I advocate for a playoff in Division 1A college football (D1A CF). What I don’t understand is why there is a debate about this among fans. I can see if players, coaches, athletic directors, university presidents, or any other group of people have a problem with it, that they may be able to prevent it from happening, but I don’t understand why some fans prefer bowl games to playoffs. Playoffs benefit, if no one else, the fans.
First some background. Every sport, college and professional, has a playoff to determine the champion except for D1A CF. Not every playoff is identical. Professional baseball and basketball use five and seven game series rather than individual games to earn advancement. College baseball uses a Regional to Super Regional to College World Series system. There are some things that all of these post season systems have in common. Some number of competitors qualifies for the post season. To continue playing, you must win. If you lose, you’re done.
Major college football doesn’t have a playoff. Instead, the have an exhibition season where teams are paired up based mostly on agreements that conferences have made with businesses. The exhibition games, called “bowls”, are run by these businesses, not a sports association. The results of the games are meaningless and they serve mostly as a reward to the team for doing well during the season. They used to be a reward, anyway. Now fully half of all teams go to a bowl game. Some go to Orlando or Phoenix, but some go to Detroit or Boise. I’ve never been to Detroit or Boise, but I’m guessing a December trip to either of those places is hardly a reward.
When you play exhibition games, it makes it really difficult to crown a champion. Back in the old days, there were two polls that determined the champion. Usually they agreed, but not always. A decade and a half ago, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was created with the sole purpose of pitting the two best teams against each other in one of the exhibition games. The best way I’ve heard the BCS described is “two beauty contests and a computer algorithm” as it is the amalgamation of two human-created polls and one computer-created poll.
There are two basic reasons that I’d like to see a playoff in college football. First, it’s a better system. I base this argument solely on the fact that every other sport does it and that no sport, in the history of carbon-based life on Earth, has every switched from a playoff to exhibition games. It’s ludicrous to think that would happen. Second, it’s better for me personally as a fan. Some of the exhibition games are interesting matchups. Some of them aren’t. A playoff provides more interesting matchups than the system we have now. That’s better for me as someone who enjoys watching college football.
Here’s what I don’t want to accomplish with a playoff:
- Determine the Best Team: No system determines the “best” team. Both the BCS and playoffs in other sports determine the champion of the sport. The winner of the Super Bowl isn’t necessarily the best team in the NFL. Sometimes the best team has a bad game and loses in the second round. Since it’s impossible to choose the best team, let’s not try.
- Stop the Bitching: Currently, people are complaining that Alabama is in the BCS National Championship game and Oklahoma State is not. Under a playoff system, the complaining doesn’t stop. It does move a little, however. Instead of arguing about who is #2, we would be arguing about who is #12. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. But that’s a side benefit. I don’t care if the complaining stops; that’s not my goal.
- Be Fair to All Schools: I don’t need a system that makes sure Boise State or Houston get a fair shake. I think my system would benefit schools like that by increasing the field, but I’m perfectly fine with screwing over smaller schools if it furthers my goal.
- Improve Television Ratings/Game Attendence: Many of the bowl games are not very well attended (or watched). I don’t care if that changes. I know that I would be glued to my TV during the playoffs and I think the TV networks would do well, but I don’t care if they do. As long as they show the games on TV, that’s all I care about.
- Protect College-age People: Under my system, there are some teams that will be playing more games than normal. These teams are made of young people playing a brutal sport instead of studying. I hope this system doesn’t bring them any harm, but the fact is that I don’t really care.
- Protect Bowls and the Businesses Who Own Them: I think private business is good for the bowls and could be good for playoffs. A new system will definitely upset the apple cart and some people won’t have the opportunity to make as much money. Some people will have the opportunity to make more. Either way, they’re on their own. I’m not designing a system to make sure they come out OK.
- Protect the Interests of Conferences: I would be perfectly happy if the conferences all went away and we went to a national scheduling system. The conferences impede progress more than any other entity. I’m sure they will survive a switch to a playoff, but if they don’t I won’t lose any sleep.
- Preserve Tradition: When the Big XII came into existence and Nebraska stopped playing Oklahoma, tradition flew out the window never to return. Don’t even talk to me about tradition.
Why do you care what I don’t want to accomplish? Whenever the playoffs are suggested, people have a million reasons why they won’t work. But they all come down to one of the above interests. I don’t care about those interests. Anyone who is serious about implementing a playoff will have to care about those interests to some extent because he will have to sell those people on the system.
Here’s what I am trying to accomplish:
- Better football games for me to watch and more of them.
- Better betting scenarios – who wouldn’t love office pools like college basketball has
I used to be in favor of a 16 team playoff. More is better and, while the 17th place team would complain, nobody would listen or care. I’ve recently switched my allegiance to a 12 team playoff. I really like the idea of giving the top four teams a bye. I also like avoiding the 1 seed vs. 16 seed matchup you’d get in a 16 team playoff. My goal is better games and more of them, and generally the top team against the sixteenth best team wouldn’t necessarily be that great. Interestingly enough, this year #1 LSU would be playing #16 Georgia, a rematch of the SEC Championship Game in which LSU stomped Georgia, but a game many college football fans watched in anticipation. Here’s what a 12 team playoff would look like:
Let’s see how this aligns with my goals. In the first round, every single game is a compelling matchup. Arkansas might manhandle VA Tech and KSU/USC might be a defensive sleeper, but I would watch every one of these games. In the second round, we’ve already seen Oregon/Stanford and I think LSU and Alabama win easily. Rematches will be inevitable and I don’t care how you structure it, LSU and Alabama will do well. The second round isn’t as compelling as the first, but I’d watch every game. In the third round we get Oregon/LSU and Bama/OSU. Do I need to say how awesome that Saturday would be.
In the end, we get LSU/Bama. You might be tempted to point out that we get that game under the current system and that my playoff scenario was all for naught. But if that’s true it’s only because you have different goals than me. My goal was to have a greater number of better games, which I no doubt achieved. If your goal was to determine who the best team in college football is, you don’t need this playoff or any other game for that matter. You already saw LSU beat Bama, so you already know the answer.
So why the debate among fans? If you’re a fan of college football, this would be a great four weeks of games. And during those times that these games aren’t on, you can still watch lesser teams play in exhibition games. All college football fans should be clamoring for a playoff, so start clamoring.
