The Big Ten Needs a Championship, and the NCAA Needs a Playoff

It's Election Day, November 4th, so if you're reading this and haven't voted, get out and vote. If you have voted, read on..

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I'm absolutely frustrated with the BCS and the never ending discussion about who should play whom, etc. for the National Championship. Before this monstrosity of a system was put in place, there may not have been a true National Championship game, but at least there wasn't an arbitrary system for deciding which 1 loss team had the better loss or which undefeated team had the better wins. At least then, as an Illini fan, I knew that if the Illini won the Big Ten they were going to Pasadena. It didn't matter that they lacked a Conference Championship game, it didn't matter if they played a weak pre Big Ten schedule, or if the conference was "down" as ESPN always seems to think it is (basketball or football). But, that's not the BCS world we live in today. Now, the Big Ten is always at a disadvantage going into Bowl Games largely because it lacks a Conference Championship game. Take Penn State this year for example. If Joe Pa's team finishes the season undefeated, but Texas Tech and Alabama do also, Penn State's not going to be in the BCS Championship game because in the [human] voters' minds each of those other schools just won their conference by winning a Conference Championship game. If one of them loses, then at least the remaining undefeated team has played within the month.5 + window from the end of the Big Ten season until the National Championship game. I don't care how good you are as a team, Football is a game of timing, and it's tough to have that when you haven't played in almost two months and early enrolled recruits are actually on campus.

Now I bet you're asking, why has this idiot babbled on and on about this? Well, I think I have an answer.

1. Implement a Big Ten Tournament by adding a school to the Big Ten, and creating the "Durty" and "Butter" North and South divisions respectfully. Which school you ask? Well, the ideal choice would be Notre Dame, but with their Basketball team already playing a conference schedule in the Big East, that could be difficult. However, imagine if this were to happen. I would set up divisions keeping the Illinois and Indiana schools together, so in the "Butter" division we'd have Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, and Notre Dame for sure, and I'd probably add Iowa as the sixth. In the "Durty" divisions we'd have: Ohio State, Michigan (keeping the rivalry intact), Michigan State, Minnesota, Penn State, and Wisconsin. Could you imagine how awesome it would be to basically compete head to head with Notre Dame year in and year out for a shot to play for the Big Ten Championship, which leads me to #2

2. Create an 8 team College playoff which includes the 6 BCS Conference Champions, and 2 Mid Major Champions. This is easy. There are 4 current BCS bowl games: Orange, Fiesta, Rose, and Sugar. There would be 8 teams. In an ideal world the Bowls could stick to their original affiliations in round 1, but that's really not feasible considering the Fiesta Bowl really doesn't have a historical tradition with one particular conference. So, I would maintain some sort of ranking system like the current BCS system, and use it to rank the teams 1-8, and then play the traditional 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 first round games in the BCS Bowl sites. The semifinals and finals thereafter would also be played at the BCS sites, with one site a year being left out from hosting two games, and the actual REAL National Championship game being rotated amongst the sites.

Why is this hard, and why can't these suggestions be implemented? Now, I realize that Notre Dame probably won't end up in the Big Ten, but I wouldn't allow them to maintain their "independence" and take part in the playoff. They can either make their big money from NBC during the year, or have a shot a making bigger money later as part of an NCAA playoff. If they choose to stay independent, they can always go play in the Cotton Bowl against a BCS conference runner up, and without Notre Dame the Big Ten would still have their pick of MAC (Northern Illinois) or MVC (Southern Illinois) schools.

So, what do you think? Feel free to post comments, tell me I'm an idiot, etc., but I think it'd work, and I think it would create an even more exciting season, because what you're really doing is creating a 16 team playoff, with the Conference Championships providing the venue for the opening round. Genious.