The Pointless Hypotheticals Division presents: A Far Superior Alternative to the BCMess

Today's long-ass piece starts off with a few statements of fact:
1. The bowl pairings were released yesterday.
2. Nobody really likes the bowl system all that much.
3. The NCAA Basketball tournament is the most fun event of the sporting world.
4. I'm a sports nerd, and love "What If" questions.
5. I'm finishing up my laundry, and a typical Wisconsin December (read: cold and snow, interspersed with occasional snow and cold) combined with me being too dirt poor to afford a car means that going anywhere outside is generally not a good idea.

Combine these, and what do you get?
1. The football people at the NCAA should pull their heads out of their asses and switch to a playoff system.
2. Since #1 isn't going to happen, and I have nothing better to do until Monday Night Football, I took the liberty of designing my own version.

Here's the basic concepts of my system: For one, it's 32 teams, divided into 4 regions of 8 teams. Which seems like a fair number. You get pretty much the entire Top 25 in there, plus a few stragglers. Plus, the five-round setup means that the schedule would go like this:
1st Round: Dec 12 (at the home stadium of the higher seed)
2nd Round: Dec 19 (at a neutral site)
Regional Final: Dec 26 (at the same neutral site as last week's game--probably, the 4 existing BCS bowls could each host a regional)
National Semifinals: January 1/2 (at another neutral site)
National Championship: January 9 (same site as last week)

There you go. Everything fits in the schedule, and one of the main arguments against a playoff system (it makes the season too long!) gets blown out of the water. Guess when this year's championship game is, sans playoff? January 7. Yep, we just extended the season by two games. I'm shocked the world isn't ending.

(As an aside, the other two arguments against a playoff hold no water as well. A 17-game schedule is too grueling? When these guys get to the NFL, they'll be playing at least 16 games. And none of those games will be against Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, UTEP, or UCF--Texas's actual non-conference schedule this year. The every-week schedule through December will distract students during finals? Any more than daily practices do for the several dozen bowl-bound teams? If anything, you're looking at fewer teams getting distracted: 16 teams will be playing after finals week, as opposed to the 66 that currently do.)

Another fun catch: every conference champion gets in. Which means jack shit for Alabama, Georgia Tech, or Oregon--who would've been here anyway. But also means that East Carolina and Troy have a bite at the apple. Okay, not much of one. But still.

Taking this idea, I ran with it. Take the BCS rankings, use them to fill out the seedings as best as possible, and fill in the last few with ESPN's power rankings. Tweak them where needed for extreme regional purposes and to make sure you have no in-conference first-round matchups, and you're set to go.

Here's what the playoffs would look like:

#1 Seeds: Alabama (East), Texas (South), Cincy (Midwest), TCU (West)
Regional pairings: East vs. West, South vs. Midwest

Midwest Region:
1 Cincinatti
2 Ohio State
3 Iowa
4 Penn State
5 Oklahoma State
6 Utah
7 Central Michigan
8 East Carolina
Notes on the region: The 7 seeds ended up a bit screwy (I originally had Northwestern here, but had to move them so they weren't playing Ohio State in the first round), but other than that everything fell into place. A couple great first round matchups: Ohio State-Central Michigan would be a lot closer than people think, and Penn State-Oklahoma State would be a thriller. A possible Ohio State-Iowa rematch in the second round, and a possible Ohio Bowl between OSU and Cincy for the regional final all look great--if Terelle Pryor doesn't self-destruct, like he is wont to do. And there will be opportunities for it--Central Michigan is one of the most underrated teams in the country (they played Arizona damn close, and beat Michigan State in a memorable game early in the year); and Iowa took them to overtime.
Picks: Cincy, OSU, Iowa, and OK State advance. Iowa over Cincy in the final.

West:
1 TCU
2 Oregon
3 LSU
4 BYU
5 Oregon State
6 Stanford
7 Northwestern
8 Texas Tech
Notes: TCU smoked BYU in their regular season matchup. Love the Stanford-LSU upset potential--and that opens the door for Oregon having to face their only conference loss in the 2nd round. Also love TCU-Texas Tech in the first round. He'll, these all look like they could be competitive. And it's not like that's exciting or anything.
Picks: TCU, Oregon, Stanford, BYU advance. TCU over Stanford in the final.

East:
1 Alabama
2 Boise State
3 Virginia Tech
4 Miami
5 West Virginia
6 Wisconsin
7 Clemson
8 North Carolina
Notes: Alabama gets lumped in with a large number of vagabonds. The 4 through 7 seeds were all moved due to matchup or regional problems. West Virginia graded out the last 4 seed originally, but would've been playing Pitt in the first round. Wisconsin was bumped up to avoid USC playing in the East. Boise State got shafted by the BCS, but they graded out as the second-best 2-seed, so I couldn't justify dropping them--so, to mimic the BCS screwing them over, I stuck them in the East. And put them against Clemson--a frisky team that probably is a lot better than their 7 ranking indicates. None of the underdogs are taking down Bama, but the rest of the bracket would be entertaining as all hell.
Picks: Bama, Boise, Wisconsin and Miami advance. Bama slaughters Boise in the final.

South:
1 Texas
2 Florida
3 Georgia Tech
4 Pitt
5 Arizona
6 Nebraska
7 USC
8 Troy
Notes: Pitt was a high 5 that benefitted from a would've-been first-round date with a conference team. USC was a low 6 that was hurt by the regional shake-up. GA Tech-Nebraska might be the most entertaining 1st-round matchup on the list: I absolutely love both teams. This region is stacked. Florida-USC? Thanks for playing, Matt Barkley. You can pick up your consolation prize on the way out, and don't forget to use this four-pick performance as motivation during the off-season. The spread for Texas-Troy might top 50 points. Tebow vs. McCoy with a regional championship on the line? That blows any drama during a pre-New Years bowl game out of the water.
Picks: Texas, Florida, Nebraska, Arizona. Florida over Texas in an instant classic.

Final Four: #1 Alabama vs. #1 TCU; #3 Iowa vs. #2 Florida.
Notes/Picks: A lot of people thought TCU should play Bama for the national title. They'll get their shot here. I think it's a classic, I think TCU puts up a heroic fight, but I think Bama just has too much. On the other side, I again think the SEC team is too talented, and will withstand a heroic upset effort. And in the SEC rematch? I think Tebow gets his vengeance.

Questions? Comments? Like it? Hate it? Want my body? That's what the comments section is for. Thanks for reading, as always.