BCS Football: In the Wake of Selection Sunday We Defend the Red-Headed Stepchild

Can you even begin to imagine the uproar that would occur if, say, Boise State had to travel to Happy Valley in the dead of winter?

Sure, I'll concede that what Ball State did was a small-time move by a small-time program, but it teaches us an important lesson when discussing this: Schools understand that the winner's share is bigger, and they'll do everything they can to make sure they'll get that particular cut, bowl game or not.

In fact, I'd go so far as to throw this out: Many teams with longer shots might even decline a playoff invitation in favor of the much larger, guaranteed pay day of a major bowl game.

Let's use Ball State again. They'd, at best, be a three seed (the approximate equivalent of about a 12 seed). If offered the chance to play a neutral site opener in Los Angeles, or to take the guaranteed (and more than likely significantly higher) pay-out or the Orange Bowl, which do you think they'd choose given their recent actions?

No matter what your playoff scenario happens to be, the bowls won't go away. Any smaller school that was offered a spot in that large of a bowl game, no matter what the reason, would be acting highly imprudent.

The increased exposure, the chance to win something tangible to build on, and the higher pay (at least for the first round or two, depending on if the playoffs are eight or 16 teams) would do a program far better than being shelled in the opening round a playoff tournament.

And if we can't even get all the deserving teams into the tournament, what are we playing for? We'd be left asking if we'd really made any improvement at all.

The third issue with neutral sites has to do with money. The NCAA tournament does well because you can often purchase a pass for all the games, and thus increase your dollar's entertainment value. The significantly more physical nature of football, combined with how long each game takes to play, all but guarantees that that can't possibly happen.

Finally, we have to wonder who will be going to all of these neutral site playoff games. Obviously the Championship Game will sell itself, and I'll even go so far as to concede that the semifinals would sell themselves. But beyond that, it's a tougher sell than you'd think.

Considering all that was on the line Saturday night, one would have thought Arrowhead Stadium would be packed to the gills, but there were plenty of seats (some quite good) clearly still available.

This, despite the fact that Oklahoma was, for all intents and purposes, in a championship semifinal, and despite the fact that it was being played in the home state of the other team, Missouri. In fact, the Missouri campus isn't even too far from Kansas City.

If conferences can't even sell out their own championships when trips to the national title game are on the line, how can we expect to fill neutral site playoff games on a consistent basis?

I understand that some teams travel very well. But there are only so many alumni of the big-time programs to go around, and many of them plan their trips as once a year flings because said trips happen to be very expensive.

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