Let the Games Begin!

Well the final polls are out, and now its time to put together the final matchups for my college football tournament plan.

Before I begin, some people that have read this have asked me about scheduling. Well this is what I would do. The first round would be held the Saturday after finals end for the students, which this year is Saturday, December 16. The 2nd round would be held on Saturday, December 23. The Semis would be held on New Year's Day, Monday, January 1, and the championship would be held on Monday, January 8.

Now, where would the games be held? The 3 major bowls that are currently held in cities that were not recently devastated are the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. So the Semis and the Finals will rotate between Dolphins Stadium in Miami, Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, and University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ. The First and Second round games will be held in neutral locations. Each conference will have a "home" stadium (listed below) where the higher seed in the game will play. If there are 2 or even 3 teams from the same conference that are the higher seed that given week, then the game will be played in the next closest available neutral location (thanks to Ryan for helping me decide on the first 2 round format and locations).

ACC: Alltell Stadium - Jacksonville, FL
Big 12: Arrowhead Stadium - Kansas City, MO
Big East (and Notre Dame): Giants Stadium - East Rutherford, NJ
Big Ten: RCA Dome (Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008) - Indianapolis, IN
C-USA: Reliant Stadium - Houston, TX
MAC: Ford Field - Detroit, MI
Mountain West: Rice-Eccles Stadium - Salt Lake City, UT
PAC-10: Qualcomm Stadium - San Diego, CA
SEC: Georgia Dome - Atlanta, GA
Sun Belt: Superdome - New Orleans, LA
WAC: Monster Park - San Francisco, CA

Now how it all shakes out....

Conference Champs
ACC: Wake Forest (14)
Big 12: Oklahoma (10)
Big East: Louisville (6)
Big Ten: Ohio State (1)
C-USA: Houston (NR)
MAC: Central Michigan (NR)
Moutain West: BYU (20)
PAC-10: USC (5)
SEC: Florida (2)
Sun Belt: Troy (NR)
WAC: Boise State (8)

At-Large Teams: Michigan (3), LSU (4), Wisconsin (7), Auburn (9), Notre Dame (11)

First Round Matchups:
#1 Ohio State vs. #16 Troy @ Indianapolis
#8 Boise State vs. #9 Auburn @ San Francisco
#4 LSU vs. #13 BYU @ New Orleans
#5 USC vs. #12 Wake Forest @ San Diego
#3 Michigan vs. #14 Houston @ Detroit
#6 Louisville vs. #11 Notre Dame @ East Rutherford
#7 Wisconsin vs. #10 Oklahoma @ Kansas City
#2 Florida vs. #15 Central Michigan @ Atlanta

I actually invested money in this site today, by buying NCAA 07 for the Playstation 2, even though its been a very long time since I've even played video games. I'm going to simulate the results and see how it turns out.