Ok, no college football playoff, then give me a better regular season!

Over the past eight years on the airwaves I have been against a playoff in college football and I still believe it will still never happen in my lifetime

I have been an Insight and Fiesta Bowl volunteer for over 15 years and have always felt that a playoff is not necessary. The bowls are for the student athletes. And I still believe that and always will. However, with the current television contracts in place until 2015, a postseason playoff couldn’t happen until the earliest 2016. With the pace of these university athletic directors move, it will never happen.

So in the meantime how about improving the regular season. The regular season is weak with the exception of one non-conference game and some great in-conference rivalries.

Here is a perfect way for everyone to win – BCS Shootout! Granted this is not the perfect solution, however, look at it as a tourniquet or bandaid.

Let’s start with this 2008 season: Ohio State at USC is likely to be the only time two top-5 teams from different BCS conferences will meet prior to the BCS National Championship Game. That is ridiculous! I can almost bet my mortgage on at least one of these two teams will be playing on January 8 in the Orange Bowl for the BCS title.

Here is where my BCS Shootout comes into play: Match up 12 teams from the six BCS conferences. ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big 10, Pac-10 and SEC. Play three games over the first two weekends of the season. Six total games. For this season, the games would be played on Saturday, August 30 and September 6. With the time zones, television would start games at 2pm EST/11am PST, 5:30pm/2:30pm and 9pm/6pm.

Imagine the preseason hype. As of right now, there is basically one game everyone is talking about - Buckeyes and Trojans. Go Bucks!

I don’t know about you, but I really don’t get into college football until the third week of the season. After all, the powerhouses destroy all the Division IAA schools over the first three weeks of the season. This continues to be a major joke to college football fans. The NFL has a definite advantage over football fans in September. There are always great matchups.

Here are some sample weak early week schedules:
Georgia: Georgia Southern, Central Michigan, at South Carolina
Ohio State: Youngstown State, Ohio, at USC, Troy
Oklahoma: Tenn.-Chattanooga, Cincinnati, at Washington, TCU, at Baylor
Auburn: Louisiana-Monroe, Southern Miss, at Mississippi St
Texas Tech: Eastern Washington, at Nevada, SMU, Massachusetts
LSU: Appalachian State, Troy, North Texas
Wisconsin: Akron, Marshall, at Fresno State
Kansas: Florida International, Louisiana Tech, at South Florida, Sam Houston State

Tough opening month:
USC: at Virginia, OSU, at Oregon State, Oregon
Florida: Hawaii, Miami, at Tennessee, Mississippi
Tennessee: at UCLA, UAB, Florida, at Auburn

The beauty of this so-call solution is that a BCS school could actually fall during the first two weekends and still recover in the BCS standings. College basketball does it and I don’t hear anyone complaining.

Furthermore, I would love to see if the chicken SEC schools would actually play along since they rarely play anyone early in their schedules. Granted their schedules are normally strong over the course of the seasons.

Okay, with every great idea, there are some challenges. The only “ONE” I can come up with is scheduling these powerhouses from the BCS schools. It might be difficult for the athletic directors to schedule games. Most administrators plan out five to 10 years out.

If I was an AD, I would work two to three years out keeping an open date available during the first two weeks of September. I can’t imagine it being that difficult to know if your team is going to be competitive, especially with recruiting like it is today, schools have a pretty good idea on their future.

If the team is playing bad, recruiting is down, or there’s a coaching change, then you always have a weak Division IAA team waiting for a payday. What is the worse that can happen – national television exposure!

I do like the bowl system, actually love it! But I know the fans and players want a playoff. I just think if it hasn’t happened by now, it will never happen.

In the meantime, NCAA and TV executives: please consider giving us a full season of great competitive college football and start it September 1st!

Food for thought: There will be 32 bowl games to conclude this 2008 football season. 32!

written by Roc