Evenly Divided

Our "Selection Monday" episode of Tailgate Overtime, wherein we laid out a Division I football playoff bracket based on a model sent to us by a faithful viewer, drew a few e-mails from the college football nation, including a couple that offered similar homegrown D-I playoff theories. Most of the models called for no more than eight spots in a D-I playoff, unlike the 16 that we laid out on the show.

Here's my problem with an 8-team bracket: there are 119 teams currently playing Division I football, from Air Force to Wyoming, with a handful of independents sprinkled in between 11 conferences. The talent level, financial commitment, and track record of teams in these 11 conferences vary widely - there's an enormous difference between Florida International in the Sun Belt and Florida in the SEC. Yet, the NCAA considers them "equals," in the sense that both are Division I football programs.



Equals? Yeah, ummm...no.





In my view, if we're going to have a true Division I national champ, we have to take every Division I program into account. That means automatic bids for every Division I conference champion -- 11 bids, right off the top. Throw in 5 at-large bids to round out the field, and there's your bracket of 16. If we separate the "power" conferences from the weaker sisters - as many of the 8-team models require - we're no better than the current BCS format, a subjective list of criteria that produces a subjective title game, with no real basis for calling itself the "national championship."

While the "all D-I teams are equal" logic is flawless, it's nine miles from reality. As any fan knows, not all Division I conferences are created equal, and neither are all Division I football programs. Though the NCAA considers them both "Division I," there's no way that Eastern Michigan can compete on a regular basis with Michigan. Then again, you would have said the same thing about Rutgers as recently as two years ago. Hold that thought.

Of those 119 Division I teams, how many have a legitimate shot at cracking the top 25 in a given year? If you take school size, football budget, ability to recruit, noteriety, and historical records into account, I can give you about 50. And of those 50, maybe half can make a serious, annual run at a national title.

Less than half, actually. I counted 22. I won't tell you which ones, but here's a hint: they're not in the MAC, Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt, or WAC. What if, rather than fighting it, we simply acknowledged the fact that there's a dramatic discrepancy between the 119 Division I programs, and we quit pretending they're all on equal footing?

What if we split Division I programs into two subdivisions, one filled with teams that have the resources and commitment to compete for a national title, and one filled with schools that don't have the same assets? For the purposes of this argument, let's call them the Playoff Division and the Bowl Division.

Every D-I program plays a standard schedule, keeping current conference ties intact. However, the 50 teams in the Playoff Division (that number could change - stand by) are also playing for one of the 16 berths in the Division I bracket. If they miss the playoff, they can still accept bowl bids, which also happens to be the goal of teams in the Bowl Division.

Here's the catch: every year, based on their success or failure on the field, teams may be moved up into the Playoff Division or down into the Bowl Division. That's right, my fellow Americans - I'm talking about promotion and relegation, the model employed for years in European professional soccer leagues.



Is this wanker serious? Pour me a Guinness.





The trick would be to establish criteria by which teams move up and down. Simple win/loss record won't do it, because all 119 D-I teams obviously don't play each other every year (and everybody has hot years and cold years), but winning over an extended period of time would be rewarded. Perhaps we'll add a financial requirement to membership in the Playoff Division - schools must spend a certain amount of money on football to even be considered. Once we establish the criteria for moving up or down - and that's the tough part - the number of Playoff Division teams and Bowl Division teams would likely fluctuate from year to year.

Imagine the attention you'd bring to college football when a power program (Florida State, Miami) teeters toward demotion, while an upstart (Rutgers, Boise State) fights for promotion into the Playoff group. A two-tiered system in D-I would accomplish several goals: give us a true national champ, keep the bowl system intact, and reward teams that improve themselves on the field, while denying "power programs" the outlet of coasting on reputation. But it all keys on a universal admission that all Division I programs are not created equal.

If a playoff cannot work within the current Division I structure, maybe we change the structure. As it stands, a Division I playoff is our little Kobayashi Maru, a no-win scenario. Perhaps we should heed the example of Admiral James T. Kirk and change the conditions of the test.



Kirk out.