O Brave New World!: the MWC pitches its playoff proposal

You can read the details here.

The key points are:

• The polls and the computers would be junked and replaced by a twelve-member selection committee modeled on the NCAA basketball selection committee.
• The committee would rank the top 25 teams in the country; the top ten would be placed in the new BCS games.
• Team number nine and team number ten would face off and would not be eligible for any further post-season play.
• The remaining eight teams would be placed in the existing BCS bowl games, with deference given to existing bowl-conference arrangements, rather than seedings.  Seedings would come into play in the semi-finals.
• Seven conferences would automatically qualify for the playoffs:  the current six plus the Mountain West.  Notre Dame and the remaining non-BCS conferences would continue to qualify for the post-season under the existing guidelines.

What do I see here?  Lots and lots of loose ends.  Start with this mother of one:

Revenue calculations – An equitable revenue calculation will be determined once all revenue, including from television and the bowls, is known.

Talk about putting the cart before the horse!  This won’t go anywhere until a deal on money is settled first.

Another pesky loose end – there are no guidelines provided for how the selection committee would rank the top 25 or top ten teams.

The biggest loose end, of course, is the nine vs. ten game.  How long do you give the pressure to build until those two teams are allowed into the playoff framework?  Especially given who will be deciding who plays and who doesn’t – not very freaking long at all.  And even more so given that seven of the eight playoff spots are locked into the new BCS conferences.

Bottom line:  it’s a great deal for the Mountain West, of course.  For the other non-BCS small fry, it’s worse than what they’ve got now, because there are fewer seats at the table to fight over.  For the existing BCS conferences, there’s more money in the pot, since there are more playoff games, but there’s no guarantee as to how that money will be divvied up.  Other than that, it’s not so hot, because only one conference would be looking at having more than one member school in the playoffs in a given year.

From my selfish standpoint (sorry, kckd), it’s got expansion written all over it.  Which means it sucks.  Hopefully, it’s dead on arrival.

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UPDATE: Doc Saturday, who I’ve always perceived to be a rational playoff proponent, swoons over the MWC proposal here.  A “sensible, enticing plan”?  Duuuuude.

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Wednesday morning buffet

Some of these stories are crisper than the bacon.

• ‘Bama’s getting its A-Day game broadcast on the WWL.  By my count, that’s three SEC schools showing their spring games on ESPN so far, and I think Mississippi State’s got Raycom showing its spring game.  I wonder how many Mountain West spring games we’ll be able to watch on the tube.
• Lou Holtz and Sean Hannity. The mind reels.
• On the other hand, there’s Michael Lewis, who, before writing great sports books, was a superb financial writer.  Oops, make that is a superb financial writer – check out this piece about Iceland’s financial collapse.  He had me at “In Reykjavík, where men are men, and the women seem to have completely given up on them…”
• Florida is looking at moving Matt Patchan from defensive line to tight end.  That’s a big tight end, folks.
• HeismanPundit gives us some more background on the ancient Samoan ritual of nipple baring that’s been brought into Knoxville.  I will say that if Junior decides to import the Song Girls into the UT program, I shan’t complain.
• Iowa (underaged) defensive back Shaun Prater comes up with the best DUI excuse evah.  He still got suspended from the team.  (h/t OrlandoSentinel.com)
• Maybe Oklahoma was better than Texas last season.
• In reading this piece about five South Carolina players to watch this spring (is that all?), I came across this line about backup Reid McCollum that may explain why Spurrier is having so much trouble at the QB position:  “But like Garcia, coaches want to see McCollum make more of a commitment off the field.” I remember the day when the OBC recruited quarterbacks who worked hard.  He can’t find kids like that anymore?
• And while we’re in Columbia, does anybody think this might be a metaphor for the season?