College Football Playoff: New Postseason System Changes Less Than You Think

The playoff is here! The playoff is here! At long last, the playoff is here!

For the first time in college football history, we're going to have a four-team playoff, as decided upon by a selection committee. Those are undeniably positive developments. It also won't be called the BCS anymore. But that's pretty much where the changes end.

First of all, this isn't just going to be a gigantic windfall for the bowls, it'll be even more of one. The semifinals are going to be held in a rotating set of six bowls, and five of them (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton) are pretty much mortal locks.

The games won't be on college campuses or neutral sites—those aren't going to funnel money into the bowl system. That's why you'll be traveling about a thousand miles to what would be a home game in the NFL, fans.

This, then, makes it especially curious that so much of the leadup to the playoff involved bigwigs hand-wringing about the future of the bowl system if a playoff were implemented. Remember what Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman said about the bowl system and playoffs? Let's take a look back:

"If you have a playoff system outside the bowls, it would do serious damage to the bowls. ... I don't think anybody would pay attention to the bowls." 

Now, consider this statement from Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, via the Detroit Free Press' Wolverines Twitter account, after the Rose Bowl and ESPN announced a 12-year extension on their TV deal on Thursday:

"

Delany said the Rose Bowl would be relevant in playoff world. So even in the years it's not a semifinal, it still has a prime Jan. 1 spot.

— Freep Wolverines (@freepwolverines) June 28, 2012"

So, then. The only way in which the statements by Perlman and Delany are consistent with ESPN's extension (which would never happen if the Rose Bowl were even remotely harmed by the playoffs) is if the only reason the January 1 Rose Bowl game is still attractive is because the Rose Bowl stadium is also the site of a semifinal game once every three years.

Otherwise, it's just mindless nattering, a preemptive strike by the bigwigs in favor of a bowl system by which they've been bought and to which they're utterly beholden.

Furthermore, keep in mind who set this deal up—the exact same people who designed and profit from the BCS. This still isn't the NCAA's postseason.

Say what you will about the NCAA and its handling of the various postseasons in sports, but at no point is anybody seriously calling the NCAA corrupt for them.

But then, we shouldn't be surprised that the approval of a playoff system by the "BCS Presidential Oversight Committee" resulted in something that looks so much like the BCS. It's still their game, and the fans are getting played in it.