Plus None Format
Today, Jason stopped by and gave us a piece about the BCS's latest non-move. Jason has a deep reservoir of football knowledge, so for once you may learn something. He is a graduate of Kansas University, lives in Kansas City, and is a season ticket holder for the Chiefs. As you can tell, he is having a good sports year (aside from the Chiefs). Enjoy.
The BCS and the conference commissioners have officially rejected a proposal to expand the current BCS format to include an “and one” championship game. The proposal was to have provided the top 4 teams be seeded in a mini-playoff format. The winners would meet in the championship game. I have long been perplexed at college football’s unwillingness to shift to a true post-season playoff format. All of the common reasons given lack even an indicia of factual support or logic. Today the BCS and commissioners stated reasons to reject the “and one” format was allegedly because of the concern it would make football a two-semester sport and would lessen the importance of a regular season that now has a do-or-die feel to it from week to week. Both arguments are ridiculous.
It is hard for me to believe anyone associated with college football could with a straight face state a concern about college football becoming a two-semester sport without breaking down in laughter. Last I checked football became a two-semester sport about the time John Wayne was shooting indians in Westerns and Bear Bryant was at Texas A&M. College football player’s seasons officially end when bowl season is over. But the unofficial season begins almost immediately with offseason conditioning, player-run seven on seven practices, lifting, rehabbing from injuries, and other training. Spring practice begins only a couple of months after the first of the year. Summer time is more of the same. In fact, football is year round in virtually every high school in America, let alone BCS conference universities. It’s even more absurd in the face of the continuing expansion of regular season and conference championship games. Not more than a decade ago teams played 11 regular season games plus one bowl game. Now 12 regular season games are the norm, potentially another in a conference championship plus the bowl game. Not long ago BYU played 14 or 15 games in a single season. I would also like to point out the obvious fact the BCS “and one” format would extend the season by a single game for only two teams.
The other “reason” cited by the BCS and the commissioners for not finally going to some semblance of a playoff system was an alleged concern over diminishing the importance of the regular season. This is a strawman argument if I ever saw one. Every single sport at the high school, college, and professional level has a playoff type post-season except college football. Every one. I have never heard or experienced any diminished interest in regular season college basketball or NFL games because of the playoffs or tournament. I guess it could be argued that the college basketball tournament somehow overshadows the regular season. Although, it could be persuasively argued “March Madness” is the single most exciting sporting event in America. “March Madness” generates more revenue, exposure and great games for college basketball then the regular season. Imagine what excitement, money, and memories could be generated by a college football playoff. College football could end up as the biggest sport in America if it would only come to its senses.
Far from diminishing its regular season, the NFL’s advent of the Super Bowl era propelled the sport to become the most popular, and profitable, in America. As a Kansas City Chiefs fan I can tell you nothing gets me more pumped up then an upcoming Raiders or Broncos regular season game whatever the playoff implications. Of course, as a Chiefs fan I rarely have to worry about the post-season implications of any regular season game. I have no doubt a college football playoff would not change Buckeye fans hatred of Michigan, or the importance of winning that rivalry game.
College football’s bowl system is a post-season system, although broken, which can overshadow the regular season. Many coaches and teams never live down their performances in bowl games, much the same as in playoff games. Ohio State had one of its greatest regular season in 2006, including a Heisman trophy winning quarterback and winning one of the top 2 or 3 games ever played in the historic rivalry series with Michigan. Yet, those many accomplishments are somewhat tarnished in the face of two consecutive meltdowns in BCS Championship games.
What went unsaid by the BCS and the commissioners was the obvious effect a playoff system would have on the Bowls, not the regular season. This is the true reason why college football does not have a plaoff system. Bowl games have bankrolled much of college football over the better part of the last century. Those bowls are the ones exerting pressure on conferences to stay away from a playoff, not any alleged paternal care of players on the length of college football season or worries about diminishing regular season results. Commissioners kowtow to the bowls, including the BCS, because it has been a profitable partnership. This needs to change. College football would make far more money with a playoff and they could still keep the bowl games. I have seen numerous formats working within the bowl system. Two-thirds of the bowl games are irrelevant now. They could still keep playing those to empty stadiums if they want.
College football’s popularity would be enhanced by a true playoff format, not diminished. If ever a season needed a playoff format last season would have been it. Wouldn’t it have been more fun to determine who the best one or two loss team really was rather than media and computers choosing the championship game match-up of Ohio St. and LSU? Championships should be won on the field, not decided in the ballot box, or worse yet by computers. Unfortunately, the powers that be in college football lack the vision and courage to make this needed change.
