Oregon vs. Auburn

So following up on our mock playoff, we have Oregon vs. Auburn facing off in the BCS National Title game. We started with 32 teams and we’re now down to the final two.

Now this is only one fans banter – but wouldn’t it be nice to see of of these match-ups? I guess this week we do have a de-facto playoff game with TCU and Utah squaring off tomorrow. But I look forward to seeing how this season plays out and how college football evolves in the near future. The Big East Conference is trying to increase its presence with potential discussions with East Carolina, Houston, TCU and Central Florida – it is a necessary step for that conference to get continued respect.

And then there were 4…

In the national semi-final games of our mock 2010 NCAA Football playoff we will have:

Oregon vs. Stanford in the Rose Bowl and Boise State vs. Auburn in the Orange Bowl.

So the final four have the number 1, 2, 3 and 13 ranked teams in the final four. To see who would win these games we should have them played on EA Sports College Football…

On to the final 8 in NCAA Football Playoff

So here we are – down to the final 8. This means 4 games in four stadiums to find out the final four in our NCAA Football Playoff. (note: Assumptions are again being made on the winners of each game.) Here are some other thoughts.

1 Oregon vs 9 Wisconsin @ Fiesta Bowl        2 Boise State vs 7 Missouri @ Cotton Bowl

4 TCU vs 13 Stanford @ Sugar Bowl             3 Auburn vs 14 Nebraska @ Gator Bowl

Randy Moss ….

So last night as I sit on the couch watching this Randy Moss press conference , I kept saying to myself, it’s only a matter of hours before the Minnesota Vikings cut him. I mean I will give him this – he didn’t want to be there, he probably did try and talk to people in the Vikings organization and people probably yessed him to death or just ignored him or even he was tired of the circus that is Brett Favre and just said the best way to fix this is do it myself. Now let’s see if he re-signs in New England. That would be a middle finger extended straight up and down to the rest of the league.

Week two of NCAA Football playoffs

So we’re now on to the next eight bowl games. We’re moving along and trying to keep teams as close to home as possible. Assumptions are being made here – but here we go:

1. Oregon vs 17 South Carolina @ Liberty Bowl

8 Utah vs 9 Wisconsin @ Meineke Car Care Bowl

13 Stanford vs 5 Michigan State @ Fight Hunger Bowl

21 Virginia Tech vs 4 TCU @ Go Daddy.com Bowl

2 Boise State vs 18 Iowa @ Sun Bowl

7 Missouri vs 10 Ohio State @ Capital One Bowl

14 Nebraska vs 6 Alabama @ Chick-fil-A Bowl

11 Oklahoma vs 3 Auburn @ Outback Bowl

Now there are some games that you’d really like to see and ones that will be played with meaning. I am also liking what else is being said out there

31 College Football Games

OK on to the next step. As we talked about yesterday, this proposal to the NCAA allows us to have 32 NCAA Football teams participating in our national championship playoff. Using the current AP Top 25 Poll, you’ll see we have used the top 32 schools for the basis of our discussion moving forward.

Now, our set up / calendar would like like such:

Weekend of (Friday-Sunday)

December 17 First round of 16 games

December 24 Second round of 8 games

December 31 OFF

January 7 Third round of 4 games

January 14 Semi-finals

January 21 National title game

Now this may look like the season is really getting extended, but the fact of the matter is – most schools are out for 4-5 weeks on break during this time and as the weeks go by, less teams are staying involved – which limits the effect it has on the classroom.

So let’s breakdown the first round of games

1 Oregon vs 32 East Carolina @ New Mexico Bowl

2 Boise St. vs 31 San Diego State @ Maaco Bowl

3 Auburn vs 30 West Virginia @ New Orleans Bowl

4 TCU vs 29 Syracuse (nice comeback for this program) @ St Petersburg Bowl

5 Michigan State vs 28 Michigan @ Champs Sports Bowl

6 Alabama vs 27 Hawaii @ Insight Bowl

7 Missouri vs 26 Nevada @Armed Forces Bowl

8 Utah vs 25 Baylor @ Alamo Bowl

9 Wisconsin vs 24 USC (I know they’re on probation, but that just screws up this example) @ Texas Bowl

10 Ohio State vs 23 Mississippi State @ Eagle Bank Bowl

11 Oklahoma vs 22 Miami @ Music City Bowl

12 LSU vs 21 Virginia Tech @ Independence Bowl

13 Stanford vs 20 Oklahoma State @ Pointsettia Bowl

14 Nebraska vs 19 Arkasas @ Humanitarian Bowl

15 Arizona vs 18 Iowa @ Holiday Bowl

16 Florida State vs 17 South Carolina @ Pinstripe Bowl

Are you getting interested yet?

College football and playoffs

An ongoing debate among college football analysts, coaches, fans, players and administrators – should Division 1 FBS have a playoff or not? Players seem to think so. I have heard many fans asking for it – analysts seem to be split – and the administrators are a toss-up. But wouldn’t a playoff system allow the continuous debate of who is number 1 to be put aside? Wouldn’t it be nice to finally see Boise State get a chance to square off against Iowa or Florida? And then if they win, do it again a week later?

I think that the NCAA has watered down its football post season by allowing teams to have 12 regular season games (sometimes 13), a conference championship and then a bowl in a city, that more likely than not if you aren’t in the top 10, will only fill up 60 percent of the stadium and be in a less than desirable location. Hey, I had the opportunity to go to Detroit two years ago – in December and even Birmingham last January – those are two places I want to be in the dead of winter…  Now what if a system was in place that would make these games really meaningful? And what if instead of more than half of the lot making a post-season bid (where most actually LOSE money) that schools are in competition for the top 25 percent of all teams? That’s right – what if instead of 68 teams playing in a bowl, only 32 did?

We’ll continue this discussion over the next week but I want to set the stage. Right now there are 34 Bowls in place. Out of that, I have removed 3 of the bowls (Birmingham, Hawaii and the Dallas Classic.) Birmingham gets the boot because of facilities and location. Hawaii simply on location and the new Dallas Classic because they already have the Cotton Bowl down there. Now we’re left with 31 sites/bowls in tact and each of them can serve as a host for a game in our newly proposed FBS playoff system. Stay tuned for more later on.

Kicking off

So I have been wanting to get going on this for some time and I think today will be the day to start. This blog will be for all of you college and NFL football fans – use it as a place to get your opinions out there, argue and debate about the good, bad and ugly of the sport we all love. There is much more to the actual game (unfortunately) going on these days and plenty of opinions to go either way so without further ado…