After years of BCS criticism and calls for a playoff, we will finally have a four-team playoff in college football! Two semifinal games on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day and a final game about a week later. That’s the good news!There are still many problems with the playoff plan. The primary problem, as I see it, is that rather than running like a regular playoff in any other NCAA sport, the two semifinal games will take place in the bowl system. This means that hundreds of millions of dollars per year that the NCAA could generate by bidding out the two semifinal games will instead go to the hands of the bowl organizations. Some universities, particularly ones that rely on state and student subsidies, could really use this money. So why give it away to the bowl organizations?
Other problems include the possible controversies that will erupt when the four teams are selected, since the selection criteria for those four teams has not been established. Obviously Wisconsin is still in a position where they need to schedule better competition for pre-season games OR win every game and win the Big Ten Championship game OR both to have any chance of being one of these 4 teams selected. Being part of the 12 team Big10 however is a great advantage. It is necessary to be in a power conference. We Badger fans can at least dream about a championship.
The “haves” will still likely run college football, leaving the “have nots” out when it comes to the playoff. Boise State and other teams from small conferences now have even less chance of winning a championship. They can go undeafted and hope but still get no respect. And then there’s still the basic problem of corruption within the bowl organizations.
At the end of the day, the four-team playoff is a good start but we are still far from a college playoff that is fair and equitable and benefits all rather than just a few, like the 16 team tournament I have been talking about for years. We finally have a college football playoff. I will become more interested right now but in the future, let’s hope they get it right!
