Simultaneous College Football Playoff And Bowl Seasons? Here’s How

Finally, bowl enthusiasts and playoff fanatics can have it all. Over at Kotaku, Owen Good details an elaborate video-game experiment of his own devising, simulating a 16-team college football playoff run concurrently with a 27-game bowl schedule.

↵It’s a scenario I’d never considered, and you likely haven’t either. Good is careful to point out that this is far from scientific, but the results are enticing, to say the least. Among the highlights from this alternate reality:

↵• Central Michigan gets a playoff nod despite being ridiculously excluded from the final BCS standings in the world we currently occupy (though they’re mown down by Cincinnati in Round 1 in the simulation).
• Round 2 brings a Florida-Alabama rematch (the Tide prevails again).
• The Outback Bowl gets to keep its precious boneheaded Auburn selection.
• Both pizza-based bowls are eliminated. Dry your eyes.
• Your major matchups on the bowl side: West Virginia and Ole Miss in the Sugar, Penn State and Arizona in the Rose, Clemson and Nebraska in the Orange, and Stanford and Oklahoma State in the Fiesta.
• And your final four in the playoff bracket: TCU, Alabama, Oregon, and Texas.
I cannot encourage you strongly enough to read this entire thing through. It’s amazingly plausible for such a sweeping set of reforms, and about all it will cost you, the viewing public, is the Little Caesars Bowl.

↵Meanwhile, SB Nation’s Mountain West Connection is running their own 16-team playoff simulation, with winners decided by fan voting. So far, five games have been “played,” with No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Texas, No. 4 TCU, No. 9 Georgia Tech and No. 12 Penn State all recording wins (the latter an upset over No. 5 Florida, no less). Currently, No. 7 Oregon has 75% of the votes against No. 10 Iowa, which, unless the Hawkeyes have a sudden surge of fan support, would set-up a second-round matchup between the Ducks and the Longhorns (which, of course, if this were real life, would be so very awesome).

↵See, coming up with a playoff system isn’t all that difficult. Are you paying attention, BCS?