Four Team Playoff In College Football Starting In 2014

The current Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system that has been in place since 1998, will be replaced, starting in the 2014 college football season, with a four team playoff.  While this a welcomed change from the current format, I think an eight team playoff would be better.

With all the conference realignment that’s been going in the past year or so, it seems that all the teams that have been very competitive in the last several years, will soon be in major conferences, except Notre Dame.  I’m mainly talking about Boise State and TCU.  That’s a good move for those teams, because with a four team playoff, teams outside major conferences would have no chance to be ranked high enough to qualify.  However with eight teams, you could have the highly ranked conference champions, plus a team or maybe two as wild cards.

The first round of games could be rotated between the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowls, like the major bowls are now; or two more bowls can be added in the mix, and all six bowls could rotate between the first round and the semifinal round of games.  For instance, the Cotton Bowl and maybe the Gator, Outback or Capital One Bowl, or whoever wants to be in these major bowls bad enough, will be added as the 5th and 6th major bowl.  So each bowl will be a first round bowl 4 of every 6 years, and a semifinal bowl 2 of every 6 years.

If two more bowls don’t step up to the plate, then the semifinal round can be bid on by different cities, as well as the championship game.  With an eight team playoff, the first round should be played at least a week earlier than they have been, so the semifinal games, and the championship game won’t drag too far into January.

The new four team playoff is good, but an eight team playoff would be bigger and better.  With four teams, you know there will still be teams, especially those not in the major conferences, claiming they should have been in the playoff system.  That’s not even taking into consideration independents like Notre Dame.  I congratulate the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee for approving a four team playoff system.  It’s a great first step, but hopefully expansion to eight teams will follow soon.