What would a 'Sweet 16' have looked like?
Posted: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 8:11 PM
Although very comfortable within the shrinking minority of those against a playoff in college football, we always try to maintain an open mind. And with that, this is the perfect week to take a look back at the 2008 season and see what it might have been like if college football had a “Sweet 16.”
In the “Extra Points” format, all 11 conference champions get an automatic bid. Yes, all 11. We wouldn’t want to get sued or be called to appear before a congressional committee. And what would “December Delirium” be without the Cal State Northridge and Binghamton of football?
Then the hard part, selecting five at-large squads to fill out the field.
The top two seeds in each region would host the opening round on their campus. The regional finals (and “Final Four”) would be played at neutral sites and/or bowl games.
Using the final gotta-be-good-for-something BCS standings as a guide to assist, especially with the all-important seeding process, this one-man committee labored long and hard to come up with the following.
MIDWEST
(1) Oklahoma, Big 12 tourney champions (overall No. 1)
(2) Utah, Mountain West champions
(3) Ohio State, at-large from Big Ten
(4) Buffalo, MAC tourney champions
SOUTH
(1) Florida, SEC tourney champions (overall No. 2)
(2) Texas Tech, at-large from Big 12
(3) Virginia Tech, ACC tourney champions
(4) Troy, Sun Belt champions
WEST
(1) Texas, at-large from Big 12 (overall No. 3)
(2) Southern California, Pac-10 champions
(3) Boise State, WAC champions
(4) Georgia Tech, at-large from ACC
EAST
(1) Alabama, at-large from the SEC (overall No. 4)
(2) Penn State, Big Ten champions
(3) Cincinnati, Big East champions
(4) East Carolina, C-USA tourney champions
Ones versus fours. Twos versus threes. Winners play winners. Then, onto the semifinals.
Even being anti-playoff, we have to admit this isn’t too shabby. If form held, you’d have Oklahoma vs. Alabama and Florida vs. Texas in the “Final Four.”
There would have been a decent chance that we would have ended up with what we actually got, but making Florida and Oklahoma clear three hurdles along the way would have been must-see TV.
If you were a fly on the wall of this selection committee’s boardroom, which also doubles as my daughter’s nursery, you would have seen a vicious internal discussion over which school would get the final at-large berth.
Oregon’s 65-38 “Civil War” rout over Oregon State, denying the Beavers the Pac-10‘s automatic bid, gave the Ducks a leg up over Pittsburgh of the Big East. But in the end, none of those teams were going to get there anyway.
The final spot eventually went to the winner of what was essentially a play-in game between Georgia and Georgia Tech on Nov. 29 (a little more spine-tingling than Alabama State-Morehead State). The Yellow Jackets broke a seven-game losing streak to their in-state rivals, posting an impressive 45-42 victory on the road in Athens to earn lots of love from the BCS and this committee. If Georgia had won, the consensus preseason No. 1 Bulldogs would have been the last team in, giving the SEC three entries (along with the Big 12).
Perhaps already used to being dealt a tough hand in 2008, Texas certainly wouldn’t be pleased with the “Extra Points” committee’s decision. Although its relatively recent success over USC is well documented, facing the Trojans somewhere out West (probably San Diego, since Mack Brown knows the way all too well) is clearly the toughest road to the national semis. With the guile of a well-seasoned Senator, we’ll deflect the blame to the BCS computers for averaging out USC to be seventh-best, which contributed to the Trojans receiving the fifth overall seed, losing out to Alabama for a No. 1 seed by .0235.
But TCU of the Mountain West Conference probably would have the biggest gripe. The Horned Frogs' only two losses were to Oklahoma and Utah -- both on the road. If you selected and seeded by purely using the top 16 in the BCS, No. 11 TCU would have been the No. 3 seed in the South.
BYU, a third MWC team, and 67 percent of the Big 12 South would have also made the cut if you only used a cockamamie system like the BCS to sort stuff out. Anyway, it’s much more fun to blame a committee than computers on “Selection Sunday.”
We’re still not sold on having a playoff system, but seeing it broken down like this, we’re getting a little sweeter on the whole idea.
