Once again fans are at odds over which NCAA football team should be ranked No. 1. The problem is that the two teams that vied for the title never played each another. The sportswriters and coaches ended up in a Solomon-like judgment that Michigan and Nebraska should share the title.
Why not do away with the present postseason system and follow the lead of the folks in basketball? There is nothing in sports more exciting than March Madness in the NCAA. Have a football playoff over three weekends and remove the uncertainty of which is the best team.
The coaches and sports-writers would agree on a list of the top eight (this year both groups had the same teams on their lists). The eight would be seeded and play quarter-finals, semifinals and a championship game over three weeks (Winter Madness), whittling the teams down from eight to four to two, the last pair playing the championship game on the first weekend after the new year.
The NCAA would use as venues seven of the more established bowls (not the Outback Bowl). For example, the Rose, Cotton, Orange, Gator, Fiesta and Liberty Bowls. The Rose, Cotton, and Orange Bowls would host the semifinal and final matches (rotating the site of the final game), with the other four serving as sites for the quarter-finals.
Picking the top eight teams regardless of their conferences would also avoid the problem pro football faced: having Green Bay and San Francisco face each other (many fans considered their Jan. 11 game to be the de facto Super Bowl).
If the NCAA had done this, Michigan and Nebraska would likely have played each another, and there would be less doubt as to which one was truly the better team.
