The news came out Tuesday that college football’s new four-team playoff system will be called “College Football Playoff.” It’s a safe choice for the BCS, which decided to play it simple. But the decision came at the end of a lengthy debate, and this morning Grantland received a sheet of paper from a BCS source with a handwritten list of 50 names it considered and ultimately rejected. Some of them are predictably masculine, some are cynical attempts to play off pop culture phenomenons, and some are just bizarre. Throughout, you’ll notice a strange fixation on Nick Saban. In a few cases, clarifying parenthetical notes accompany the names. We now present the unedited list:



50 Rejected Names for the College Football Playoff

1. The Leather War

2. The Pigskin Playoff

3. Emmert’s Circus

4. The Olde Timey Football Fracas

5. The America

6. Leather America

7. The Leather Lords

8. Nick Saban and the American Lords of Leather

9. Wimbledon

10. Sheriff Football’s Tumbleweed Showdown

11. Texas Forever

12. Ole Chalk and Grass: The Playoff

13. One Hundred Yards of Hell

14. One Hundred Yards of Hell: The Final Four

15. One Hundred Yards of Hell: The Final Four: Teams, Not Yards

16. Nick Saban’s Weird Personal Playground

17. Nick Saban’s Weird Personal Dungeon

18. The Masters

19. THE MAN SHOW

20. The Younger Games

21. Scary Potter and the Gridiron of Secrets

22. Scary Potter and the Goblet of Football

23. Scary Potter and the Disorder of the Phoenix [games would have to be played in Phoenix]

24. Scoreless in Seattle [games would have to be played in Seattle between Big 10 teams]

25. Last Dance in the Tickle Barn

26. Last Dance in the Tackle Barn [“Tickle” above = typo, sorry]

27. The Tour de France: America

28. The Second SEC Championship Game Plus Two Other Semifinals

29. The Padded Quarrel

30. Angry, Beautiful Young Men in Pads

31. Unpaid Labor: The Best of the Bond Servants, ft. Nick Saban

32. Nick Saban’s Tickle Palace

33. Nick Saban’s Tackle Palace [sorry, again with that typo!]

34. The SuperER Bowl

35. The Curious Case of Benjamin HUT-ton

36. HIKE it like Beckham

37. Spinal SNAP [pun combining Spinal Tap and snapping the ball … could be misinterpreted]

38. Dude, Where’s My Football? Right Here, in This Awesome Playoff

39. The Last Grunt

40. Nick Saban’s Last Grunt

41. The Fearsome Four

42. Grunt Like a Saban: The Fearsome Four

43. Anything to Do With the NCAA

43. The Last Judgment

44. Judgment Days: The Last Gut Check

45. Judgment Days: The Last Gut Check: End Zone

46. Fight for the Fucking End Zone: Pigskin Pyrotechnics

47. The Fucking Pigskin Zone: Fuck You, Soccer

48. TackleZone: A Clash of the Realest Men on Earth

49. ManClash: The Endless Days of Tackle

50. Nick Saban’s No-Questions-Asked Week of Endless Tickles