College Football Establishes New Playoff System, but Greed Reigns Supreme

The sports world's most imperfect playoff system will finally undergo a makeover. However, many of the same problems will remain.

After years of discussion, ambivalence and jockeying by large, college athletic conference commissioners and univeristy presidents, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) will meet its demise following the 2013 NCAA football season.

The fans and media get a more desired outcome in a playoff system, but one with many flaws.

A four-team college football playoff will begin at the conclusion of the 2014 regular season, with semifinal games set to take place on December 31, 2014 and January 1, 2015. The first national championship game under the new playoff format will take place on January 12, 2015.

The Executive Director of the BCS, Bill Hancock, summed things up this way: ''It's a great day for college football. As soon as the commissioners realized they could do this and protect the regular season, the light went on for everybody.''

One of the reasons this is such a great day in Bill Hancock's eyes is because the hundreds of millions of dollars that go into the coffers of fat-cat conference commissioners will increase—several times over.

Greed, motivated by large quantities of television money, has long been the motor behind the direction and decision making in high-profile college sports.

Need proof of how much money, particularly television money, dictates the decision-making in college football?

ESPN's current contract for five BCS games, which expires following the 2013 season, is estimated to be worth $165 million. It is believed that a four-team playoff, in addition to four other major bowl games, could potentially reel in $500 million—approximately triple the current contract.

The rich sure do ensure that they get richer.

Even still, many college athletic departments find themselves in the red each year. Only 14 of the 120 FBS schools profited from campus athletics in 2009. The major driver in the vast majority of instances is football, with basketball having an impact at schools such as the University of North Carolina, Duke University and Syracuse University, to name a few.

The major power conferences: the Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC, Big 12 and SEC will all be guaranteed a spot in one of the six major bowls. Of course, it's highly expected that those five conferences will be the prohibitive favorites for one of the coveted four semifinal spots.

Don't expect the argument over who is the most worthy team in the sport to end, once the four-team playoff begins. In years where the top teams all finish the season with one loss, and there are particularly worthy competitors from smaller conferences, such as Boise State and Hawaii, the debate will continue. This is just a part of college football and, perhaps, always will be.

You just don't see this polarizing type of discussion in the NFL, where in 2011, the Green Bay Packers finished 15-1 and were clearly the class of the pro game. However, they lost in the divisional round of the NFC Playoffs to the New York Giants, who finished the regular season at 9-7 and went on to claim the Lombardi Trophy at Super Bowl XLVI. That's the way that America's most popular sports league works, and the fans love and accept that.

College football has been hi-jacked by wealthy businessmen whose least concerns are fairness in competition and equitable sharing of profits. Their windfall financial gains come from marketing a product which takes great advantage of its student-athletes and disregards underdog schools that do not possess the mammoth athletic budgets of schools like Ohio State and the University of Texas.

Naturally, less prosperous schools are wise to this transparent scheme, which is why soon-to-be former Big East schools Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia are all bolting the conference for greener pastures in the ACC and Big 12.

Those decisions were made by college presidents who couldn't care less about tradition and regional rivalries. TCU, as well, bolted for the Big 12 since like the others, they realized if they stayed where they were, they would not be offered a seat at the football table for the financial feast.

The most subjective element of all will be how the four playoff teams are chosen. That will be handled by a committee comprised of 15 members whose background and credentials are currently unknown. It's believed that the committee will initially feature conference commissioners and athletic directors, but the fact that none of this is certain is alarming, at best.

If you feel that the sport's determination of championship competitors lacks fairness now, be prepared to subdue your shock if and when a committee member lobbies extra hard for a team from his conference. Or maybe even his/her own alma mater.

A change was made on Tuesday for the better of competition in college football.

The problem is that increased competition seems to be a nice secondary outcome. The main motivator behind a newly structured college football playoff system was money and lots of it. That's just the way of the decision makers in this beloved sport.

College football's administrators behind the scenes get richer and richer.