercedez-Benz Superdome - New Orleans, LA
(3) Oklahoma State
(1) LSU



Playing Dates

The tournament would start play following the conference championship games and finishing up on the second weekend in January. Five weeks of play either way you slice it.

But if this happens, then the number of traditional bowl games needs to be reduced (they should be anyways). There's a lot of people that wants to see this or something similar to it. Television & advertising revenue would skyrocket, but ultimately, we will find out who the best is when it's all said and done.

Let the debate madness begin.

 

I've already shown many times that elimination tournaments are horrible at crowning the "best team." Kudos for the detail, though. I disagree with your idea but I applaud the amount of thought you put into it.

 

Fair enough.

In an ESPN poll last night, 84% of fans WANT the tournament format. It might be a horrible idea, as you so put it. But fans want to see their champion crowned on the field, not on paper.

 

It will happen.

 

It already happens on the field.

 

In the regular season. The fans want to see champions crowned in the second season.

 

There is a national championship game. The title is already settled on the field.

 

way too many teams. 6 at most with 2 byes. 4 is even better.

 

One game, two teams.....but others that have a claim they should be playing. Ok, so let's add them to the mix and settle it.

Once again, 84% of fans WANT it.

 

Tell that to those mid-major conferences. They fight hard through their conference to win their championship and can't do anything with it. In basketball, they let their champions compete. So why can't they do that here?

Just because you come from a Super Six Conference shouldn't mean you hold a bigger stake for the title. It's either let them play or put them in FCS so they can compete for a national championship.