Playoffs? Don't talk about Playoffs!

Ok I would like to start this post off with a disclaimer...I don't truly believe that division 1 college football needs a playoff or should have one. HOWEVER the BCS is absolute bullshit and there has to be a different way to do this.

Personally, I think that a four team playoff is the best and most cost effective way to do it. And when you really think about it, is the #5 team ever really a national championship contender? How can the #5 team really have an argument to be in the national championship game? In reality, we should just take the top 4 teams and have a true national championship game featuring the winners of the 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 bowl games.

BUT

For the sake of argument and creativity...here is an 8 team playoff format that may work...

Why just 8? because 16 is entirely too many and anyone who thinks that #12 Cincinnati could hang with and possibly beat #5 USC is gravely mistaken. 8 teams in would mean that the playoff would only take 3 weeks to complete. As for choosing the teams...and here's where things get a little bit radical...I would keep the conference championships BUT on the national stage, they would mean nothing. I would divide the country into 4 regions and have 4 at large teams. This season it would go like this: You would have Penn State from the Midwest region, Florida from the south, USC from the West, and Oklahoma from the Plains States. As for the 4 at large teams you would have to include Alabama, Texas, Utah, and Boise State but only because they were undefeated and if you run the table, you probably deserve a shot.

As for seeding, you would go by the AP Polls and get rid of any non-human method of choosing anything. So if my plan were in effect it would be a first round of...
#1 Florida vs. #8 Boise State
#2 Oklahoma vs. #7 Penn State
#3 Texas vs. #6 Utah
#4 Alabama vs. #5 USC
On paper, these are all pretty good match ups. And since we're only talking about paper let's do another round...
Florida would beat Boise State without any real trouble as would Oklahoma against Penn State. As for the rest of them, I think Texas would find that Utah and their ridiculously fast offense and surprisingly stingy defense, would give the Longhorns some trouble but Texas would still advance. Alabama, fresh off their loss to Florida in the SEC championship game would lose to USC so the semi final round would be Florida vs. USC and Oklahoma vs. Texas (again I know). Then of course Florida and Oklahoma would both win again and we'd have the exact same result we have now. BUT at least we would give everyone else who has a chance...a chance.

(notice the italics? Yeah, SarahVan just showed up...)

Wait...stop it...just stop you don't know what you're talking about.
While that is an interesting idea for a playoff. But come on, what self respecting playoff only includes eight teams? Sure, baseball does, but that is about it. NBA...16. NHL....16. NFL....12. NCAA Basketball....65. So why limit college football to just eight? It is just not fair...especially when you think about the quality of the teams across the country. Why not give a Boise State a chance to beat an Oklahoma EVERY YEAR, not just when everything works out perfectly.

Which is why I suggest the idea of a 16-team playoff. It is a great number (perfect square) and allows for the perfect amount of teams. Every one of the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences (formerly Division 1-A) gets one automatic bid. Whoever is considered the conference champion, whether there is a championship game or not, gets its conference's automatic bid. So this year, that would be:

ACC: Virginia Tech
SEC: Florida
Big 10: Penn State
Pac-10: USC
MAC: Buffalo (for real!?)
Big 12: Oklahoma
WAC: Boise State
Big East: Cincy
Mountain West: Utah
Sun Belt: Troy

Now for the at-large selections...we will take into consideration BCS standings for this exercise
Alabama
Texas
Ohio State
Texas Tech
Oklahoma State
TCU

So now that we have the teams set, now for some rules. The teams will be seeded, based on whatever. It doesn't matter that Troy won the Sun Belt...still going to be the 16 seed. Higher seed gets to host the game. Final four games will take place at one of the sites of the BCS bowls. It will rotate every year, so that each location still feels the love. The tournament will start the week after conference championships. This will then make December that much better...and we can still have our beloved New Years day games.

For the rest of the schools...let's keep the other bowls. We can get rid of the really stupid and terrible ones, like the Papajohn's bowl and the emerald bowl and the cereal bowl. ok i made that last one up. But get rid of a few insignifcant ones and call it a day.

This gives smaller schools a chance every year to pull off an upset. Granted, we will never see another awesome Boise State-Oklahoma game like we did a few years ago...but at least this gives us a chance for that to happen. Who knows...maybe Buffalo could pull off an amazing upset...who knows unless we give them a chance?!

I think a playoff is where we need to head. Granted the BCS stuff always "works itself out" but we just spent the last few weeks saying it wouldn't. and that happens EVERY year. so why not just do what i say? Because I am always right.

Not always Van, not always. 16 teams is entirely too many. Probably. Either way...In other news I have received information from my sources about the Eastern Michigan coaching vacancy. Chuck Martin, Scott Loeffler, and Fred Jackson are all interviewing with the EMU administration this week. I expect there to be another round of interviews next week as well unless one of these three guys just blows the AD and interview board away. We shall see. Oh and due to the fact that I'm an idiot (and a fiercely loyal reader pointed it out to me) I misspoke about Ball State going to the Motor City Bowl. They are actually going to the GMAC bowl in Alabama, so they won't really need a coat, but maybe just a jacket. Central is instead going to the Motor City Bowl for like the 8th year in a row. Awesome.

I would talk about the Tigers and their signings of SS Adam Everett and Catcher Gerald Laird, but if you remember, I grounded myself from writing about the Tigers in detail until after the first of the year. Sorry, it is what it is.

Now, THAT Was Fun!

EASTERN BEATS CENTRAL 56 TO Fifty...ummm...backwards six? (good lord)
The forums are ablaze with negative talk about Friday's Eastern Michigan win over hated Central Michigan. As I've mentioned before, I read the forums every day but only have enough creative energy to write on this blog every once in a while so I don't comment but still read them because I find them entertaining to see everyone talk about things they have no idea about. Seriously, it really cracks me up.

As for the game...holy shit.
It was a powder keg from the start. All the pre-game antics served as the match that lit the fuse and exploded into a contest that featured 108 points and 1171 total offensive yards. The EMU players were fueled with the roller coaster of emotions that comes with a coach getting fired. Luckily for "Eagle Nation" the roller coaster was climbing up a hill Friday morning.

It started off innocently enough, it was late in the warmup with both teams going through their last preparations for the game. This is typically a time where teams are usually in close quarters with each other anyway but most of the time an official or two is there to babysit. This was for some reason not the case on Friday. So you put two teams who naturally don't like each other standing on either side of the fifty yard line about 2-4 yards apart with no referee supervision and see what happens. It's like poking a beehive with a stick... somebody's gonna get stung.

No punches were thrown but there was a lot of shit being talked. I for one am completely fine with this type of behavior before a big game. Did any of you see the Michigan/Ohio State game? I LOVE that kind of stuff as long as it doesn't doesn't escalate into the brawl that happened with Clemson and South Carolina a few years back which I'm sure sent Lou Holtz into a lispy locker room tirade. As long as it's just two fired up teams being and acting like fired up teams, I'm completely fine with it and if I were coaching, I would encourage it (to a point of course, c'mon I'm not retarted).

The game just escalated from there. Eastern jumped out to a 14-0 lead with Genyk jumping around on the sidelines yelling across the field at Butch Jones, pointing up to the pressbox where the administration was sitting after each score, it was the guy's last game and he was going to go out with no bullets left in the gun. The game see-sawed back and forth with Central scoring just before the end of the half to make the score 42-35. There was about 4 seconds on the clock so CMU still had to kick off one last time to end the half. 4 seconds is a long time for a lot to happen and a lot happened. Central's kicker got jacked by an EMU player and the next thing you know there was some pushing and shoving and other random nonsense that resulted in two personal foul penalties against Eastern. This confused me because I saw one Eastern player at the bottom of a Central Michigan tap dance contest at one point during the fracas. Eastern would kick off from their own 7 and a half yard line to start off the second half because of the lack of throwing a flag on CMU...the MAC's favorite team in the world.

The second half of the game was slightly less insane. It came down to back to back fourth down stops for Eastern to win the game. Eastern wins 56-52 and Jeff Genyk rides off into the sunset with a 4-1 record against Central Michigan. Four wins against the best team in the MAC in five seasons is pretty damn impressive. As for the rest of the games....anyways, the EMU players gave Genyk a deserved Gatorade bath and ran onto the field to celebrate with the Michigan MAC Trophy (which, in typical EMU fashion, broke mid celebration...awesome). Of course, during the celebration there was one more brief scuffle with a few players from each side but cooler heads prevailed and CMU hopped on the bus to wonder if they will still get a bowl bid after losing to lowly Eastern Michigan.

To wrap this game up, Andy Schmitt completed a D1 (I refuse to call it the FBS) record 58 passes, an EMU record 516 yards, had 6 total TDs and was named today as the NCAA Player of the week. Tyler Jones celebrated his last game with 23 catches which tied the D1 record and broke the EMU record. In the last two games, Schmitt threw over 150 times and threw exactly 1 interception (a fluky tipped pass against CMU), also he threw for over 1000 yards in two games, and was only sacked twice in the process which is a huge testament to the offensive line. Jones totaled 40 catches in two games which is freakin amazing. As for all of the extra curriculars...c'mon folks, it takes two to tango and both teams were in the wrong. Am I ashamed of anyone from either team for what they did or said? Hell no I'm not. That is what college football is all about and it all resulted in a great football game between two now bitter rivals. Next year's game is going to be pretty violent, let's just leave it at that.

As for the coaching hunt, it is expected that there will be a few interviews this week for the job, Corwin Brown is added to the list of candidates. Right now my top four (of people given to me by sources) is Fred Jackson, Scott Loeffler, Erik Campbell, and Corwin Brown. See any kind of a resemblance? Yeah, all Michigan guys. I'll keep you posted when I hear more about the hunt.

Oh and since the EMU Athletics website won't allow me to copy their pictures, here's a picture of the official hot chick of Tobacco Juice Sports, Elisha Cuthbert.