It’s finally here. We can end all the speculation and ignore the excitement/hatred we have experienced by thinking about all the possible meaningful games that really weren’t meaningful because afterall, this is a fake playoff bracket.

The Florida/Alabama, Pitt/Cincy and Texas/Nebraska games all mattered in the BCS world, but in reality, only 3.5 of those teams were playing the games with hopes of a National Title. Had those six teams been playing to clinch playoff berths, all six teams would have been playing for the National Title. Nebraska nearly won anyway, but would the Cornhuskers have played even harder if they knew they were playing for the Big 12 Title AND a playoff berth?

We can only speculate.

And that’s what we do here. So without further adu, here is our FINAL mock playoff bracket based on the final BCS Standings:

No. 9 Georgia Tech (ACC Champion) at No. 8 Ohio State (Big Ten Champ)

No. 12 LSU at No. 5 Florida

No. 11  Virginia Tech at No. 6 Boise State

No. 10 Iowa at No. 7 Oregon (Pac-10 Champ)

Byes: No. 1 Alabama (SEC Champion), No. 2 Texas (Big 12 Champion), No. 3 Cincinnati (Big East Champion), No. 4 TCU

Red denotes team clinched automatic berth by winning its conference title.

Sorting out the bracket

Well things certainly got jumbled with all of Saturday’s action, but for the most part, the teams are the same. However, there is one HUGE exception. Penn State was ranked No. 11 last week and fell out of the bracket while Virginia Tech moved up to No. 11 and LSU moved up to No. 12. All three of those teams were idle Saturday and VT and LSU both have three losses while Penn State only has two. Ouch.

I guess there will never be a fool-proof system in college football. But Penn State has to realize that they were a bubble team and just like in college basketball, some of those bubble teams get in and some end up in the NIT. The reality is that they missed the playoffs and in this scenario would end up playing in the Capital One Bowl, which by the way is where the Lions are playing in real life.

Other bubble teams

BYU finished at No. 14 in the BCS while Miami jumped up to No. 15 and just missed out.

Simulating the bracket

OK, now that we have our final bracket, we will slowly simulate it over the bowl season. The first round games would be played this coming Saturday with our top four seeds enjoying a bye week (huge advantage in college football). Second round action will be played Saturday, Dec. 19 and semi-finals on Saturday, Dec. 26.

Remember, under this playoff scenario, there is still a bowl season for those teams that did not qualify for the playoffs. There will be bowl games on weekdays (like there currently is) with the playoff games played on Saturdays. After the semi-finals, there will be a bye week before the National Championship Game, similar to the Super Bowl. That means New Years Day would still have its traditional bowl games.

The National Championship Game would then be played Thursday, Jan. 7, just like it is scheduled now.

How the NCAA “Suits” can’t see the money making possibilities in this is completely ridiculous, but we will continue to enjoy the fantasy playoff world for the next month on 670thescore.com.

I’m curious to see who you think would win these first round matchups. Your input will have an impact on the simulations. There are some good ones.