2012.02.10
Hokies AD Jim Weaver favors a plus-one BCS model
With the Bowl Championship Series on the precipice of change amid proposals for an overhaul to college football’s postseason, Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said Friday that he still prefers a plus-one model.
The format, which Hokies head coach Frank Beamer has been on record as being in favor of, would essentially be a four-team playoff, with the No. 1 and 4 seeds and No. 2 and No. 3 seeds playing in the semifinals.
Unlike the proposal just getting off the ground in the Big Ten that would have the semifinals played at on-campus sites, Weaver prefers a model that uses the BCS bowls as semifinal sites. The national championship game would be played two weeks later to allow teams time to “recover and travel.”
Why does he favor that model?
“Because I don’t want to play at Michigan in two feet of snow eventually,” Weaver said. “That’s not what we’re after. We’re not trying to deal with the elements. We’re trying to have a good environment. An environment like that it’s going to be difficult to sell tickets potentially. I think that’s just my feeling. I think it ought to be on a neutral site.”
It seems inevitable that the current BCS model, which is under contract through the 2013-’14 bowl season, will include sweeping changes, with automatic qualifier status probably going away and other tweaks. But the highest priority, at least to fans of college football, seems to be in coming up with a better way of deciding the national champion, especially after a rematch decided the 2012 BCS title between two SEC teams — Alabama and LSU — not only from the same conference but the same division.
In addition to the proposal gaining steam in the Big Ten, Arizona State president Michael Crow has suggested an eight-team playoff that includes the eight highest-ranked champions of the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences.
Weaver thinks that’s too many teams, adding that most presidents have vetoed that approach in the past.
“One of the reasons that that is not viable in my opinion is that every school has a different academic calendar,” he said. “Some people finish up finals before the holidays. Some don’t finish until after the holidays. And therefore there is not equality in the preparation for the games.”
Under a plus-one model, Virginia Tech would have been involved in the playoff bracket twice, in the 1999-2000 season, when it would have been the No. 2 seed, and the 2007-08 season, when it would have been the No. 3 seed.
In an eight-team playoff, the Hokies, as league champions, would have been involved five times — 2000, ’05, ’08, ’09 and ’11.
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Weaver didn’t think the ACC’s decision to play nine conference games once Pittsburgh and Syracuse join the league will affect the Hokies’ future scheduling much. Virginia Tech has non-conference games already scheduled with Pitt in ’12 and ’13 that can easily be switched to league games, since the two will be in the same division.
The only conflict will come in 2014, when the ACC will likely have a nine-game schedule. Virginia Tech has games vs. William & Mary, vs. East Carolina, at Ohio State and vs. Western Michigan that year. One will have to be moved. (The ’15 schedule only has three non-conference games — vs. Furman, vs. Ohio State, at East Carolina. The Akron game listed on the Virginia Tech website is no more.)
Weaver said Virginia Tech will continue with its scheduling philosophy, trying to play one BCS-caliber team, one mid-level team like East Carolina, Ohio or Marshall and one Football Championship Subdivision team like James Madison or William & Mary each year.
Although the Big Ten and Pac-12 enter into a scheduling agreement that will pair off all 12 of their teams annually in 2017 , the final year of the Hokies’ home-and-home contract with Wisconsin, Weaver doesn’t foresee that matchup being in jeopardy.
“I think they’ll honor the contract,” he said.
However, scheduling games beyond that could be problematic with Big Ten teams, who will be committed to nine annual conference games and a matchup with a Pac-12 team, leaving only two non-conference slots available. Weaver think Big Ten schools will probably follow fill out their schedules the same way Virginia Tech does, adding a mid-level team from the MAC and perhaps an FCS foe.
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One other quick note: Weaver made a proposal to the ACC to add a second replay official to the booth to put an extra set of eyes on potential game-changing rulings.
This is obviously in reaction to Danny Coale‘s catch/non-catch in overtime in the Sugar Bowl, a play that was overturned by one replay official who claimed to see an angle in which the ball touched the ground (an opinion ACC supervisor of officials Doug Rhoads, and many others, disagreed with).
Weaver’s proposal — which would put two replay officials in the booth for important games like the ACC championship and BCS games — has been forwarded to Rhoads, who is in charge of the next step of getting it implemented.
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Hopefully, Weaver will be long gone in retirement by the time most of these changes take place. He is unable to work a full schedule now and we need full attention from an AD, not part time. Weaver did a good job early on getting our finances in shape which probably helped us get into the ACC, but now he needs to retire and let a new person plan for the future and do “real searches ” for new coaches and clean house on the deadwood in the athletic department.
Comment by other Tony — February 10, 2012 @ 3:57 pm
Honestly, I think the home field advantage is a great incentive to play for the all the marbles, that’s what they do in the NFL. Why not? It might not get a lot of favorable support, but I see it as adding juice to the competition for the national championship.
Now, as for the replay booth officials, I think that’s overkill, and they need to tone down the frequent use of replay game, it drag the game on unnecessarily, and they need to let the officials trust their call. Suppose both replay officials can’t agree on the call, then what? Will they do a coin toss to decide who’s right? I understand where Weaver’s coming from, but I just think it’s too much.
Comment by Trevor — February 10, 2012 @ 10:03 pm
Correct comment by Tony, Weaver needs to go. His ” searches ” for basketball coaches are a JOKE, the same at the basketball teams at Tech are a JOKE.
The basketball teams are so far out of the universe of good college programs that they will probably never find the way into the universe.
Football is the best, and maybe the only good sport, at Virginia Tech.
Let’s go Hokies !!!
Comment by Frank — February 11, 2012 @ 6:43 am
I agree with the point about two replay officials being pointless. The rarity of such times doesn’t necessitate another official to drag out the decision. Yes, we all know the Hokies got shafted on a bad replay call. That doesn’t excluded the handful of other equally legitimate reasons they lost the game. Let’s stop rehashing the same old stuff. To me, it looks extremely whiny to keep up that excuse making. It’s far past time to move on.
As for the whole playoff/bowl hybrid concept? I favor whatever pulls all but one of the games back to Jan 1st or sooner, and eliminates about a dozen pointless bowl games. It almost feels wrong calling the NYC game a bowl, as it does for several other bowls.
I understand and support the concept the bowl is a reward for a successful season. I just have trouble thinking anyone will get excited about going 7-5, then travel to some destination in the middle of the holidays for a bowl that will be forgotten two minutes after it ends.
I also lose interest completely in bowl games nightly during the middle of the week. I lose interest in any bowl after Jan 1st. I watched the Sugar Bowl, skipped the MNC game because my mind was already on the college basketball season that was more than six weeks old at that point. Hey, college football, you get my TV attention from about September-December. New Years better wrap it up, because I’m not watching games after that. January-March is TV time for college basketball.
Comment by crooked road — February 11, 2012 @ 7:18 am
So far I have not seen any mention of conference champs in the mix. If its all rankings then do away with the conference and set it up like a pro model play off (not). If no.1 rank can’t win its conference then it does not belong in a playoff mix. I prefer to keep the conf. champ as the measure of excellence and reward in a playoff scenario that would cover the whole country not just teams within regional power conferences.
Comment by fauxplay — February 11, 2012 @ 9:40 am
College basketball has no excitement until March.
Comment by Mike Eads — February 11, 2012 @ 4:06 pm
Mike Eads, that’s my sentiment as well, and I think shared by several readers of Aaron and Andy’s blogs. I’m a UNC fan when it comes to basketball, but I don’t often follow basketball until the tournament starts because it’s fun to fill out the brackets and guess who will be in the Final Four.
Comment by Trevor — February 11, 2012 @ 4:36 pm