A proposal for College Football

The following is a proposal to improve the college football championship.

The key requirements for the proposal focused on:

• Ensure competition determines the champion;
• Eliminate ambiguity in the declared champion;
• Maintain the excitement of the college football regular season;
• Maintain the unique bowl game structure and excitement of college football;
• Maintain each conference's independence.
  

The proposal:

• Implement a 16-team, four-round post-season playoff;
• The teams in the playoffs will consist of each of the 11 conference champions and five wild cards;
• Each conference can name its champion as it chooses (ie. via regular season round-robin play, via two sub-conference champions meeting in a conference champion, etc.);
• The five wild cards will be selected on the basis of ranking in the BCS. A team will be a wild card if it is a. not a conference champion, and b. one of the five highest ranked BCS teams that is not a conference champion;
• The playoffs will be seeded exclusively based on BCS rankings. The highest ranked BCS team will be the #1 seed; the second highest BCS team will be the #2 seed; etc. Conference champions may be seeded lower than non-conference champions;
• The playoffs will be initially scheduled by pairing the #16 seed against the #1 seed, the #15 seed against the #2 seed, etc.; after the first round, the games will be scheduled based on the highest remaining seed playing the lowest remaining seed, the second highest remaining seed playing the second lowest remaining seed, and so on.
  
• Round 1 will be played the first weekend after Thanksgiving; round 2 the next week and round 3 the following week;
• The Championship and a Runner's Up game will be played on New Year's Day;
• The Championship will be between the last two remaining teams. The Runner's Up game will be played between the 3rd and 4th remaining teams;
• Location of Rounds 3 and 4 will be rotated each year between the four BCS bowls (Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange);
• Location of Rounds 1 and 2 will be rotated amongst other bowls;
• Bowls that do not have a scheduled playoff game, may schedule a bowl game between non-playoff teams based on whatever existing agreements may be in place.

Other notes:

• Conferences and teams retain autonomy on conference membership;
• Teams should reduce regular season schedules to 10-11 games to account for additional games at the end of the season;
• All bowl payouts remain the same (ie. a team advancing in the playoffs may collect multiple bowl payouts).

Update 8.7.09: ESPN has their own proposal.