On Playoffs. “PLAYOFFS?”
There is going to be a lot of debate about who deserves what after the way things ended this season about how to decide a national champion. That there should be a playoff because this season of chaos has not revealed a clear-cut two teams that stand from teh pack. More importantly for Golden Bear fans, Cal’s shortcomings in 2004 for a title would have been negated by a second chance they would have received through a playoff, although considering the outcome of that season, it might not have made a difference.
I used to be one of the big proponents. After this season though, I might be turning to the dark side.
If you really enjoyed this college football season, then you should realize that a playoff system dilutes the importance of the regular season. Pitt upsetting West Virginia and Oklahoma upending Missouri would have meant far less to those two teams; they could just say, “Oh, we’re still in it, we have a playoff!” LSU losing to Arkansas wouldn’t have looked so devastating. Could you imagine the mere possibility of crowning USC after losing to Stanford because they go on a two-three game run? The only thing a playoff creates is the possibility for more upset and discord over the crowning of the winner.
The bowls are for show and sponsors anyway–the season is six weeks apart from the championships; this situation doesn’t really exist in any other American sport. It’s an entirely different animal than the NFL.
There are a few methods I’ve heard, and none of them seem totally satisfying.
Plus-one. I’m okay with this one, just because adding one more game seems entirely manageable. The top four teams have generally had good separation (other than this insane year), and you would probably get a representative from four of the competitive big conferences (Ohio State, LSU/Georgia, USC, Oklahoma/Kansas). It’d be an ultimately satisfying scenario to have these four duke it out; you’re just going to have to ask Tom Hansen to kindly shut the hell up. Of course though, this would almost certainly exclude the mid-majors from a chance at the title. And in 2007, someone would be left out of the mix.
The bracket idea: Terry Bowden once proposed this December madness idea, only forgetting that college football is not college basketball. It’s absurd. Imagine the maddening holiday travel logistics for the winning teams and fans, who would have to make THREE trips from anywhere West Coast to East Coast in three weeks. It isn’t cheap. Plus that plan seems to exclude the mid-majors like Hawaii and Boise State from last year. The teams would have to play in their home stadiums for at least a first round game, just like the NFL.
Wetzel’s pretzel: Dan Wetzel’s idea of dumbness (what is it with Yahoo Sports columnists?). Think Bowden’s idea made stupider. He wants the national champion to play FOUR GAMES to get there. Doesn’t that sound great?
But other than that, the regular season is what makes college football special, with an occasional awesome bowl thrown in (Boise State last year, Texas the year before, etc.). EVERY regular season game in college football feels like a playoff game. The upsets abound. You have tailgating and hot college coeds everywhere in sight (well, maybe not in Berkeley). You have rivalry games and something at stake when all is said and done. The regular season is what makes college football special. The bowls are just a yummy appetizer for the alumni and the rich students who can afford it.
The only feeling you get like this in the NFL is upsetting an unbeaten team or a clash of titans, and that happens only once every five weeks (it was why the Patriots-Eagles game was so entertaining). The schadenfreude is fantastic.
Look, I think the BCS is pretty retarded. I’d prefer something different from good ol’ tradition, because things are not the way they were for our fathers or grandfathers. Mix it up, like slating the toughest conferences against each other in bowl games, this year being the SEC and the Pac-10. Instead of the slaughterfests by USC against Big Ten teams, place them against a Les Miles-type foe and let one of them prove who’s better. Have the ACC and the Big Ten engage in a ticklefight. Let the MAC and the MWC duel it out in a stance between slopball and whitebread convention. Instead of worrying about what’s fair, create matchups that are compelling. The sticking to tradition has made many previous bowl games utter duds.
But really, the best part of the season is already over. We’re back to bowls and conventionality now, where there are no upsets or mayhem, just games to be played to prove your worth over the past three months. There was a lot to look forward to on every Saturday; now we’ll be back to the mundane and the obtuse until September rolls around once again. Outside of Cal’s problems, I’m going to miss this year. Here’s hoping next year is even more maddening.
Your thoughts on the playoff system versus the BCS? And what would be your solution?
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The upshot of this is that you'd minimize the bitching among the top teams, keep the playoff at a size more appropriate for student-athletes (rather than some 16 game clusterfuck - seriously people, these are kids, they're students), and you'd get some crazy match-ups like USC-LSU, or USC-Georgia, or Oklahoma-LSU, etc., instead of what is possibly the biggest let-down BCS post-season given such a ridiculous, absurd, yet altogether fantastic regular season.
Furthermore, we need to start laying some philosophical guidelines with regards to voting. The aggregation of so many different voters' ballots, each made with vastly different conceptions of how the ballot should be cast (resume vs. current performance, strength of schedule vs. record, etc.) is how you get crazy shit like Georgia and Va Tech ahead of LSU like you did last week. I think part of what is so great about CFB blogs like this one, or SMQ or EDSBS, is that they're looking to seriously intellectualize the process by which we discover the "best" team, whatever that might mean. No matter how much you tweak the system, if the voting still sucks, then so will the BCS.
Each conference has a championship, each champion goes to the 8-team playoff. All the other teams fill up the 2nd and 3rd tier bowls in the same way they do now - a bunch of fun exhibition games.
The four big bowls host the four quarterfinal games. These are the dates of the traditional bowl games.
Then there are two semi-final games at two of the big bowls, and the championship game (held the day before the Superbowl - what a weekend!) at the third bowl. The fourth bowl hosts the division 1AA national championship.
The schedule rotates annually between the 4 big bowls. How does this not make more money for everybody??? Even the sorry whack-ass wannabe loser team that goes to some pathetic Ma Bell Fort Worth Bowl in Lubbock, TX or wherever gets BSC money too - just like the big conferences get $$ when one of their teams gets a BCS bowl. Hawaii would get BCS money this year. Parity.
This is the ONLY way that Fresno State or Hawaii have the same chance every year as Florida and Oklahoma and nobody can bitch. Win your conference and you're in the playoff. Win the playoff, then you're the national champion and nobody can question it.
Which teams go to which conferences? Which conferences become the new 8 by absorbing teams in which to-be-jettisoned smaller conferences? I'll let somebody else's head explode trying to work all of that out.
Your suggestion has merit, and would probably satisfy all parties, but I just think 3 games is too much, especially if they're bowl games. Could you imagine LSU athletes/fans traveling from San Diego to Miami to New Orleans for three non-stop weeks? And the cost of tickets is enormous--one bowl ticket costs nearly as much as a full season worth of home games.
I do agree about the disproportionate amount of attention paid to polls. There needs to be a better indicator of what determines the national title than this arbitrary process of letting biased coaches from the heartland decide (hence Oklahoma's absurd jump back to #3 after Bob Stoops's nonsense).
That scenario is particularly grandiose and eloquent, and probably solves a lot of trouble (it'll never happen, but you know...). But a ten game season? Never happening. Not a chance. The regular season is always the best part of college football. You don't want to make it shorter.
First, the current bowl system is important to a lot of communities. Look at the Holiday Bowl - lots of people go to San Diego, travel there for vacation, and take in the holiday bowl every year - a family tradition. They are not fans of the Pac 10 or the big 12 - they are holiday bowl fans (sad as that may seem). A lot of these little bowls and more major bowls (cotton bowl, etc) are like that.
Tie in the tradition thing, and also the aspect of gettting 50% of the current division 1 teams into a bowl game, giving those teams extra time to bring recruits in and see the team practice, extra time to practice for the younger guys, who are not getting the regular snaps during the season, and it make a difference. It also gives the players time off for finals.
Finally, the TV and local money paid by the bowls to the conferences is huge. That is almost 30 million for each BCS game, and at least a million and a half for the least bowl game. Most bowls pay a million or two to the schools. That money would not be generated by the playoff system, because there would be less money generated. Cal would not, for example, have the advertising and sponsorships in place that the Holiday bowl committee does for a single game playoff on December 8th. So the money would be much less - more like regular season TV money. Even if Tostitos or AT& T sponsored a playoff - they would not be dropping 150 million to the schools. The NCAA would be getting that money. With the Bowls, the schools get the money - NOT THE NCAA. That is the number one issue.
But beyond the simple money issues and the total lack of any real effort by any large school dean who is counting his 3 million from the BCS - the real issue is that a playoff would determine nothing. Playoffs do not pick the best teams. They only pick teams that have won a certain number of games in a row.
For example: There is a 16 team playoff. Cal is seeded 16. USC is seeded 1. We play, and the Booty injures his throwing arm in the first quarter, so the Bears win. Then, we play Oklahoma in round 2, and for some reason, they have an off day, and throw 5 picks. Then, we play Hawaii in round three and win 56 to 55. And finally we get to Ohio State (who has played three crappy teams to get there) and we beat those guys.
Now, USC is clearly better than us. Why should we be invited to get in this playoff scenario? just because we go on a 4 game hot streak and get lucky does not meant that we are the best team. Just like the Cardinals were not the best team in Baseball two years ago. Yes, they won the world series. But they were not the best team.
If you are looking to crown a champion, then you can set up whatever you want. WE have the BCS, which crowns a champion. If you are looking to find the best team, there is no such thing. So you may as well go back to the regular bowls and crown a champion.
And, frankly, the AP folks will tell you - they will not be voting for the team that won the playoffs. They will still be crowning the best team from their perspective with their vote. So you will have the playoff champion, and the AP champion.
I bet if we wanted to, and we had the money, we could determine the national champion. If Bears Necessity gave a million dollars to the Bears Necessity National Championship team, and you awarded it to LSA, Les Miles would be on the plane shaking your hand.
In other words, this is all a bunch of crap. The best team in the land is the one you think it is.
But I agree with the money part, too much of an expenditure and cutoff from local businesses and fans.
Best of BN, 2007 at Bears Necessity
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