BCS Chaos...What is the answer?

Well one thing we can all agree on is this: What is currently being used for the BCS is not the best. But what do we do about it?

Only in the BCS Division Football can a team go undefeated and not National Champion. So what if Hawaii plays in a weak conference? What if they really were the best team in the nation? We have no idea until someone beats them. Now they don't have the money of the major conference schools, so you can't blame them for having a weak schedule or being in a weak conference, like I can with Ohio State (come on OSU AD, step up and give some legitimacy to your team's wins!). Hell, I doubt they even thought they would do as well as they have when they came up with this year's schedule.

But should Ohio State and Hawaii being playing for the national title? Should we go to a complete playoff system and bankrupt the bowl system within five years? Is there some even ground here?

• Stewart Mandel writes that Plus-One is the answer. He feels that having a championship game after all of the bowl games would better serve the purpose without taking away from the bowl games. He feels that using the major bowls to provide matchups to decide the final two could give us a better national championship without taking from the bowls.


• Luke Winn writes, "There is only one logical way to decide the national championship in the Season of Endless Upsets, when there were these options available:
  
  * One undefeated team
  
  * Two one-loss teams
  
  * Ten two loss teams
  
  The solution is to grab one of the two-loss teams (LSU) and one of the one-loss teams (Ohio State, which gained status simply by having the final weekend off), and pit them together in a winner-take-all finale. The less-fortunate leftovers can fight for the scraps in consolation bowls, and the country will be content that we've conclusively answered the "Who's No. 1" question. Especially the undefeated team (Hawaii) that didn't even get a chance to play for the title, even though just one year ago, its conference's BCS rep (Boise State) beat one of college football's juggernauts (Oklahoma) in perhaps the greatest BCS game ever. This is all so incredibly satisfying for everyone involved.
  
  The slate of BCS games this January will do nothing but guarantee dissatisfaction among fans. So what if LSU pummels Ohio State in what will be a pseudo-home game for the Tigers? What will that tell us? If Hawaii beats Georgia, an SEC team that didn't win its own division much less its own conference, to go 12-0, how does that further the Warriors' bid for a share of the title? The BCS has worked in the past -- in the years where a clear Nos. 1 and 2 existed -- but we desperately need something that works every year. That's a playoff beyond the plus-one model. Put the 12 BCS-eligible teams into a field with first-round byes for Nos. 1-4, and let them duke it out. I'd much rather be worrying about the trivial controversy over who was excluded at No. 13 than who was left out at No. 3"


• Bill Trocchi writes that there is already a playoff system in place, but we need to expand the field from 2 to 16, and kill off the rest of the bowls.


• Cory McCartney wants to know why we can't all just get along and why if a playoff system has worked for little brother Div I-AA, it won't work for the BCS. He writes that a playoff would be bigger than the basketball equivalent madness.
  

So my idea is to have a playoff with 12 teams, top four getting byes. The stipulations for choosing teams is this:

• Any conference winner that finishes in the top 25 in the BCS Standings receives an automatic bid. Top four with byes must come from this group. This rule would also keep conference winners who are not any good out. There's always the minor bowls (the football version of the NIT)
  


• The rest of the field is formed by the next highest in the BCS Standings with only two teams from each conference being selected.

If this were implemented the seedings would be as follows:

1. Ohio State (Big Ten Auto)
   
2. LSU (SEC Auto)
3. Virginia Tech (ACC Auto)
4. Oklahoma (Big 12 Auto)
5. Georgia (SEC At-Large)
6. Missouri(Big 12 At-Large)
7. USC (Pac-10 Auto)
8. W. Virginia (Big East Auto)
9. Hawaii (WAC Auto)
10. Arizona State(Pac-10 At-Large)
11. Illinois (Big Ten At Large)
12. Boston College (ACC At-Large)

This would keep No. 8 Kansas and No. 12 Florida out of the playoffs due to 2 SEC and Big 12 teams ranked higher. The first round would have the following games:

1. #12 BC at #5 UGA
2. #9 Hawaii at #8 WVU
3. #11 Illinois at #6 Missouri
   
4. #10 Arizona St. at #7 USC

A second round:

1. Winner of 1-1 at #4 Oklahoma
2. Winner of 1-2 at #1 OSU
3. Winner of 1-3 at #3 VT
4. Winner of 1-4 at #2 LSU
   

These first two rounds would be held a week after the regular season is over in two consecutive weeks. The bowls would still work as normal. The semifinals would be held a week after bowls in an actual neutral ground (Quit pretending the National Championship is a neutral field). Fields in between the two teams can put in bids for the game.

What do you think, send me your ideas on what could have been done better. I'm not perfect, but anything has to be better than this. Be sure to take into account keeping big revenue from bowls in mind and the such.

A crazy weekend lies ahead in the MLB

As we enter the final weekend of the Major League Baseball regular season, the playoff race is still in hot pursuit. For those Cardinals and Braves fans who aren't used to not having a team to cheer for at this time of the year, there are 11 teams still in it. Fans of other team eliminated from the playoffs? You know the drill.

Although the American League teams are already set, the match ups are yet to be determined, while seven National League teams remain in contention for the playoffs this year.

In the American League, the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (the name still drives me crazy - just pick one city!) have already clinched their divisions and the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have both clinched playoff berth, although Boston remains three games ahead of New York.

In the National League, no one has even clinched the playoffs as the New York Mets lead the East division by a game over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Arizona Diamondbacks lead the West division by a game and a half over the San Diego Padres and two and a half over the Colorado Rockies while the Chicago Cubs lead the Milwaukee Brewers by two games in the Central division.

This weekend promises to be a very exciting one in baseball. Determining home field advantage, the Red Sox host the Twins as the Indians travel to Kansas City to face the Royals. For teams fighting to simply make the playoffs, the Diamondbacks face the Rockies in a major battle for the division and the Brewers and Padres will play to keep their hopes alive.

The Cubs need any combination of three Cubs wins or Brewers losses to clinch the division, four Mets wins or Phillies losses for New York, three Diamondbacks wins and Padres losses for Arizona, and two Red Sox wins and Yankee losses for Boston.

Cleveland and Boston are currently tied for the best record in the AL, but the Angels and Yankees are not completely out of the running, although it would take a near miracle for New York. Barring a near complete break down by Cleveland and Boston, regardless of which team has the better record, in the first round of the playoffs, Los Angeles will face Boston and New York will face Cleveland.

On the National League side, the scenarios are not nearly as pretty. In fact, it is a possibility for a five-way tie for the National League wild card. The Cubs and Brewers have both been eliminated from contention in the wild card, and so they each can only reach the playoffs by way of division championship. However, the Mets, Phillies, Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies are all within two and half games of each other with the Diamondbacks at 89-70, Mets and Padres at 87-71, and Phillies and Rockies at 86-72.

So what if they are all tied at the end of the season? Well, first, division leaders must be determined, so the Mets and Phillies would face off in a one-game playoff on Monday to decide the East, and the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres would have a three-team, two-game playoff on Monday and Tuesday in a location to be determined. The Rockies have the best three-way head-to-head record and would have the option to either host the two-playoff, or receive a first game bye.

After that is determined, there will still be three teams tied for the wild card, so those three would face off in another three-team, two-game playoff on Wednesday and Thursday. If the Rockies are left, they would, once again, have the option to either host or receive the bye. If the Rockies win the West, however, there are way too many different three-way head-to-head record winners to print the scenarios here.

So should it come down to a five-way tie, the Rockies have a good shot to make the playoffs as if they choose the bye, only need to win one game out of two to make the postseason.

After all of these one-game and two-game playoffs on Monday through Thursday, we begin the actual playoffs on Friday.

Head spinning yet? Well there could also be a four-way tie for the wild card, which is possibly more absurd than the five-way tie, depending on who those five teams are. If the two NL East teams tie and two of the NL West teams tie with them as well, the Mets and Phillies would have the one-game playoff in Philadelphia to determine the division and the two NL West teams would also have a one-game playoff, unless of course the other NL West team was the division champion, in which they would face the loser of the NL East playoff in a three-team, two-game playoff. Should the other NL West team not win the division, after the two one-game playoffs, two teams remain tied for the NL wild card and will face a one-game playoff. If the Mets are involved in this one-game playoff, there will be a big coin flip to determine the site, as the Mets were so unlikely to not win their division when MLB did preliminary coin flipping to determine sites beforehand, that they never included the Mets.

And that's not even all of the possible scenarios, but I don't have room to publish them all. The craziness of the playoffs has only begun, and it should be an exciting postseason.