A lot people bitch and moan about college football needing a playoff system. I am a member of the minority for two reasons:

1) I enjoy the debate about who is the best team in the country that inevitable ensues this time of year every time you and your buddies get together for a beer. And,

2) I love bowl season.

But as usual I have something to complain about…

The five mid-major conferences: The WAC, Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt, and MAC. And their illogical bowl tie-ins.

2007 Mid-Major Champion Bowl Matchups:

(conference tie-ins in parentheses)

Sugar Bowl

Hawaii (WAC Champ) v. Georgia

Las Vegas Bowl

BYU (Mountain West Champ) v. UCLA (Pac 10 No. 4)

Motor City Bowl

Central Michigan (MAC Champ) v. Purdue (Big Ten No. 7)

Liberty Bowl

Central Florida (C-USA Champ) v. Mississippi St. (SEC No. 7)

New Orleans Bowl

Florida Atlantic (Sun Belt Champ) v. Memphis (C-USA No. 4/5)

Excluding Hawaii v. Georgia, these bowl matchups suck. You know it and I know it. The problem lies in the bowl tie-ins.

How to Fix It?

Rank each mid-major champion at the end of each year and pit them against each other, leaving the lowest seed to play whatever garbage team wins just enough games to make it to the New Orleans Bowl.

Example:

(1) WAC Champ v. (2) Mountain West Champ

(3) C-USA Champ v. (4) MAC Champ

(5) Sun Belt v. Garbage Team

What if there is a BCS buster?

If any of these conference champs becomes a BCS buster (like Hawaii this year) then each conference champ moves up one slot in their matchup. For example, this year Hawaii goes to the Sugar Bowl. BYU would then play Central Florida, and Central Michigan would play Florida Atlantic.

This system would create better matchups, more excitement for players and fans, and a rewarding challenge for non-BCS teams other than playing some mediocre team from a BCS conference.

Timing of these Games - Fuck the International Bowl and GMAC Bowl

On January 5th, Rutgers plays Ball State. On January 6th, Tulsa plays Bowling Green. That’s retarded.

If the NCAA really wanted to generate some respect for mid-major conferences, they’d play the two mid-major Champion v. Champion bowl games (like I proposed above) on these two “bridge the gap” days between the Orange Bowl and National Championship game. The mid-major games would then become their own exclusive event.

What we are stuck with now

BYU’s reward for winning the Mountain West is playing a coachless UCLA team.

Central Michigan gets to play Purdue. These teams already played on September 15th, Purdue won 45-22.

Central Florida and potential record setting running back Kevin Smith (2,448 rushing yards this season) meet up with the most boring team in Division I-A: Mississippi State.

And Florida Atlantic matches up with a 7-5 Memphis team.

I don’t know about you, but I AM PUMPED!

“Wicked Case of Turf Toe” is Booth’s weekly column dedicated to passing judgment on the world of sports.

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