http://johnny228.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/barack-obama-doesnt-get-it-college-football-that-is/
First, congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama, and here’s hoping that regardless of your politics, we can rally behind our new president. Things are tough in this country, but if the parking lot at my local mall is indicative of a recession, then we are not in one. But, we are facing some difficult times, and we need strong leadership for all parties to ensure futute success.
Obama, like many college football fans wants a playoff to—8 teams—to determine a national champion. Most have come up with 8 to 16 teams in their own scenarios. Most say that the bowls can be used in the playoff games (nonsense) and that the top 8, 12 or 16 teams would qualify, and the non-qualifiers could play in the bowl games, sort of like the NIT serves teams 66-106.
But, like most, Obama fails to recognize why an 8 team playoff system will not work, and it has nothing to do with the resistance of the colelge presidents or athletic directors to give up their multi-million dollar BCS bowls. Let’s review:
1) There are 11 Division 1 Conferences: There are 6 BCS conferences, plus Notre Dame totaling 66 schools. The six BCS conferences—which you know—are the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten (11 schools), Pac 10, SEC, ACC. But, there are five other non-BCS conferences, led by the Mountain West, WAC, Conference USA, Mid American, and Sun Belt. If you have a true playoff system, these schools would have to included, meaning that there would have to be at least an 12 team playoff, not a 8 team one. If there were 8, like Obama suggests, and the non-BCS conferences were excluded, they would file a class action suit, and they would likely win, because Congress or the Supreme Court would threaten to take away tax free exemptions, anti-trust and the like. Most think that taking the top eight teams on the BCS computer would satisfy, but that would just open up litigation for years, unless the BCS schools relented. Because of this threat, college football would likely adopt a 16 team playoff because they could give 11 automatic bids and then have room for five at-large teams. Is the third best Big 12 team better than the Mid American champion? In most cases, yes, but let me remind you, that the NCAA Basketball Tournament does not take the best 65 teams, so why would anyone expect college football to do the same? And, most do not want a 16 team, four game/four week playoff system.
Johnny 228
11/16/08
