Here We Go Again

It’s mid-October. The first BCS Standings are out. The usual suspects are on top. Florida, Alabama, Texas, etc. And predictably, the “we need a playoff” crowd is out in full force, screaming their fool heads off about how unfair life is for TCU and Boise State. There is even a new Political Action Committee in Congress threatening that if the NCAA doesn’t do something, Congress will step in. Really? You guys on Capitol Hill have nothing better to do? How about cutting taxes on businesses so they can expand and hire people like me instead of us collecting unemployment? How about letting oil companies drill for the vast amounts of oil we are sitting on in this country so we can become a seller instead of a buyer? Nope. We are more concerned the Boise State has a shot at the National Title. Boise State who’s toughest game all year will be Oregon and who’s second toughest game all year will be Fresno State or Tulsa. Speaking of Tulsa, they lost to Boise by 7. They lost to Oklahoma by 45. The same OU who just lost to Texas by 3.

1. We already have a college football playoff. It’s a two team playoff, but make no mistake, it IS a playoff. We have a game, the winner gets a trophy. That’s a playoff. What the idiots from places like Idaho and Utah are upset about is, it’s not enough teams. Two is too small for them. OK. What then would be the number of teams that would suit you? Four? OK, what happens when Boise State is team # 5 even though they’re 12-0? Are you going to cry like a baby for eight teams? Of course you are. Then what happens when your team is #9? This same scenario has already happened. It’s called March Madness. There are 65 teams going to the “Big Dance” now and every year we STILL have teams # 66, 67, 68, 69 and 70 hollering like stuck pigs.
2. When you have a Bowl Game, it is played at a neutral site. Fans of the participants can take vacation time that week and go to the game. What are you going to do with an 8 team playoff? Play at neutral sites? How are the fans of the schools supposed to plan to attend? Let’s say you’re a Penn St fan. The Lions are going to play in the playoffs in San Antonio. Do you get tickets? Do you make hotel reservations? What if we win? We go to Miami the following week. Maybe we should go there. But the Championship game is in Pasadena. Maybe we should think positive and make our reservations there. So the game in San Antonio is played in a half empty stadium. Why? Because the fans were conflicted about which game to go to. Have you ever watched the crowd shots at the first round of the NCAA Tournament? They’re half empty!
3. So let’s move the games to the campus sites. OK. So you want to play playoff games at Ohio State, Penn State, or Michigan in December? Yeah that’s fair. To make this thing work, there has to be at least a 16 team playoff. That’s because there are 11 conferences in D1-A. So you are FIU or Troy. You win the Sun Belt. Instead of a Bowl trip to New Orleans, you now get to go to Happy Valley in the dead of winter to bet walloped by Penn St. Do you remember a few weeks ago when all the pundits were screaming about the Florida’s of the world playing the Troy’s of the world. Now you want to watch those games in December?
4. If you go to a 16 team playoff, the Bowls will be rendered moot. The goal will be to make the playoffs. Nobody will care about the bowl games. They might as well not even play them. Ever watch the NIT? Nobody goes. Nobody cares. You might say so what? Well, to the cities who have hosted those games for years, it matters. Those cities count on the economic boost that the bowl games create. How do they make that money up? They don’t. So what you will create is the Florida’s, Ohio State’s, USC’s, and Texas’ of the world will get an extra two games on campus every year. This will put even more money in their pockets. It will give them even more favorable exposure. It will make them even more of an attractive place for the elite players to play. In other words, they become even more unbeatable. So tell me again what problem we solve by going to an “NCAA Football Tournament”?

About Jim: Thank you to the senior class of 2009!

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