If the NCAA has one thing right, it’s the playoff format of the men and women’s college basketball tournament. The NCAA tournament is arguably the most exciting version of playoffs in any sport. There’s plenty of reasons why –upsets, Cinderella stories and powerhouse schools with legendary coaches that seem to always find their way into the later rounds of the tournament. The post season starts with 68 teams all looking for one thing: A trip to North Texas for the Final Four.
Its seems as if the pinnacle of college basketball is indeed the Final Four, and that is every college basketball team’s goal at the beginning of the season. The road to the Final Four consists of four single-elimination games against some of the best teams in the country. It’s a long road to the Final Four, and that’s why it’s such a major accomplishment. The playoff system of college basketball does its job finding the teams that deserve to play for the NCAA championship.
Maybe this is why the NCAA has changed its college football system to sort of replicate the Final Four in college football. It’s about time the NCAA made a change in college football and implemented a new playoff format instead of the Bowl Championship Series (more like BS) where a computer decides which teams deserve to play for a championship.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who has been looking forward to college football playoffs since it was announced in 2012. But guess what –the wait is over. The College Football Playoff (what a creative name) as the NCAA is calling it will be implemented this year.
The College Football Playoff will consist of the nation’s top four teams chosen by a selection committee, sort of like college football’s version of the Final Four. The bowl system will still be in place, giving other teams that are bowl eligible a right to play a bowl game. However, what’s different is the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, two of the oldest bowl games, will be the national semifinal games. These semifinal bowl games will be put in a rotation so that other bowl games like the Orange and Cotton Bowl will be the semifinals the year after. These two bowl games will pit the No.1 ranked team in the nation against the No. 4 team and the No. 2 team in the nation against the No. 3 team. Both of these national semifinal games will take place on Jan. 1, 2015.
The next step to the College Football Playoff is the national championship game that will take place on Jan. 12, 2015. The location of the championship game will be in a new city every year. The first College Football Playoff championship game will take place in North Texas (just like the Final Four), in the Dallas Cowboys stadium.
This is a great move by the NCAA and will make a major impact on the game. College football is already exciting and the College Football Playoff will just add to that excitement.
Lets flash back and pretend this system was put into place last year and see how that might have changed last season. It would’ve created one of the craziest rematches of all time between No. 2 Auburn University and No. 3 University of Alabama. This would’ve given Alabama a chance to avenge its heartbreaking loss to Auburn earlier in the season when former player Chris Davis returned a field goal more than 100 yards in the final seconds for the victory. This is just one example of how the College Football Playoff will better help decide a national champion in college football.
The San Diego State Aztecs were two wins away from reaching the Final Four in basketball this year, and it’s unlikely they will be ranked in the top four in college football at the end of next season. But at least a computer won’t be making that decision this year.
Photo by Monica Linzmeier, Photo Editor