Take the Bobcats, the Bison, the Jackrabbits and the Aggies
The FCS playoff takes center stage on Friday night and Saturday afternoon
Let's just say that the 12-team College Football Playoff system is a mess.
It's sort of the Electoral College of football, a process that no one likes, but was arrived at through goofy compromises with the major conferences in an attempt to keep everyone happy.
Without those compromises, we'd probably still be stuck with a four-team playoff that pleased absolutely no one.
I think it's fine that the top five conference champions get into the playoff. A conference championship has to mean something, after all.
But there's no way the top four conference champions should all get a bye. That makes no sense at all.
A bye, where you play one less game than many others in the field, is a huge advantage. Now you have to win only three games - instead of four - to claim the national championship, which means you have less risk of injury and less risk of a loss.
Put simply, if the playoff remains at 12 teams, the selection committee should award bids to the top five conference champions, plus seven at-large schools. It should then rank those teams, 1 to 12, and award byes to the top four, whether they won a conference championship or not.
Awarding byes to Arizona State and Boise State is sheer nonsense. Neither is among the top four teams in the country.
UC Davis competes in the FCS, which has a 24-team playoff, with 10 of those teams being conference champions and the other 14 selected at large. However, the conference champions do not automatically receive a bye. No, the teams are ranked and byes are awarded to the top eight. Thus three teams from the Missouri Valley and three teams from the Big Sky, including UC Davis, were ranked in the top eight and received first-round byes.
UC Davis is the No. 5 seed, even though it did not win its conference championship.
The NCAA basketball tournament also awards automatic bids to a great number of conference champions, but none of those schools get an automatic bye.
The solution to this mess is simple, but the power conference's refuse to yield.
The players and the fans deserve much, much better.
This week's picks are as follows:
ARMY over NAVY ... Army's ground troops will sink the Midshipmen.
FCS PLAYOFFS:
MONTANA STATE over IDAHO ... These teams met during the regular season in Bozeman and MSU roared away to a 38-7 rout. There's little reason to believe things will be different this time around, again in Bozeman. Bobcats 42, Vandals 14.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE over MERCER ... Lord have mercy on Mercer. Bison 38, Bears 7.