The idea of a college football playoff, however small or mildly adjusted as it may be compared to the current BCS system, has gained more support than it ever has in recent years among college football’s powers that be.
For the immediate future, meaning 2013 or ’14, a plus-one seems like the most likely alternative. Down the road, that could expand to, say, eight teams. Perhaps, one day, 11*. It is, after all, the consumer’s natural instinct to want more to the point of saturation (see: bowl season).
But a four, eight or 11-team playoff, as realistic as those ideas may be, is child’s play compared to what one group is considering.
The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, a group of over 50 university professors and faculty members, met over the weekend to discuss changes they feel are necessary in collegiate sports. The Associated Press report details the COIA’s wide-ranging agenda, but one idea catches some attention:Among the topics: Should COIA advocate changes in the BCS?
Not surprisingly, the dividing lines on many issues among the 50 or so faculty members were often split between those who represent schools from automatic-qualifying conferences and those who don’t. One of the ideas that came through on the BCS debate was to exchange some of the noncompetitive “guarantee” games at the beginning of the season for a 64-team playoff at the end and use the TV money from the playoff to recoup losses from the missing regular-season games.
It’s a proposal that could puncture the long-held contention of college presidents that a playoff would take too many athletes out of the classroom for too long. It’s also the kind of proposal -- a December version of March Madness -- that resonates with fans who have grown tired of the BCS; a pie-in-the-sky idea for sure, though some faculty think a little dreaming isn’t bad for a group such as this one.
“This is my first time here and I’m seeing very little dreaming,” said Timothy Ross, a civil engineering professor at New Mexico. “I’m seeing people wedded to the current model and asking, ‘What tweaks do we need to make this work?’ Well, it’s not going to work because the thing is spiraling out of control.”
That’s not to say a 64-team playoff is a top choice -- it’s not even a realistic idea if you want to talk about spiraling out of control -- but it does show how far some people are willing to go to get away from the current postseason format.
Would it be fun? Maybe; the first 48 hours of March Madness might be the best two days in sports. But you can’t really link college football to college basketball in determining what’s best for the game.
The important thing is that ideas are being put forward, and almost any idea at this point is better than the status quo.
(*note: agree with Barry Tramel or not, he has a great column and an interesting idea)