The money would be easy to distribute. Let's say that the total payoff for the playoff system is $50 million (for ease of computation). You give 20 million to the national champion, 10 million to the runner up, 5 million to each semifinal loser, and 2.5 million to each first round loser. You could even work out a bonus system, like a lower seed getting an "upset bonus" for beating a higher seed in the tournament. Here's the problem with this setup. As is, as RM95 suggested, each team that makes a BCS bowl gets something like ~$13MM. That's why the at-large spots are so valuable. In the B12, that money is actually split between all the schools, so last year, the conference got $26MM by having both Colorado and Nebraska in there, even though they both got their butts kicked. That means the ACC is guaranteed $13MM, even if their best team is an 8-4 Florida State team. With your suggested playoff system, the ACC only gets $2.5MM this year. Therefore, conferences like the B12 that will probably have someone in contention for a national title every year would love this system, but the lower-tier big-6 conferences like the ACC are less likely to go with it. I think to make this work, you have to somehow eliminate a big-time bowl so you only have 3 big bowls. I think the Orange Bowl has been struggling, so that might be one to go. Then the 2nd tier bowls start the first round of an 8 team playoff (Orange, Cotton, Citrus, ???). The Big 3 (Rose, Sugar, and Fiesta) host the 2nd & 3rd rounds with the national title game rotating each year. The money has to be evenly split between the 8 teams involved, or at least with significant amounts going to everyone so that the conferences are OK with it. Travel arrangements are still a nightmare, though.
The incentive is the possibility in 2004 that there will be 3 (or even more) heavyweights with 0 losses. Imagine say UT, Notre Dame. Ohio State and Miami undefeated on 2004. You want chaos. That will be the end of the BCS. Right now the BCS is praying hoping that the odds will playout like a 6 game parlay in Vegas.
First of all, Texas will never go undefeated..............unless than can get a recruiter that can actually coach, see OU and hopefully A&M.
The incentive is the possibility in 2004 that there will be 3 (or even more) heavyweights with 0 losses. Imagine say UT, Notre Dame. Ohio State and Miami undefeated on 2004. You want chaos. That will be the end of the BCS. Keep in mind, for the BCS, NCAA, and ABC, this is all about money. Controversy means more people are talking about it, and that's not a bad thing. That's why ABC loves this current setup. It keeps college football at the front of all sports discussions in October and November during the regular season when everyone is b****ing about the BCS. The sport has gone its entire existence without a playoff system to create a national champion. If it could survive co-champions, or undefeated major conference teams not being champions at all, it can deal with some BCS controversy. The benefits of a playoff have to be in terms of $$$.
It might be about money but if ND is undefeated and #3, that will be the end of the BCS. That's about both money and politics.
Sadly, that will never happen. With the media's love affair with all things Notre Dame, the AP and Coach's poll will keep Notre Dame ranked #1 or 2 with an undefeated season, no matter how many other undefeated teams exist, which should bolster it enough to get into the BCS championship game.
Just have all of the bowl games be conference championships, then have a single elimination tourny with all of the conference winners. You could shorten the regular season in order to fit all this in if necessary. The only people that would b**** are those who are a really good team, but second best in a strong conference. They had their shot at the conference title anyway though.
I particularly like this from the article: <I>One president from each of six conferences -- the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern -- will be picked for the committee this month. <B>They are expected to make a recommendation in 2005. </B></I> They are going to take 2+ years to discuss this? Sit them all down in a room, bring in the commissioners of the four big bowls and a representative of ABC, and they could sort this out in 24 hours and have a playoff next year if they really wanted to.
I believe the BCS contract doesn't expire until 2006, so they have a lot of time. True, but the two contracts would have all the same participants. If the Playoff system is better for everyone than the BCS (and it should be due to higher ratings and thus more total money to divvy up), they could rip up the current contract. The national title game could remain in the same bowl order as they currently have going.
How is the money from that massive TV contract distributed by the NCAA in basketball? And how much bigger would the TV contract be for a football playoff?
