Rethinking the Bowl Games

Yesterday, I outlined my plan for realigning the FBS level of college football. One aspect that I neglected to address is the postseason playoff and bowl game structure. Under this new alignment system, the bowl sites currently serving as the New Year's Six bowls would now serve as the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the playoff, on a rotating basis; however, these games would no longer be considered bowl games themselves. These sites are as follows: Pasadena, CA; New Orleans, LA; Miami Gardens, FL; Dallas, TX; Atlanta GA; and Glendale, AZ. Higher-seeded schools would get first choice in terms of site selection for these rounds. The final would also remain as a designated national championship game, to be played annually at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. The quarterfinal round would be played on the first Saturday following the end of the regular season (currently conference championship week). The semifinal round would be played two weeks later, and the championship would be held two weeks after that.

Additionally, there would be 16 bowl games comprising the rest of the postseason, meaning that 40 teams in total (half of the reduced FBS) would be postseason eligible. Bowl sites are chosen based on geography (ie location south of the 36th parallel) and historical significance; corporate naming rights for bowl games would be prohibited. Bowl eligibility would still be determined by overall record, requiring 6 wins over FBS opponents. However, bowls would now be divided into regions, and each of the four regions would have a designated conference tie-in. Bowl eligible schools would be seeded 2-5 within each conference (with the playoff representatives being the #1 seed), and would play the same seed from the assigned opposing conference for that region, as follows:

East Region

Orange Bowl - Miami Gardens, FL - ACC #2 vs Big East #2

Citrus Bowl - Orlando, FL - ACC #3 vs Big East #3

Gator Bowl - Jacksonville, FL - ACC #4 vs Big East #4

Hall of Fame Bowl - Tampa, FL - ACC #5 vs Big East #5

Southeast Region

Sugar Bowl - New Orleans, LA - SEC #2 vs Big Ten #2

Peach Bowl - Atlanta, GA - SEC #3 vs Big Ten #3

Liberty Bowl - Memphis, TN - SEC #4 vs Big Ten #4

All American Bowl - Birmingham, AL - SEC #5 vs Big Ten #5

Southwest Region

Cotton Bowl - Dallas, TX - SWC #2 vs Big Eight #2

Sun Bowl - El Paso, TX - SWC #3 vs Big Eight #3

Bluebonnet Bowl - Houston, TX - SWC #4 vs Big Eight #4

Alamo Bowl - San Antonio, TX - SWC #5 vs Big Eight #5

West Region

Rose Bowl - Pasadena, CA - Pac-10 #2 vs American #2

Fiesta Bowl - Glendale, AZ - Pac-10 #3 vs American #3

Holiday Bowl - San Diego, CA - Pac-10 #4 vs American #4

Aloha Bowl - Honolulu, HI - Pac-10 #5 vs American #5

Note that if a conference does not have enough bowl-eligible schools to fill its bowl bids, a bowl-eligible school from another conference may be assigned instead.

These bowl games would take place across four consecutive days between the playoff semifinal and national championship game, with the final day being New Year's Day (if any of these days happen to fall on Sunday, that day would be skipped). Games in the East region would be held at 12:00 ET on ESPN, Southeast at 2:30 ET on CBS, Southwest at 5:00 ET on FOX, and West at 7:30 ET on ABC. A similar schedule would be used for the playoff quarterfinal games; semifinals would be held at 3:30 ET and 7:30 ET on ABC, while the national championship would be at 7:30 ET on ABC.

Overall, this vision of a new postseason would serve several purposes. First of all, it would detach the bowl games from the playoff and national championship contests, restoring them to their original purpose of being simply exhibition contests. Second, the money-driven glut of corporate sponsored bowl games would be massively curtailed, while still maintaining the most historically significant games. Third, and perhaps most interestingly, the bowl games would now serve as a greater source of interconference competition than ever before, with the explicit, consistent conference tie-ins that this proposal would employ. In a sense, bowl season would be transformed into "conference pride week". 

While the likelihood of a system like this ever being implemented is as low as the realignment scheme itself - after all, why would the Rose Bowl ever willingly give up its traditional role of hosting the Pac-8/10/12 and Big Ten champions - it's still something worth considering.