Doug Franz College Football Power Poll: Week 4

The week 4 standings are out for the BCS.

In case you don’t know from the things I’ve said on air.
I want a playoff in college football but I don’t have a
problem with the BCS formula. I just don’t want it used
to narrow the field from 120 to 2.

I have yet to hear any “pro current system” argument that
I can’t destroy on logical grounds, except one. I can’t
argue against anyone saying they like the current system
and they don’t want it changed. Other than that, I’m
still waiting for someone to convince me to give up my
dream for a college football playoff.

I put before you the Doug Franz College Football Playoff.
Every week the BCS rankings will change, therefore
changing the teams making the playoff. Check in each week
and see how things have changed. At the end of the
season, it’s up to you to pick the winners of each game
and set in motion the championship challenge.

If you want an explanation for the way my formula works,
check the bottom of the blog.

Here’s the playoff pairings if the regular season ended
today.

16) TCU @ 1) LSU

15) Cincinnati @ 2) Oklahoma St

14) Kansas St @ 3) Alabama

13) So Carolina @ 4) Stanford

12) Penn St @ 5) Boise St

11) Houston @ 6) Oklahoma

10) Va Tech @ 7) Oregon

9) Clemson @ 8) Arkansas

OBSERVATIONS

The game of the century was this weekend with LSU @
Alabama. If you think the playoff diminishes that game,
you’ve never been to an SEC game before.

Michigan State made the playoff two weeks ago for the
first time with their win over Wisconsin. Michigan State
got knocked out last week with their loss to Nebraska and
the Huskers went in. Now, with Northwestern’s upset of
Nebraska, the Big 10 loses the spot entirely as K-State
moves into the playoff.

Three weeks ago Oregon was traveling in the 7 v 10 game.
Two weeks ago they hosted it. Since Washington State is
so bad, beating them dropped Oregon to barely holding on
to a home game as the 8 seed. This week’s win over an
above average Washington team gets Oregon back into the 7
spot but barely over Arkansas.

The best high school players come from Florida, Texas,
California and Ohio. The DFCFP has no teams from OH or FL
and it’s the non-traditional TCU, Houston and Stanford
representing Texas and California.

The SEC West as a division has three teams in the tourney.
Not one conference has more than two.

Right now, TCU has a better conference record than Boise
State so they get the automatic bid. Boise St and TCU
meet next weekend in Boise. This is good news for Kansas
State who got knocked out of the playoff by losing to
Oklahoma but would be back in the playoff if the Mtn. West
only had one bid.

How’s this for a second round game: Oklahoma @ Alabama.
The Ole’ ball coach has to take a warm weather team up to
Stanford in December.

In the second round we get to see how Andrew Luck handles
the noise of Death Valley at night with 95,000 drunk Tiger
fans.

Boise State has earned the right to host a game against an
iconic college football program like Penn State.

The Broncos take on TCU on Saturday. This game will hurt
the Mountain West because after the BSU win, TCU will be
knocked out of the playoff.

CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN

By ranking every team 1-120, you get a true representation
of the best conference by taking the average BCS rank of
every team in the conference. This playoff system makes
every college football game in the country vital because
it rewards teams and conferences alike.

Here’s the ranking of the conferences after week 2 of the
BCS and the average BCS rank of the teams in the
conference.

1) Big 12: 27.5

2) SEC: 34.92

3) Big 10: 47

4) ACC: 50.42

5) Big East: 52.63

6) PAC-12: 54.42

7) C-USA: 65.21

8) Mtn West: 72.88

9) MAC: 84.08

10) Sun Belt: 87.89

11) WAC: 91.63

CONFERENCE OBSERVATIONS

Through all the crap that’s occurred in the Big 12, the
conference is stacked. Three teams in the top 14, 4 in
the top 16 and Kansas is last but only in 69th place.
If the Pac-12 dumped Colorado (110) and Oregon State
(100), the conference would jump ahead of the Big 10 and
be the third best conference in the country.

In the 11 years of the DFCFP, C-USA has never made the top
8.

The Ohio win over Temple actually hurt the MAC’s chances
of catching the Mountain West for the 8th spot because
Temple was the highest rated team. Temple took a hard
fall but Ohio didn’t advance much.

Want proof every game matters in the DFCFP? If Rice would
upset Northwestern, it locks in Conference USA’s champion
into the playoff for the first time in conference history.
I’m not arguing you should stop what you’re doing to watch
Rice/Northwestern but don’t tell me a playoff takes away
from the regular season when this playoff makes every game
important.

PLAYOFF EXPLANATION

The magic of the DFCFP is how it highlights the regular
season more than any other system. Here’s the process for
coming up with the teams for the playoff.

1) Rank all D-1 (FBS) teams 1-120 (from LSU to New
Mexico)

2) Rank all the conferences 1-11 based on the average
BCS rank of the teams in the conference.

3) Reward the first place team in the top 8
conferences with an automatic bid.

WEEK 4

1) Oklahoma State

2) LSU

3) Penn St

4) Clemson

5) Cincinnati

6) Stanford

7) Houston

8) TCU

4) Independents—this means you Notre Dame—get no
special treatment. If you’re not in a conference, earn a
wild card bid or join a conference.

5) Select 8 wild-card teams based on BCS rank
excluding those already selected with an automatic bid.

WILDCARDS

1) Alabama

2) Boise State

3) Oklahoma

4) Oregon

5) Arkansas

6) Va Tech

7) South Carolina

8) Kansas State

6) Rank the 16 teams based on BCS rank with no regard
to status as an automatic qualifier or wild-card entry.
The tournament would follow a bracket format. Although
re-seeding would be a better way to reward the regular
season, nothing is better than filling out a basketball
bracket and I want that momentum and attention on college
football.

7) First two rounds are at the home of the better
seed.

8) Final Four and Championship game are played at a
rotation among Fiesta, Cotton, Sugar, Rose.

I’m aware that after the first two rounds there are three
games left at neutral sites with four bowl game hosts.
This is leverage in case the Rose wants to stick to
tradition. If they duck out I’ve got three games and
three bowls. If the Rose does want to stay involved,
there would be a new bowl game created for the two teams
that just missed out on the playoff. This week would be
Georgia v Texas.

I give you the extra bowl game just to prove that the
bowls don’t have to die. Georgia v Texas is still a great
college football game with great fans. We wouldn’t have
35 bowl games anymore—sorry Pinstripe Bowl—but some of the
big ones with tradition don’t have to go anywhere. If
you’re an ASU fan are you saying you wouldn’t go watch the
Devils against Texas A&M in a Holiday Bowl just because it
wasn’t in the playoff? You’d still get the benefit of
extra practices to prepare for your bowl game. Players
would still get to enjoy the goodies they receive for
participating. As for the fans, we get a real champion.

Feel free to ask me any questions or give me your opinions
and I’ll put it in the mailbag: doug@ktar.com

Follow @Vincemarotta