President-Elect Obama, I got this, go ahead and focus on creating those three million jobs. I'll make the proposal for a playoff for college football. Let's list some quick reasons why we don't currently have a playoff system.
1. Tradition of the Bowl Games. Would you want to be the person responsible for killing the Rose Bowl aka "The Granddaddy of Them All"? The first post season bowl game was put on by the Tournament of Roses in 1902. That year Michigan (10-0) defeated Stanford (3-1-2) 49-0, in a game that Stanford gave up in the 3rd quarter. This is biggest reason people give for not changing to a playoff system. Why does the NCAA and member institutions continue to let independent entities control the crowning of the "National Champion" and more importantly THE MONEY?2. 68 teams participate in the post season (currently 34 bowl games), mostly at destination locations. University presidents, big money alumni, and fans like to travel to watch their teams during the holidays in warm weather locations (minus Motor City Bowl in Detroit and International Bowl in Toronto). It also allows 68 teams to conduct extra practices for their team and to develop younger players. Do we really need over half the teams in the FBS in the post-season?
3. The season would be too long. Currently, most great teams play 14 games (12 regular season games [13 if you play a road game at Hawaii], one conference championship game, one bowl game). If you have a 16 team playoff, the maximum amount of games teams would play in a championship game is 17. The number of games would increase for a "handful" of teams, but you would actually have most teams finish the season before they currently do. There is currently 6-7 weeks between the end of the regular season and the bowl games.
4. It would diminish regular season. Most teams playing in the "National Championship Game" has zero or one loss, so you have no margin for error in the regular season. No margin of error includes no accommodation for injuries, suspensions, etc. during the season. Right now, the most intriguing game is only the "National Championship Game". If we had a playoff, ALL playoff games would be intriguing. The drama of the regular season wouldn't change at all. Do you really think that any fewer viewers would have watched the OU/Texas, Texas/Texas Tech, etc... if we had a playoff system? I got a quick answer for you.... NO!Part Two of this blog will be posted on Tuesday January 13, 2009.
DC is a contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted at dcthesportsguy@gmail.com
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Perhaps this will be covered in your "Part Two", but there has been a lot of talk surrounding the "Plus 1" theory. So you have the normal bowl system (although i would cut down on the number of bowls), and then at the end of the season the top 2 are seeded and play each other. This year, it would pit Florida against Utah. Add 1 game to the season for 2 teams. This doesn't solve the USC problem, but it is hard to argue against florida, and Utah deserves at least a look.
ReplyDeleteThis sytem preserves the bowls, preserves the money, keeps little conferences (read MAC) to get some national spotlight, and doesn't add too much strain to the schedule. Clears up the BCS a bit, but not totally fixes it. You'll never totally fix it, there are just too many good teams.