College Playoffs? You're Talking About Playoffs?

It’s tiring. Really, it is. Day in and day out, hearing about all the perfect playoff scenarios that everybody has.

Personally, I am a very much AGAINST any of the proposed playoff scenarios you see being spouted about in College Football.

Yep, I've read all the rants, looked at all the neat little thoughts and schemes that are out there, but what it really comes down to is that a playoff in College Football would do more harm than good.

More importantly, more harm to you, our beloved schools, and me.

Let us take a real look at the formulas that are being proposed. Not just at the games themselves, but what would happen behind the scenes.

You know, the stuff that happens to the common Joes like you and me.

The most common item that we see in a playoff is...

The obvious expansion in the number of teams involved. Most call for 8 or 16 teams.

Your first problem you have to answer is: "Where are these games going to be played?”

Don't be so quick in your answer. In the NFL, and other divisions of College Football, the higher seeded team plays host to the event, up until the Championship Game. Sounds like it should work, shouldn't it?

What happens to the lesser bowl games and the cities and people that host them?  One of these lesser bowls that would be on the proverbial chopping block would be the Texas Bowl held in Houston, TX.

In the two years this city has hosted this contest, it has generated over $50 million in revenue to the local economy in Houston, TX.

How about cities like Shreveport, Albuquerque, Birmingham, and Boise?

What about the people whose very lives and jobs depend on these bowl games? People frown upon big companies that have huge layoffs, but right now, if you are arguing for a playoff then this is exactly what you are arguing for!
 
Alright, so now you say that every game in the playoff will consist of being played at a bowl site. Great.

So now, you are telling me that, if I am a Florida or Oklahoma fan, I will have to travel to FOUR more games to watch my team advance through the playoffs?

I don't know about you, but have you noticed the phenomenon going on around you?

It’s called a recession. Hell, not many fans before the recession could ever afford traveling to a single bowl game. Now you are asking them to pony up for FOUR! In the same season?

Good luck on selling tickets, and good luck on keeping these bowl games alive for very much longer.  

At least the schools and teams make money, right? In case you don't know, many teams actually lost money while travelling to their respective bowl games last year. As it is the case with most years.

Texas Tech lost over $200,000 travelling to the Gator Bowl, and unbelievably, West Virginia lost over $1 million in travelling to, gulp, a BCS game last year? Many of the losses were incurred because teams cannot sell tickets. Imagine having to try to sell tickets two or three more times in consecutive weeks?

This would not only end up harming the bowl games, but the very schools themselves. Best of luck to Boise State in selling 20,000 tickets for the third straight week if they advance that far. If not, their school would incur a huge expense for even advancing that far.

Well, the bowls shouldn't demand allotted ticket sales anyway, you say? Good idea. Let's pitch an idea to Nike that would guarantee them absolutely no revenue, but the strong possibility that they could lose money.

In case you haven't noticed, we live in a Capitalist society. People have choices, and if you are going to pitch an idea that will almost assuredly amount to a host site/sponsor losing money, then I wish you all the luck in your sale. You're going to need it.  

So, you ask, if the fans, teams, players, and bowl sites/hosts aren't making any money, then who is?

Well, I am glad you asked. Since we have taken out every other possibility, there is only one other entity left in the equation: The TV networks.

Likely, they (unless you count our friends at the NCAA, who would no doubt fall into a billion dollar deal with Rupert Murdoch/Mickey Mouse for the rights) would end up being the only ones lining their pockets with positive revenue when it is all said and done. I'm sure we all would be very happy with that end result, wouldn't we? 

So, are you at least a little bit convinced that a playoff system is just a tad bit ridiculous?

Alright, I will go on.

Now that I have established the problems and rigors with travelling, and the likely end fate of what would ultimately happen with the revenue, what do we have left?...

Solutions >>>