Friday, April 27, 2012

Another Story About the BCS Moving Toward a Playoff

Here comes the latest story of BCS bigwigs getting together and deciding that college football's postseason needs to be fixed. All the conference commissioners have agreed that there should be a four team, three game playoff at the end of the season. Now comes the tricky part: hammering out the details.

The first hurdle is taking the plan to the individual conferences. And each school at each conference will have their say.

Significant questions will be asked. Actually, the questions are basic but significant sums of money depend on the answers. When would the games be played? Where would the games be played?

Who would control the money from TV contracts, tickets, and sponsors? How would it be distributed? Would the 6 conference BCS still exist as an entity, or would conferences get cash rewards for sending teams to this 4 team playoff.

Would it be the top 4 ranked teams, regardless of conference? Would it be the top 4 conference champs?

What about the bowls? The conferences love them because they guarantee a consistent stream of money each year. But their luster is fading. Conference championship games are drawing funds from fans that would otherwise be spent on bowl games. And when smaller programs reach the top tier bowls, they struggle to fill their hotel allotment. UConn lost money when they went to the Fiesta Bowl.

The Rose Bowl is still stuck in the 1930's and wants their BigTen/Pac-12 matchup protected. So a compromise will have to be made there.

If the conferences are truly motivated to get this done, it'll get done. These are hurdles, not roadblocks.

I think we all want to see a playoff system. I think 8 teams would be perfect. I'd settle for 6. But for right now, I'll take a 4 team playoff.

I just hope that the scumbags that run the bowls and the old bastards that run some of the conferences don't ruin it.

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