Thursday, December 4, 2008
Kotz / Sports A Reasoned Argument for a College Football Playoff
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 5:19 AM
So Rival.com's Dan Wetzel has taken it upon himself to create a system for them. The plan's nothing really new--basically stolen from the NCAA's lower divisions-- composed of a 16-team playoff featuring the winners of 11 conferences, plus five at-large bids. Games would be played at the higher-seeded school's stadium, instead of neutral turf, and a definitive champ would be declared after four rounds.
The genius here is the simplicity. Fans would not only get what they want, but schools would actually pull in more money, since a team like Oklahoma could make far more money playing at home than splitting the gate with bowl organizers.
Better yet, it does little to alter the current bowl system. The BCS games would be forced to pick from the lesser lights of the Top 25, and secondary games like the Music City Bowl may feature slightly less fetching matchups between 6-6 teams. "At worst some of the true bottom-feeder bowls (the ones owned by ESPN) will have to fold for lack of eligible teams," writes Wetzel. "The death of the PapaJohns.com Bowl is a price I think everyone is willing to pay. Maybe even Papa John himself."
But Wetzel's most compelling argument isn't in the name of better entertainment--or even providing customers with what they want. It's one of economics. By farming out its biggest events to distant cities, schools and their home cities are being cut out of a big slice of revenue--money that could conceivably go to (gasp!) academics during these most trying times. Says Wetzel:
BCS bowl games are the single worst deal in American sports. College football's continued willingness to be fleeced by outside businessmen, who gleefully cut themselves in on millions in profits, is akin to the Knicks offering Stephon Marbury a contract extension right now.
What other business outsources its most profitable and easily sold product - in this case postseason football?
Comments (2)
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Wetzel's borrowed plan was poor because it was too simple and naive. Anyone can say lets have x number of teams and extra games don't matter. Well the fact is that extra games do matter to kids who are being pimped and not paid.
There is a complete and well thought out plan that does the 16 team playoff without extra games or losing any bowl revenue.
I read it at www.playoffplan.com
It is a 16 team playoff that adds no extra games and keeps the bowl system too.
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