As fans of college football we are growing tired of this BCS system. We are much more interested in a playoff to decide college football's champion. Here at The Sports Party we have decided to conduct our own playoff using the College Football NCAA12, which is a video game for the unknowing, to play our games and crown our National Champion.
We first had to set up some ground rules for our playoff. It is an eight team playoff with the conference champions rewarded with the top five seeds in our bracket. Wait you are saying there should be six champions? Well, the Big East is so bad we excluded their champion, West Virginia. But we justified it! In our playoff the conference champion has to be ranked in the Top 14 to make the playoffs. Sorry Big East your champion plays in the Belk Bowl this year.
Now we have our champions from the five conferences, LSU, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Wisconsin and Clemson, and we rank those teams one through five based on their BCS ranking. The next three teams are the top three remaining schools in the BCS polls, Alabama, Stanford and Arkansas, and they are ranked according to their BCS ranking. Here are the eight teams in the Sports Party Playoffs and their rankings.
1. LSU
2. Oklahoma State
3. Oregon
4. Wisconsin
5. Clemson
6. Alabama
7. Stanford
8. Arkansas
This system obviously rewards winning your conference, which hurts the second place SEC team, but this system also doesn't account for conference affiliation in deciding which teams get in, which helps the SEC as a conference.
It would have been easy to just let the top four seeds play home games but we still have that 5th conference champion crying foul. Why should they have to go on the road when all the other conference champions get to play at home? Here's the solution: the game between the fourth and fifth place teams will be played at one of the current BCS bowl game stadiums and so will the games of the semifinal round and the National Championship game. So the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls are still relevant in our system. They just become the fourth and fifth place game, the semifinals and the National Championship on a rotating bases.
Now that we have laid all the ground rules, let's get to the first round of the Sports Party playoffs.
Saturday, December 17th
Noon: LSU vs. Arkansas, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
LSU-35
Arkansas-23
A repeat of the Black Friday match-up between the then first and third ranked team in the polls is the first game of the day when one seed LSU takes on the eighth seeded Arkansas. LSU was too much for Arkansas from the beginning on both sides the ball. The running game, behind running back Michael Ford, and a smothering defense decided this game by halftime when LSU was up 35-10. Arkansas came out and scored 13 unanswered points in the second half and had an opportunity to score again with less than a minute in the game but Razorback quarterback, Tyler Wilson, threw an interception to seal the game for LSU, 35-23.
Player of the Game: LSU Running Back Michael Ford-19 carries, 172 yards and three touchdowns.
3:00 pm: Oregon vs. Alabama, Eugene, Oregon
Oregon-14
Alabama-16
This match-up pits the dominating defense of Alabama against the prolific offense of Oregon and neither team dominated the first half. Alabama did have the lead at halftime but was only up six points, 13-7. Oregon took a one point lead on a 85 yard run by De'Anthony Thomas with 2:35 left to get in the third quarter. Going into the fourth quarter that one point would still stand. With 3:51 left in the game Jeremy Shelley kicked a 38-yard feild goal to give Alabama the 16-14 lead. Oregon would start their final drive of the game with 1:56 left on the clock and the Ducks were putting together a solid drive until Darron Thomas threw an interception to Mark Barron that ended this tight game.
Player of the Game: Alabama Quarterback AJ McCarron- 11-17 passing, 209 yards and one touchdown.
6:00 pm: Oklahoma State vs. Stanford, Stillwater, Oklahoma
Oklahoma State-35
Stanford-31
As the sun began to set, we were hoping for things to continue to heat up as two prolific offenses stepped on the field in Stillwater. We didn't see quite the scoring output we wanted in the first half but the first half was tight and the teams were tied 14-14 at halftime. The second half would give us the scoring we wanted to see. Oklahoma State scored within 29 seconds of the third quarter and the scoring onslaught was on from there. By the end of the third quarter the game was tied 28-28. With 2:53 left in the game, Brandon Wheeden was picked off by Harold Bernard and gave Andrew Luck 1st and goal from the 7-yard line. Oklahoma State held tough and forced Stanford to kick a field goal giving Stanford the 31-28 lead with 2:08 remaining in the game. Less than a minute later Stanford had a chance to run out the clock but Andrew Luck threw an interception to Brodrick Brown and Oklahoma State took over first and goal on the 9-yard line. Three plays later Wheeden threw a touchdown pass to Tracy Moore with 34 seconds left in the game. The game would come down to a Hail Mary pass from Andrew Luck that was knocked down in the end zone.
Player of the Game: Oklahoma State Wide Receiver Justin Blackmon-5 receptions, 138 yards and three touchdowns.
9:00 pm: Wisconsin vs. Clemson, New Orleans, Louisiana
Wisconsin- 21
Clemson- 22
The last game of the day took place in New Orleans and the Clemson offense hoped to continue the party inside the stadium. Wisconsin, behind quarterback Russel Wilson and running Montee Ball, felt their offense could make some noise as well. Both offenses were able to move the ball extremely well in the first half but the Wisconsin defense was able to stop Clemson's offense in the red zone and force them to kick two field goals and only score one touchdown. Wisconsin's offense had no trouble in the red zone and they were able to punch the ball in three times and had a 21-13 lead going into halftime. The second half started with Clemson scoring on a 16-yard pass from Tajh Boyd to Deandre Hopkins but failed the 2-point conversion and heading into the fourth quarter they were down 21-19. With 2:57 Montee Ball fumbled the ball and Clemson recovered with great field position, starting their drive on the Wisconsin 25-yard line. They would only be able to come away with a field goal but it was enough to take a one point lead with 2:26 remaining in the game. The ball would change hands two times after both teams were forced to punt and Wisconsin would start their final drive on their own 29-yard line with 48 seconds on the clock and no timeouts remaining. Wisconsin moved the ball well and were almost in field goal range when Mansa Joseph blitzed from corner position and forced a sack that allowed time to expire.
Player of the Game: Clemson Quarterback Tajh Boyd- 14-23 passing, 258 yards and two touchdowns.
The second round match-ups are LSU-Clemson and Oklahoma State-Alabama. Check in tomorrow for the second round of The Sports Party playoffs.
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