In a very good piece about the national title format that’s about to bite the dust, Roy Kramer offers something of an early obituary.
Kramer can’t help but wonder: If Oklahoma State had not been upset by Iowa State in 2011 to help create an All-SEC championship game, would the BCS still be alive?
“Deep down,” Kramer said, “I always thought the more logical way would be to take the three highest-rated conference champions and a wild card.”
That actually makes more sense to me than the selection committee does, but I suppose the new format has the virtue of giving the big conference commissioners more control over the selection process.
As for Kramer’s question, I think all the absence of a rematch would have accomplished would have been to postpone the inevitable. Between the greed and the freakout over the recent decline in viewership, the jump to a four-team playoff was coming no matter what Oklahoma State did.
Get The Picture 
The one thing that I think some critics are overlooking is that in many ways, the new system will be a de facto 5-8 team playoff depending on conference championship matches and rankings. For example, looking at the BCS rankings, Mizzou or Auburn is out with a loss. OSU is probably out with a loss. Etc.
The two big ‘controversies’ that are going to come up with the playoff are:
(1) The Big XII not having a title game. At some point, the Big XII is going to be in a position to get a second team in the playoff, which will send the conferences with title games through the roof.
(2) The committee choosing a non-BCS team. For example, what if the selection committee took Northern Illinois over Bama to square off against SEC Champ, undfeated OSU, and undefeated FSU.
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Would you like to hazard a guess as to what the solution will be to all those controversies?
I’ll give you a hint: it rhymes with “Smore Playoffs”.
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Or, More Payoffs
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The asshats on the radio were already talking about an 8 team playoff and we haven’t even started the 4 team one yet. Playoffs will ruin college football as we know it…
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Yeah, they’re unwatchable in the FCS. Fans of the schools involved just never seem to care. I doubt Georgia Southern even hangs their banners, it’s such a travesty.
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+1
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No, the BCS is a victim of the SEC’s success.
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The entire raison d’etre for the new 4 team playoff system with the committee is to keep 2011 from ever happening again.
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Totally disagree — it’s to keep 2012 Notre Dame, or almost FSU-OSU 2013 from ever happening again. SCDawg is correct, if the SEC wasn’t so strong 1-3 every year I think the BCS survives just fine. The thing about the rematch is that there was actually very little real anti-rematch discussion.
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The number has been and will always settle on the top eight BCS-ranked teams. I can selfishly see two SEC teams with a chance for a third every other year using the present attributes in the judging system. To me, it’s a large reasoning leap to go further because that dilutes beyond the true candidates.
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I have always been for a 4 team & only a 4 team playoff. (remember 1966)?
I also think the best team in CFB any year can be found in the top 4 BCS vote getters in any year. Those 4 should be the ones that are in the 4 team playoff. Top 2 does not get It but top 4 always include the true BCS Champ.
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