So, CLEARLY, Stanford has the hardest overall remaining schedule, followed by Clemson, followed by Texas, followed by Florida, and then Alabama. See what I did there with the numbers? And see what a travesty it is to play such terrible teams?

Tebow – #1, #32, #136
Ingram – #2, #37, #163
Spiller – #46, #63, maybe #7
McCoy – #64, #66, probably #26
Gerhart – #22, #36, no more games!
Moore – #56, #107, #155
Keenum – #132, #152, no more games!

Tebow and Ingram clearly have the toughest remaining schedules. And I bet HP doesn’t criticize Gerhart or the Pac 10 on December 5th. Is there ANYONE in the Pac 10 or the Big 10 that favors even the plus-one model for playoffs?

At 5 they play Cincinnati, which could be a dangerous game – probably a shootout. At 6 they would end up with TCU – a team NO ONE wants to play right now. Or if there’s a good number of strong teams behind them and they fall back to 8 and end up playing Alabama again (most likely the team that gave them the loss), or ever out of the top 8.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you’re TCU, Cincinnati, Boise, Georgia Tech, LSU, OSU, Oregon, or whoever in that 4-12 range, you still HAVE to win your games. The guys outside have to hope someone slips up. If you’re one of the smaller guys (TCU, BSU, Cinci), you know one loss will send you out of the top 8. Texas, Florida, and Bama are probably OK, but in a year where one of them had a loss already they’d be in danger too.

I understand then the controversy would switch to who is left out of the top 8, but that to me is much less a factor than the top 2. It’s like the basketball tourney – did that team who went 19-13 with a good win or two but got snuffed by the selection committee really have a chance to win it all?

In past years Auburn and FSU would make for good games next week for Alabama and UF, respectively.

I still feel that the setup is more likely to provide a champion than the classic bowls, so I view it as a positive change. A playoff is not going to happen in the immediate future (contractual obligations through 2014). However, one thing that could happen is a Classic Bowl + 1 (not the Plus One that the SEC pretended to put forward, knowing it would be rejected by Big 10 and PAC-10):

Play the normal classic bowls (with help ensuring the Top non-BCS team attends if in the Top 6 or so). The bowl picture might be something like this:

Sugar: SEC Champ (Alabama/Florida) against at-large (likely TCU or Boise State)
Orange: ACC Champ (Georgia Tech) against Big East (Cincinnati or maybe Pitt)
Fiesta: Big 12 against at large (probably TCU or Boise State, although it could be Iowa or Penn State or ???)
Rose Bowl: Big 10 (Ohio State) against PAC-10 (maybe Oregon or whoever)

This would not guarantee a single undefeated team as that is pretty much impossible to guarantee (sometimes every team loses during the season). The above scenario could result in 3-4 undefeated teams this year. It is not a tournament champion, per se. However, it does provide a decent competition for at least one game (and slightly more inter-connectivity).

I think this could partially satisfy those who want something approaching a playoff. However, it also keeps the presidents and bowls happy. The day after that last game (hopefully, January 2nd) the votes and computers would provide their tally and the top 2 BCS teams would be provided. This BCS championship could be held about the same time (about a week or so after the big bowls) and only 2 teams would play an extra game.

One advantage of this is that all of the smaller bowl game could actually be more important. They might have an impact about which teams make it into the championship (if one conference dominates post-season play then that might reflect better in the case of 3 teams of relatively equal caliber). Serioiusly… what is the holdup for this being done? I think it could feasibly happen next year or two if everyone was open to the change.

For me a bigger problem is not allowing Margin of Victory in some of the better algorithms (I prefer Sagarin Ranking or even Predictor is much better than the ELO-Chess, I would not mind the Football Outsiders’ FEI being included).

Everybody schedules cream puffs, but a school of Alabama’s stature should at least keep it in the realm of FBS cream puff. I would completely understand if Bama was playing UAB this week, and kudos to the Tide for playing VA Tech early…but Chattanooga is pretty pathetic.

But I suppose there is no point to this argument because most SEC honks will just beat their chest and talk about how the SEC is so boss that they shouldn’t have to schedule anybody with a pulse OOC because Vandy would win the Pac-10, ACC or Big-10 every year. The difference between them and I (an admitted Pac-10 guy) is that I can recognize the merits of the SEC, and, vice versa, the weaknesses of the Pac-10.