Still number one is...

Coach Talk:  Week #3

    Each week, we read and listen to news related to the topic of college football conference realignment and consolidation.  If you’re like me, your ears tend to perk-up, and you yell “Shsh” at whomever is talking when this happens.  See, discussion and conjecture on realignment and/or consolidation in college football will ultimately create one thing that many of us would love to see, a Division One playoff in football.  There is much talk about 4 Super Conferences.  Right now, there are 68 schools that are called “FBS” schools, meaning that in football, they play in a conference that has an automatic qualifier to the BCS Bowls.  Notre Dame is in included since they have a “automatic criteria” for qualifying as an independent.  (I included TCU, since next year they enter the Big East.)  Anyway, 68 teams divided by 4 divisions gives you 4 super conferences of 17 teams in each.  I think BYU would enter as a BCS school if Super Conferences were formed.  That puts us at 69.  My magic number is 72 teams in the 4 Super Conferences, which means we have 18 teams in each conference, 9 in the newly formed Super Conferences’ two divisions.  We need three teams to jump from non-BCS status to BCS status.  How does Boise St., Navy, and Air Force sound?  Good, I agree.  

Anyway, now that we have established 72 teams, in 4 Super Conferences, each containing 2 divisions of 9 teams, we can create our new FBS playoff system.  Yea, yea, yea, if you want to label each playoff game that we create with a “sponsored bowl game title,” go ahead.  Anyway, there would not be any conference championship games.  Don’t need them.  We are going to make boat-loads of money on our 4 rounds of playoffs.  Okay, each Divisional champ of the 4 conferences will get an automatic berth.  That gives us 8 qualifying teams. (4 conferences, 2 divisions, rememeber?)  The highest BCS ranked team in each division will get a first round bye in the playoff tournament.  That gives us 4 first-round bye teams.  There will be a total of 12 teams in the playoffs.  Those 4 that get a first round bye, and 8 more that will square off in the first round. (Still with me???)   Those 8 will be comprised of the following:  the 4 divisional champions that did not get a bye in the first round;  the 2 highest ranked non-BCS conference teams; and the 2 highest ranked BCS conference teams that did not win a division in their respective conference.   That’s 12 teams.  Break them up into a 12 team bracket with 4 teams getting a round one bye, and you have 3 or 4 additional games for the two teams that qualify for the championship game, 2 or 3 additional games for the semifinalists, 1 or 2 for the quarterfinalists, etc. . . .  Sound good, huh?

WALA!!! There you have it, a proposed BCS Conference Championship with 4 Super Conferences in College Football.  Yea, I just threw it together, but so what.  It seems  that most of what comes out of the NCAA these days is crafted overnight without much foresight.  Well that is. . . as long at the money involved is not jeopardized.  I swear, my plan will make them even more money.  If I could prove that, who knows, maybe I could be put on the “committee.”  

Week #3:  Top 15

1. Oklahoma (2-0) Off last week, this week at #4 Florida St.(2-0), a 62-10 winner over FCS Charleston Southern last week.  (TOP 15 GAME OF THE WEEK!)  
2. Alabama  (2-0) Beat Penn St. last week, 27-11.  Home this week against North Texas (0-2), a 48-23 loser to Houston last week.
3. Boise St.  (1-0) Off last week.  Play at Toledo (1-1) this week, who almost took down Ohio St. last week in the Horseshoe.  Rockets lost 27-22, and they should have beat the reeling Buckeyes.
4. Florida St. (2-0)  Beat Charleston Southern last week 62-10.  This week they play at #1 Oklahoma.
5. LSU (2-0) Beat FCS Northwestern St. 49-3.  Play Thursday night at Mississippi St.(1-1), a 41-34 loser to Auburn last week.  
6. Nebraska  (2-0)  Beat Fresno St. (1-1) last week 42-29.  Home vs. Washington(2-0) this week, a 40-32 winner over Hawaii last week.
7. Stanford (2-0) Beat Duke (0-2) last week 44-14.  Play at Arizona (1-1) this week, a 37-14 loser to Oklahoma St. last week.
8. Wisconsin (2-0) Beat Oregon St. (0-2) last week 35-0.  Play in Chicago this week against Northern Illinois (1-1), a 45-42 loser to Kansas last week.
9. Oregon (1-1) Beat Nevada last week, 69-20.  Play FCS Missouri St. (0-2) this week.
10. Texas A&M (1-0) Off last week.  Have Idaho (1-1) this week, a 44-14 winner last week against FCS North Dakota.
11. Oklahoma St. (2-0) Beat Arizona (1-1) last week, 37-14.  Play at Tulsa (1-1) this week, a 31-3 winner against Tulane last week.
12. South Carolina (2-0) Nice win last week at Georgia (0-2), 45-42.  Play at home this week vs. Navy (2-0), a 40-14 winner last week over FCS Western Kentucky.
13. Virginia Tech (2-0) Beat East Carolina last week 17-10.  Home this week vs. Arkansas St. (1-1), a 47-3 winner against Memphis last week.
14. Arkansas (2-0) Beat New Mexico last week, 52-3.  This week at home vs. Troy (0-1), a 43-19 loser last week to Clemson.
15. South Florida  (2-0) Entering the Top 15 by beating Ball St.(1-1) 37-7 last week. This week play FCS Hampton. (0-1)