College Football: Pretend Playoff Outlook Week 9

You can look at my previous week 6 rankings and my week 3 rankings. As I’ve stated over and over, I hate the BCS. I am currently reading the fantastic book Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. I am loving the book, but of course, I am already in the “destroy the evil BCS at all costs camp”, so authors Dan Wetzel, Jeff Passan and Josh Peter had a very willing reader in this guy (pointing thumbs at me).

In the book they propose a 16-team playoff, similar to my proposed playoff but with 8 fewer teams. All D-I conferences would get a an automatic bid, with 5 at-large bids. I like their ideas so much, I’m going to use it for my outlook for what the postseason should be from here on out.

Automatic Bids (All 11 FBS conferences) — My take on who will win each conference
ACC — Florida State (beats Virginia Tech in the champ game)
Big 12 — Nebraska (beats Oklahoma in champ game)
Big East — Pittsburgh
Big Ten — Ohio State
Conference USA — UCF (beats Houston in champ game)
Mid-America — Northern Illinois (beats Temple in champ game)
MWC — TCU
Pac-10 — Oregon
SEC — Auburn (beats South Carolina in champ game)
Sun Belt — Troy
WAC — Boise State

At-Large Rankings (my top 10, five get in, max three teams per conference)
1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Utah
4. Wisconsin
5. LSU
6. Stanford
7. Missouri
8. Arizona
9. Michigan State
1o. Nevada

Seeds (all conference champs and top 5 at-large)
1. Auburn
2. Oregon
3. Boise State
4. TCU
5. Nebraska
6. Alabama
7. Oklahoma
8. Ohio State
9. Utah
10. Wisconsin
11. LSU
12. Florida State
13. Pittsburgh
14. UCF
15. Northern Illinois
16. Troy

As you can see, I don’t have a lot of respect for the ACC or Big East this season.

First Round Playoff Match-Ups (would be played on home field of top seed)

• Troy @ Auburn
• Northern Illinois @ Oregon
• UCF @ Boise State
• Pittsburgh @ TCU
• Florida State @ Nebraska
• LSU @ Alabama
• Wisconsin @ Oklahoma
• Utah @ Ohio State

How cool would these match-ups be? The tradition of FSU and Nebraska. Utah getting a chance to take on Ohio State in Columbus. Troy and Northern Illinois getting a chance to knock off the big dogs. I would want to watch every single one of these games.

Bring on a playoff.