#3 Ole Miss Goes Down

[CenTexDave]

#24 LSU upset them. Hard to play at LSU's Death Valley, especially a night game.
Miss State also had a much tougher than expected game at Kentucky, but pulled it out. And Ohio State gave me a heart attack last night at Penn State. They ran out to a 17-0 lead, then took the second half off and had to pull it out in 2OTs.
On Tuesday the "committee" releases their first playoff rankings, and the AP poll becomes, supposedly, irrelevant. Of course will be interesting to see how closely the "committe's" poll parallels the AP rankings.
Miss St should remain number 1 even though kentucky gave them fits. Florida State had a bye yesterday so I doubt they will move up.
Ole Miss will obviously drop, but probably stay in the Top Ten. TCU should move up a lot after running Texas Tech out of the stadium by putting up 82 points, but doubt they will move up more than 2 spots. Alabama will probably move up to #3, Oregon to #4. Auburn also had a real battle, but everyone knows how the AP, and probably this "committee" of 12 loves the SEC, so look for the SEC to have possibly 3 teams in the Top 4. B.S. to me. :)

[Ludwig]

To me, the ranking of teams by a bunch of reporters means nothing.

[CenTexDave]

I agree, and that's basically why the BCS stopped using the AP in their rankings. But I never really thought the BCS rankings were all that great either - a coach's poll and 4 or 5 "sports computer gurus".
Until the FBS gets its collective heads out and has a real playoff, the controversy will continue. Every other division and the NAIA have a decent playoff. I think it's the bowl games who don't want a real playoff, but what they are missing is the fact that they could be part of it.
All conference champions - at least the Power 5 (SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC) plus toss in the Big East, Mountain West, Conf USA. That is 8 teams. Toss in their runner-ups, or possible a conference champ that is decent from the MAC). There is 16. The conference championship games are all played on the first Sat in Dec. Wait 2 weekends and have the playoffs start. Now we're looking at Dec 20 or so. Down to 8 teams. Take a break for Christmas, and have the quarter-finals on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Then the following weekend the semis and then the finals.
It isn't rocket science.

[Night Owl]

The problem is the number of games teams would end up playing. Playoffs would add 4 additional games for the final 2. If they go to a 16 team playoff (I think they should have a 16 team playoff) then they need to reduce the number of non conference games. Cap the regular season games at 10.

Take the conference winners and then have the coaches pich the final 8 teams. All head coaches in Div I would vote. No computer, no sports writers, just head coaches. Keep it inside college football.

[CenTexDave]

Good idea, 10 regular season games, conf championship game, then the playoffs.
But lots will cry foul - there goes some great rival games. But really, who cares? We've all gotten over the UT-A&M game being gone.
Maybe 1 regular season games - 2 pre-conference, then 9 conference games, conf championship game (if your conf has one - Big 12 does not currently have one so they could play an extra game), then the playoffs start. New Year's Day could have the National Championship - rotate it among the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta Bowl games.

[Night Owl]

And Cotton Bowl but play it at the new Cowboys Stadium. The Championship game should be played the Saturday before the Super Bowl.:)

The coaches picks could only have one team from each Conference Champ that is already in the playoffs. Rank them from 1-16 and have 1 play 16, 2 vs 15, etc. there are enough Bowl Games that each game could be in one of the current bowl games.

[CenTexDave]

I don't think would fly - too long of a season if the championship game is played the Sat before the Super Bowl. But I agree some of the bowl games could be used for the playoffs. I think there are 32 bowl games now. Way too many in my opinion, but with a little hindsight and some cooperation from the bowls it would be very doable.