College Football's Lost Weekend - The Big Lead

The following article was posted on The Big Lead. I find it fascinating because of the "what if" scenarios regarding a College Football Playoff. Sigh.

TCU won convincingly Saturday against Utah. It didn’t matter.


LSU survived a massive scare from Louisiana Tech. Didn’t matter - LSU can’t qualify for the BCS.

Late Friday, Cincinnati held on to beat WVU. So what?

The Rose Bowl - which will have zero impact on the National Championship - was basically decided Saturday afternoon. Ohio State will play Oregon. Whoop-de-damn-do.

The college football season has basically been reduced to two games: The SEC Championship (Florida-Alabama) and the Big 12 Championship (Texas vs. Kansas State/Nebraska) on Dec. 5. You could miss the next two weekends … and miss nothing. (What, you think Florida State is going to beat Florida? Ha.) This coming weekend, there are no games involving two Top 25 teams. Get your Christmas shopping done early. Rake leaves? Unearth a great Thanksgiving recipe that will wow the fam.

Imagine an 8-team playoff based on the current BCS rankings:

1. Florida vs. 8. LSU

4. TCU vs. 5. Cincinnati

3. Texas vs. 6. Boise State

2. Alabama vs. 7. Georgia Tech

Injury-ravaged LSU probably would be replaced by season’s end - perhaps by Ohio State (hell, maybe even Oregon or Stanford). Cincinnati could lose and be replaced by Pittsburgh (doubtful). But here’s the problem with only having 8-teams in the mix: You don’t have a rep from the Pac-10 (which has two teams capable of running the table - Oregon and Stanford), or the Big 10 (which has been mediocre at best this season). Or does that even matter, since neither league has a team that’s been dominant throughout the season?

Would a 16-team playoff - which would only take four consecutive weeks; five if you want to take Christmas week off - be more ideal?