College Football Playoff: Plus-One Movement Is Not About the Fans

If you have not been following the talks on the future of college football closely, you might have missed that the plus-one is still on the table. An idea many thought was dead is very much alive thanks, in part, to the coaches and presidents of the Big Ten and Pac-12, as ESPN reported in May.

Two of my favorite college football minds, Bryan Fischer and Matt Hinton of CBS Sports, recently entered a spirited debate on the merits of a plus-one. I highly recommend reading it to get a little information about what a plus-one is and what it brings to the table.

The most interesting portion of the debate is not what the plus-one entails for the sport, but rather that the plus-one movement quite clearly shows a blatant disregard to fans of the sport. 

This is not about creating something that fans are happy with. This is about the presidents and athletic directors of the Pac-12, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 setting things up for themselves. If they cared about what you wanted, they most certainly would not be toying with sticking to the status quo, as leaders have told us. 

There is a tremendous difference between administering damage control and actually having a genuine interest in appeasing hordes of whining fans.

Damage control is changing the "BCS" namesake to something people will find more palatable. It is telling people that you are going to explore the playoff option and then look for ways to avoid rocking the boat.

If you fall for the okey-doke that the power brokers are running, that is your own fault. The fact of the matter is, complaining has not shifted the game towards a level playing field. Power has been consolidated even further, and the ACC and Big East are not at the grown-ups table anymore. 

In short, they are not doing this for you. They had to make a minor change to drown out the incessant complaining, but make no mistake about it: when all is said and done, fans will remain last on the list of what matters when these decisions are made.

Actually, next to last is more accurate—the last people who matter here are the ones actually playing the game.