BCS playoff

Post by **SonomaCat** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:09 pm

From ESPN Page 2:

Speaking of "don't hold your breath," the BCS honcho basically said there's a snowball's chance in hell that you'll see a playoff. I love how they refer to it as "an NFL-style playoff."

Like the phrase "NFL-style," by association alone, taints the idea of a "playoff" as professional or anti-amateur. Good thing "NFL-style playoff" is how every other college sport decides its champ.

Meanwhile, the BCS thinks a selection committee might work instead. Unless the committee knows something we don't, how exactly will they decide among three unbeatens? Or three once-beatens? Or one unbeaten and two once-beatens? The possibilities for them to have the crappiest job in the world are endless.

I also had to laugh/cry/scream in agony at the repeated (as if they were talking points...) use of the phrase "NFL-style" playoff by the BCS jackass. It's as if he knows that his case for holding on to an unworkable system would evaporate if he acknowledged that playoffs work just fine for every other level of college football.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:49 pm

I for one would hate to see the major conferences go to a playoff system. I don't ever want to see "home field" enter the end of the season with the major schools--send them to as close to a neutral field as possible, with impartial and foreign officials and see what happens. Do I think Auburn would stand a chance against USC? Same chance as a snowball in Miami, FL on the fourth of July. How much whining and sniveling goes on with the 1-AA playoffs when somebody is forced to travel, doesn't make the playoffs, etc., etc. Plus, every team in the playoffs outside of the national champion ends the year on a down note with a loss whereas half get to build on something positive, they get on average another three weeks of practice time, etc. Another thread discussed what would make for a more exciting Bobcat game; did any of you notice how many more Utah fans were in the stands for the Fiesta Bowl than there were for any of their home games this year? Very few venues (Bozo the exception) offer all the other opportunities for a college bowl game experience such as Disney World, the beach, fun in the sun... The only regular season game that matches a week in Bozo would be the Georgia-Florida game at the Gator Bowl, any game in Knoxville or Auburn. What about all the band kids, the families enjoying everything while on a mini-vacation? Could you imagine the Fizzlie Fair Weather Fans spending two to three weeks in Chattanooga, Tennessee? Geezzz, look at the problems they had getting out of state--Thursday before their National Championship game. Cat fans probably would because the Jack Daniels Distillery is so close, but that's not the discussion here. I just enjoy the bowls so much more than the playoffs. College football and the reward of a bowl is something much bigger than getting a "true" national champion. For all the critics of the bowls, yeah, I'd like to see Auburn play USC. But I don't think that'd be much of a game.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:56 pm

Why do you assume that a playoff system would have to incorporate home playoff games? Why not use the current bowl structure, but have a couple rounds of neutral field playoff games to actually come up with a national champion? I have no problem with the parties and pomp that surround the current bowl system and their numerous meaningless games. But does it give us a legit national champion? No. If all we want is a glorified exhibition season, then we stay with the bowl system. That way, half of the teams get a warm fuzzy and not as many teams have to lose their final game.

Post by **rtb** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:02 pm

Ok, I have done a little leg work here for everyone. Now if you all could do me a favor and email all of these folks and let them know what you think of the inability to have a playoff system in college football. The following list is the list of University Presidents who oversee the whole BCS system.

Presidential Oversight Committee
David Frohnmayer - Pres. Uof Oregon pres@oregon.uoregon.edu
David Hardesty Jr - President, WVirginia U david.hardesty@mail.wvu.edu
Robert Khayat - Chancellor, Uof Mississippi chancllr@olemiss.edu
C.D. Mote, Jr. - President, Uof Maryland emailum@umd.edu
Harvey Perlman - Chancellor, Uof Nebraska hperlman1@unl.edu
Graham Spanier - President, PennState president@psu.edu
Stephen Weber - President, SDSU presidents.office@sdsu.edu

As far as Kevin Weiberg the BCS Coordinator goes, I can not find any way to contact him. If someone finds it please let us know. Also if you send this information to others outside of Bobcatnation. Lets see if we can make some sort of difference.

mreilley@baileylauerman.com

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:14 pm

Just an assumption on my part, but there'd be a lot of arguments talking about meaningless playoff rounds. Wouldn't like to see Boise State have to play USC in the first round, as an example. Just my opinion, but I really like the way the big schools continue to work on this BCS problem, address all the flaws, pacify the bowls and all the fluff that goes with a bowl game, and still come up with arguably the best team crowned as national champion. And you're right, we could do better with the home field situation. The way it is now in 1-AA and DII, I personally think it stinks.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:21 pm

I think in I-AA right now, you almost have to have home field playoff games as nobody would show up otherwise (and few do even for the most of the home field games). For the big boys, though, I think you could pack the house virtually anywhere in the country with two high profile playoff teams. I just think it would create so much more excitement for the top, say, 8 playoff teams. There would still be controversy surrounding who those 4 or 8 teams are, but in general, they should at least be able to capture the true national champion within a grouping that large.

This is about the first year in a long time that there really isn't any controversy surrounding the national champion. USC's throttling silenced a lot of critics. If the game had been close, though, I would have felt that Auburn would have been screwed. Of course, we're still basing the idea that USC is better than Auburn on subjective opinions -- who knows what would happen if they actually played? We can speculate, but we will never know for sure.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:45 pm

One other aspect we're not looking at is the amount of planning involved. To ask an athletic department and all the periphial members to continually get ready to go on one week's notice is asking for an awful lot. Maybe if every game was played someplace like Panama City the kids could get ready in a hurry--could you imagine 54 colleges at one time in the Florida panhandle? Now that would be a great bowl week! Plus, I like the idea of getting three to four weeks of extra practice time for the kids.

Post by **kmax** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:58 pm

Cat Grad wrote:One other aspect we're not looking at is the amount of planning involved. To ask an athletic department and all the periphial members to continually get ready to go on one week's notice is asking for an awful lot. Maybe if every game was played someplace like Panama City the kids could get ready in a hurry--could you imagine 54 colleges at one time in the Florida panhandle? Now that would be a great bowl week! Plus, I like the idea of getting three to four weeks of extra practice time for the kids.

While there are a lot of reasons I can at least understand, if not agree with, against having a playoff in I-A football, this one has got to be the worst and I hear it far too often. So you are saying that Athletic departments in Div I-AA, II, III and NAIA are that much better at planning on short notice than a BCS school???? Give me a break, schools in conferences that have a conference championship game don't seem to have too much trouble figuring out the logistics of making it to that game, something tells me they would figure it out and I guarntee they wouldn't be taking a bus to the game as Carroll did for its two road playoff games!

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:17 pm

How many people are we talking about? The 12-13k during the 2001 or the 16k during the 2004 National Championship games with all the Fizzlie followers? Again, I make the assumption that the families that travel to the Rose Bowl and their 100k plus stadium play much more in the area than what we actually see in the stadiums. These communities are not going to give up their cash cows, just like Bozo is not going to give up their cash cow. We have one of the better venues (and I'm not saying that because I'm biased) for a college football game. I'd wager we have twice as many graduates in Bozo during a gameday than those that make it to the game. I've been to numerous championship games in Statesboro and Chattanooga and several bowl games and for the money, I'll take the bowl game atmosphere over a meaningless playoff game and yeah, even the national championship. I know for a fact my wife and kids prefer the bowls, except sometimes Disney World gets a little crowded, the beaches are a little too festive...But again, this is just my opinion. Could you see all the kids drinking beer out of bottle during the games in a Montana stadium? Yet, I've never seen them get out of hand in a large crowd. I just like the bowls, even though my wife (when she goes to a game) thinks you leave the stadium after halftime because the band performance is over.

velochat · Post by **velochat** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:25 am

They should either do a playoff or forget the BCS and go back to traditional bowl games. I used to like the Rose Bowl. To me, the Rose Bowl without a Pac-10 team is ludicrous and I don't watch it, anymore. They ruined the tradition and the champion is still decided by polls.

I remember when you used to tune in on Sunday and watch about 5 bowl games on New Year's day and one by one they decided the champion, with the climax being the Rose Bowl followed by the Orange Bowl. Now it's a month of bowl games for every team that won six games and maybe a championship game at the end (not last year). Why don't they call one of them the "Southwest New Jersey Health Services Center Who Cares Bowl"?

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:42 am

velochat is nearly as brilliant as BAC. Give him one of those dark beers...