You want a playoff? Well, here it is!
Last weekend was yet another example of why it is going to be hard to get the college football powers that be to ever buy into a playoff.
Just follow me here.
After all the craziness of 2007 there can be no doubt that college football has the best regular season of any sport. Last weekend was our first sign that the fun will continue in 2008 as three of the top four (No. 1 USC, No. 3 Georgia, and No. 4 Florida) all lost. When the carnage was over Saturday night, four of the top nine and nine of the Top 25 had lost as well. Oregon State’s upset of USC on a random Thursday night in September sent shock waves all the way from Corvallis, Ore., to Athens, Ga. On Friday the conversation on sports talk radio was dominated by college football and what it all meant.
But if we had an eight-team playoff in place, that Oregon State victory would have barely created a ripple outside of the Pac-10. Because of its impact on every national championship contender in the country, last Thursday night millions of people turned over to that game as soon as “Grey’s Anatomy” was over. With a playoff, that USC loss is not dramatic because the Trojans would still be pretty much a lock for the post-season by winning the Pac-10. But now there is the very real possibility that USC’s loss to Oregon State will eventually cost the Trojans a shot at the national championship.
ajc.com
9/30/08
