Tournament of Champions - 2007 Edition

The Tournament of Champions is a playoff alternative to the current BCS system that secures the participation of all 11 conference champions in Division 1-A college football to establish a divisional champion. In addition to crowning a genuine national champion, the Tournament aims to preserve the bowl tradition, ensuring (by not taking second-place conference finishers) that top-tier bowls keep top-notch teams.

The following demonstrates how this proposal would work following the 2007 regular season. We'll use the BCS standings as our ranking/seeding system, and allow any independent that finishes #6 or higher an invitation.

Conference Champions:

Seeding	Team	Conference
1	Ohio St.	Big 10
2	LSU	SEC
3	Virginia Tech	ACC
4	Oklahoma	Big 12
5	USC	PAC 10
6	West Virginia	Big East
7	Hawaii	WAC
8	BYU	Mountain West
9	Central Florida	Conference USA
10	Central Michigan	MAC
11	Florida Atlantic	Sun Belt

Independents: None qualify.

With the championship held in the Sugar Bowl, the other top-tier bowls have terrific games to be had among the #2 teams in each conference, with selections possibly going like this:

Rose: Arizona State vs. Illinois
Orange: Georgia vs. Kansas (or Boston College?)
Fiesta: Missouri vs. Florida

Each of these top bowl games would be worth the ticket. As for the Tournament of Champions, the brackets would be as follows:

Notable:

• #4 Oklahoma vs. #5 USC would be a killer early round game.
  
• With Ohio State looking flat toward the end of the season, an upset to BYU is entirely possible.
• Hawaii's undefeated season probably ends at #2 LSU.
  
• West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech would be a great regional matchup.
  

And the National Champion is...

We think Oklahoma, squeaking past USC in a game-for-the-ages, comes away with this championship beating BYU handily, then LSU in a close one. No matter who emerged from the Ohio St./Oklahoma/USC bracket, there would be no dispute that they belonged in the championship game.

For that matter, Hawaii winning over LSU and Virginia Tech would prove it belonged as well. Are we so sure that wouldn't happen, if the championship were allowed to be settled on the field rather than in polls and computers?