FanPost

MC's What-If 16 Team Playoff Projection: Week 1

Some of you may be familiar with the Wetzel Plan, a playoff system devised/supported by columnist Dan Wetzel (though it admittedly closely resembles many NCAA tournament formats, including lower division football) to make for a true national championship, something more logical than the BCS and more representative of the college football landscape as a whole. I figured I'd use that basic idea to show what the playoff picture would look like this year and, in my opinion at least, how much more exciting this setup would be.

The format is pretty straightforward:
-16 teams (all 10 conference champions and 6 at-large selections)
-For simplicity, I chose the highest BCS-ranked teams that didn't project to win their conference for at-large spots
-I only allow for no more than 3 teams from a single conference. This didn't affect this week's projection
-Once the teams are selected they are ranked from 1-16 and put into the playoff bracket. For simplicity I used BCS rankings when applicable and projected strength for the two (yes, only two) unranked teams
-I'm up for discussion on this, but I'm okay with first round matchups with teams from the same conference. This didn't come up this week
-The higher seed hosts first and second round games, and the semifinals and championship game are held at neutral sites

So, here is the field:
Alabama (SEC Champion)
Florida State (ACC Champion)
Oregon (Pac-12 Champion)
Ohio State (Big Ten Champion)
Missouri (At-large)
Stanford (At-large)
Miami (FL) (At-large)
Baylor (Big 12 Champion)
Clemson (At-large)
Texas Tech (At-large)
Auburn (At-large)
Fresno State (Mountain West Champion)
Northern Illinois (MAC Champion)
Central Florida (AAC Champion)
Rice (C-USA Champion)
Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt Champion)


Thoughts?

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