BCS Playoffs: What Would Have Happened Part II

So Kevin and I played out the mock playoff bracket we established. Here is what it looked like:


Click on pic to see matchups and results.

We based the seating on the final BCS Rankings before the 2007-2008 bowl season and put in the top 16 teams, with the #1 seats having to be BCS Conference champs with of course the higher ranked conference champ being seated higher. We had the first round played with the higher ranked team being the home team and then picked the biggest New Years Day/BCS Bowls to play out the elite eight, final four, and national championship: Gator, Cotton, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose with the Sugar Bowl venue doubling as the national championship matchup.

Oddly enough, Ohio State became our eventual national champion.

Notable matchups:

Opening round -
Virginia Tech vs. Boston College. If this were to have happened it would have been the third time they would have played, and this would have occurred just a couple weeks after their meeting in the ACC Championship game. Our result BC winning in O/T 34-27.

Georgia vs. Florida. Another conference matchup and this would have been interesting especially after their last meeting when the Bulldogs all rushed to celebrate in the endzone on their first touchdown. A late comeback spoiled another Bulldog victory as Florida squeaks by 42-38.

Second round -
LSU vs. USC in the Gator Bowl. This potential matchup is reason enough to have a playoff! LSU started off quick but USC mounted a killer second half scoring the majority of its points in the third as USC dominated LSU winning 42-23.

OU vs. Florida in the Cotton Bowl. In what could have been a great battle of offenses turned into an old-fashioned beatdown. OU had a quick start scoring most of their points in the first half until Florida turned on the jets and turned 4 second half Sooner turnovers into a 55-19 victory.

Final four -
Ohio State vs. Missouri in the Rose Bowl. Strange that Missouri advanced farther than OU, but that's unrelated. Mizzou proved no match for Ohio State as the Buckeyes outscore the Tigers 48-29 in what was a back and forth game until the Buckeyes took over in the fourth.

USC vs. Florida in the Orange Bowl. I'm telling you, these matchups just beg for a playoff! This game was surprisingly a defensive slugfest until late in the fourth. Florida owned a 7-3 lead for most of the game until USC scored touchdowns on back-to-back possessions and sealed it off with a safety to end the game 19-7.

...which leads us to the championship...
Ohio State vs. USC. And I know what you might think, Ohio State? But yes the Buckeyes made it through and in a shootout out-shot the Trojans 41-31, with their defense coming through and holding strong as the Trojans charged in two late drives.

Now some critics will argue that a playoff will make bowl games insignificant and make the regular season less significant. I say that most bowl are kind of insignificant anyway unless you are going to the school who is in that bowl. That and I'm willing to sacrifice a less significant regular season if we get matchups like that in a playoff. But I can't imagine a regular season having less significance, I mean a lot of teams have non-conference games against cupcakes schools like Louisiana-Lafeyette so how can that get more insignificant?

Playoffs! It won't happen in major college football anytime soon, but it's nice to imagine.