Tuesday, December 07, 2004
A modest proposal
College football madness: You have 11 conference champs. Take them and 13 at-large teams and you have 24 teams for a tournament. Who would we see in a tournament this year?
Automatic selections (11): Virginia Tech (ACC), Oklahoma (Big XII), Pitt (Big East), Michigan (Big Ten), Louisville (C-USA), Toledo (MAC), Utah (Mountain West), USC (Pac 10), Auburn (SEC), North Texas (Sun Belt), Boise State (WAC).
At-large selections (13): Texas, Cal, Georgia, LSU, Iowa, Miami (Fla.), Tennessee, Fla. State, Wisconsin, Virginia, Arizona State, Texas A & M, Texas Tech.
Snubbed (31): Florida, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, West Virginia, Boston College, Colorado, Memphis, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Miami (OH), Troy, Fresno State, UTEP, Notre Dame, Navy, North Carolina, G-Tech, Clemson, Syracuse, Connecticut, Minnesota, Iowa State, Southern Miss, UAB, Marshall, Akron, Oregon State, UCLA, Alabama, South Carolina, Hawaii
(You could take care of eight snubbed teams by eliminating the first-round bye, expanding the tournament to 32 teams. And picking eight worthy teams out of that heap wouldn't be too difficult. But that's for another day.)
OK, time to seed these guys...
No 1 seeds:
Gator Region: Cal
Peach Region: Auburn
Fiesta Region: USC
Cotton Region: Oklahoma
The rest of the seeding:
Gator: (2) Utah, (3) Boise State, (4) Tennessee, (5) Virginia, (6) Pitt
Peach: (2) Va Tech, (3) Louisville, (4) Michigan, (5) Texas A &M, (6) Texas Tech
Fiesta: (2) Texas, (3) LSU, (4) Florida State, (5) Wisconsin, (6) Toledo
Cotton: (2) Georgia, (3) Iowa, (4) Miami, (5) Arizona State, (6) North Texas
OK, now we have to schedule these 23 games...
First Round:
Nov. 24
Emerald BowlBoise State vs. PittMP Computers BowlNorth Texas vs. Iowa
Nov. 25
Fort Worth BowlFlorida State vs. Wisconsin
Nov. 26
Las Vegas BowlArizona State vs. MiamiHawaii BowlTexas Tech vs. Louisville
Nov. 27
Motor City BowlMichigan vs. Texas A&MInsight.com BowlTennessee vs. VirginiaIndependence BowlToledo vs. LSU
Dec. 1
Alamo BowlUtah vs. Emerald Bowl winner
Dec. 2
Liberty BowlGeorgia vs. MP Compiuters Bowl winner
Dec. 3
Houston BowlOklahoma vs. Las Vegas Bowl winnerSun BowlTexas vs. Independence Bowl winner
Dec 4
Holiday BowlUSC vs.Fort Worth Bowl winnerMusic City BowlAuburn vs. Motor City Bowl winnerOutback BowlCal vs. Insight.com Bowl winnerCapitol One BowlVirginia Tech vs. Hawaii Bowl winner
Dec 11
Peach BowlCapitol One Bowl winner vs. Music City Bowl winnerCotton BowlHouston Bowl winner vs. Liberty Bowl winnerGator BowlOutback Bowl winner vs. Alamo Bowl winnerFiesta BowlSun Bowl winner vs. Holiday Bowl winner
Dec 24
Rose BowlGator Bowl winner vs. Fiesta Bowl winnerSugar BowlPeach Bowl winner vs. Cotton Bowl winner
Jan 1
Orange BowlRose vs. Sugar winners
And the rest of the day Jan. 1 could be taken up with a bunch of new bowl games so we can see all the snubbed teams play. Can you imagine the payouts? How about it?
