The 2011-2012 4th Annual December Delirium

The BCS is the bane of college football’s existence. There are once again efforts being put forth to have it eliminated. Hallelujah. We can hear all the lame excuses to keep it as it is. We now have a college football “national championship” which looks more like a beauty pageant and popularity contest (read: SEC) than it does a true reflection of the best in the land (read: LSU and OSU). This year, we have a couple of decent BCS games, and two that have, seriously, no relevance whatsoever to the college football landscape: Michigan vs Virginia Tech (Sugar), and Clemson vs West Virginia (Orange). Yawn.

In January 2009, I proposed a solution: December Delirium. We already have a March Madness for college basketball, so it would only be appropriate to have a December Delirium for college football. It creates a playoff dependent upon computer rankings and conference champions, and a seeding based on their computer ranking. No need for beauty pageants or popularity contests – just win games in a strong season schedule, and/or win your conference. Simple.

Without further adieu, here is the playoff schedule for the 2011-2012 (and fourth annual) December Delirium.

Note: The computer rankings are listed in parentheses.

Conference Champions (11): LSU (SEC, #1), Oklahoma State (Big 12, #2), Oregon (PAC-12, #8), Wisconsin (Big 10, #14), Clemson (ACC, #16), TCU (Mountain West, #17), Southern Mississippi (Conference USA, #24), Big East (West Virginia, #25), Northern Illinois (MAC, NR, 10-3 record), Arkansas State (Sun Belt, NR, 10-2 record), and Louisiana Tech (WAC, NR, 8-4 record).

"At-large" teams: Includes the next 5 highest computer-ranked teams - Alabama (3), Kansas State (4), Stanford (5 with 11-1 record), Arkansas (5 with 10-2 record), and Oklahoma (7).

This system managed to get 8 of the top 10 AP poll teams. That would be a pretty good consensus with the beauty pageant rankings.

First Round West Region (seeding in parentheses):

Arkansas State (15) at Oklahoma State (2) – an easy first round home win for the Cowboys.

Clemson (10) at Oklahoma (7) – an upset waiting to happen, but the Sooners prevail.

TCU (11) at Arkansas (6) – the return of the Southwest Conference, but with a much stronger group of Horned Frogs. This one would be an upset thanks to the TCU defense.

Northern Illinois (14) at Alabama (3) – this game won’t come down to missed field goals. Roll Tide.

First Round East Region (seeding in parentheses):

Louisiana Tech (16) at LSU (1) – big game in bayou country, but the Tigers win the Battle of Louisiana.

Wisconsin (9) at Oregon (8) – this could very well be the best game of the first round. Wait – they currently call it the Rose Bowl! Oregon wins 57 – 54 in triple overtime.

Southern Mississippi (12) at Stanford (5) – an intriguing match-up, and a closer game than most pundits would expect, but the Cardinal win a close one.

West Virginia (13) at Kansas State (4) – new Big 12 members get pounded by old-school Big 12 members; welcome to the Big 12, West Virginia. Bill Snyder’s Wildcats prevail.

Second Round West Region:

Oklahoma (7) at Oklahoma State (2) – a repeat of Bedlam? Cowboys advance to the Regional Final.

TCU (11) at Alabama (3) – this one could be close; how about ‘Bama by a field goal this time?

Second Round East Region:

Oregon (8) at LSU (1) – you know you wanted to see this game. Would this be LSU’s first loss? Probably not, even though the thought is highly intriguing.

Stanford (5) at Kansas State (4) – Kansas State has too much defense, and Luck goes home without a national championship or a Heisman trophy. No worries when you are about to sign a multi-million-dollar NFL contract!

Imagine this – a true national championship playoff, and four teams remain: Oklahoma State vs Alabama, and LSU vs Kansas State. In two weeks, I will announce the final installment of the 2011-2012 December Delirium.

Photo credits: “lapolab”