Minnich's 2013 Airing Of Grievances

Before I get too far into the primary theme of this post, congratulations to Florida State, Auburn, Michigan State, Stanford, Baylor, Rice, UCF, Fresno State, and Bowling Green on winning their respective conference championship games.  Congratulations to each of these teams for achieving conference champion status.

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Anyone who knows or is familiar with my passion for college football is also accustomed to my passionate belief that college football needs a playoff system.  Yes, I know – a four team playoff is starting for the 2014 season.  Yes, I believe it will be an improvement over the present BCS system.

I refer to this time of year as my “Airing Of Grievances”, as my all-time favorite Seinfeld episode is “The Strike”, which features the themes of Festivus.  Among the concepts of Festivus are The Airing Of Grievances, as well as The Feats Of Strength.

Yes, college football will have a four team playoff, and I will concede it will be an improvement.  But…college football needs, and deserves, more. 

A 16 team playoff is the answer.  Why 16 teams, you ask?

Every conference champion (see up above) should be represented.  From the mighty SEC champion, to the lowly Sun Belt champion (congratulations to Louisiana-Lafayette, by the way; Louisiana-Lafayette did not win the Sun Belt via a conference championship game, which is why I did not list them up above.). 

College football fans are told repeatedly how every game matters, yet a four team playoff will exclude teams that are not considered “power conferences”.  Why not give a MAC champion or Conference USA champion a shot at the title?

And how would I get to sixteen teams, when there are only ten conferences?  Six at-large berths, based upon computer rankings.  Below, all rankings based upon computer rankings from ESPN and Jeff Sagarin.

Here is how this could work ~ 

·         American Athletic Conference (UCF)                       Seeded 12^th
·         Atlantic Coast Conference (Florida State)                 Seeded 1^st
·         Big 12 (Baylor)                                                           Seeded 9^th
·         B1G (Michigan State)                                                 Seeded 5^th
·         Conference USA (Rice)                                              Seeded 15^th
·         MAC (Bowling Green)                                               Seeded 14^th
·         Mountain West (Fresno State)                                     Seeded 13^th
·         Pac 12 (Stanford)                                                         Seeded 4^th
·         SEC (Auburn)                                                              Seeded 2^nd
·         Sun Belt (Louisiana-Lafayette)                                    Seeded 16^th
·         At-Large # 1 (Alabama)                                                Seeded 3^rd
·         At-Large # 2 (Ohio State)                                             Seeded 6^th
·         At-Large # 3 (Missouri)                                                Seeded 7^th
·         At-Large # 4 (South Carolina)                                      Seeded 8^th
·         At-Large # 5 (Oregon)                                                  Seeded 10^th
·         At-Large # 6 (Oklahoma)                                             Seeded 12^th

All games played at home team stadiums, with the higher seeded team being the host.  (For those of you wondering why I would rank Alabama over Stanford, it is due to Alabama having only lost one game, while Stanford lost two.)

Can you imagine how insane your December weekends would be if there truly was a playoff system like below?  Every conference champion gets a shot at the title.  And every deserving at-large team is rewarded for playing well throughout the season too.

Somewhat surprisingly to me, Dan Wetzel, author of "Death To The BCS", has switched from his previous position of including all conference champions, whittling down to an eight team playoff proposal.  Below is a brief Twitter exchange on the ideas of an eight or sixteen playoff system...

Here's @TyDuffy on benefits (and inevitability) of 8-team playoff. Post-realignment, its the best plan: http://t.co/zc4SCbZmlJ
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) December 11, 2013

@ChipMinnich @tyduffy too many at large bids and too many conferences are really weak. Only 5/6 legit now. Used to be 8/9. 8 is right number
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) December 11, 2013

 Until the day arrives where every conference champion is given a chance to win the national championship, I will be skeptical of any college football playoff system, with this serving as my Airing Of Grievances.  And until we have a system like mine, you can count on me to be ready for The Feats Of Strength…