Obama and College Football: Change We Don’t Need
So Barack is the new President-elect, and his victory platform is all about change. Even in his interview with Chris Berman on Monday Night Football, he stuck to the ‘change’ them when discussing sports and suggested that he was tired of the BCS and is ready for a college football playoff. Those college football fans in favor of an 8 team playoff at the end of the season have a pretty powerful advocate in their corner.
I’ll avoid dicussing politics on a Virginia Tech sports blog, but with all due respect to Mr. Obama, a college football playoff is one change we don’t need.
I have this discussion (sometimes argument) frequently with my college football buddies. Yes, I know the BCS sucks, the formulas are confusing, the polls often make no sense, and at the end of the year we are left with a mess which usually includes at least one deserving team getting the shaft. Heck, it may happen this year. I personally think Penn State is going to go undefeated, though they may not be one of the 2 best team in college football. A 1 loss Florida, Texas, USC, and maybe others are arguably better.
But for gosh sakes, college football fans need to step back and realize part of the reason the sport is so great. The regular seasons means more to the sport than in any other league. You want playoffs? There are playoff games virtually every Saturday. Take this season, you had a playoff game 2 weeks ago when Penn State played Ohio State. You had another playoff game last Saturday when Texas played Texas Tech. I can name a bunch of other playoff games (USC - Ohio State, Oklahoma - Texas, Alabama - Georgia, etc.). In fact, I look forward to 1, 2, or 3 meaningful playoff games every Saturday from now until the beginning of December. I love it and I don’t want that messed with.
Sure, an 8 team playoff that gave us 7 games and 2 killer weeks of football in January plus a championship would be awesome, but do you want to trade that in for what we have now? Do you want to give up your 8, 9, 10 weekends of do-or-die ”playoff” games during the fall, weekends that constantly build on one another, create new twists and unfolding drama that makes you can’t wait for College Game Day to come on Saturday to find out what the implications are? Please, let’s not mess with a great thing.
Look, I love March Madness, its probably the greatest event in sports. But its 3+ weeks, 63 games, and 64 teams of basketball. Its more teams/games than is feasible in football, you just couldn’t realistically duplicate it past an 8 team playoff. But do you know what I DON”T like about college basketball (or the NBA, NHL, etc)? The early regular season doesn’t mean squat!! Especially for the top tier teams who are no doubt going to be in the field of 64.
I’m sure #1 UNC has a big out of conference basketball game sometime in November or December. Do you know when or who the opponent is? Neither do I! Its because an early season game between UNC vs. UCLA /Louisville/Michigan State has virtually no impact on the end of the year or national title. No one is going to change their plans around watching that game. Now if two top 5 college football teams are playing in September, I’m telling my wife to not schedule anything that Saturday because I’m watching.
So before you continue to ‘campaign’ for the playoff solution for college football, please remember what you’ll really be doing to the world’s greatest sport.
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To be blunt, you sir, are wrong. How much more meaningful would the ACC title race be right now if the ACC champ got an automatic spot in an 8 team playoff? Top match ups would still matter because teams are competing for those next two spots.