After much wishing and washing back and forth on this issue I think I've finally come to the conclusion that a playoff would be a good thing for division 1 college football. So here I'll give my reasons and address some of the criticism levied against such an idea. First I'll begin with the criticisms.
1. It would ruin the regular season making games meaningless.
response: I don't know about you but even in the years where Alabama's not playing for any sort of championship, I still hate losing to Tennessee, LSU, and Auburn just as much. Personally, I don't think these rivalries will diminish any at all. In fact, they may actually mean more. Say for example Alabama and Tennessee are both in the top 10, while not necessarily in national championship contention under the current system both of those teams are fighting for one of the few playoff spots.
Any sort of college playoff is likely to be small and the chances of even a 2 loss team getting in would be very slim. Is there anyone that thinks Florida shouldn't have had the shot last year after losing a game?
The argument about making games meaningless is just so absolutist. It assumes that college football is about nothing but winning national championships and if you're not either no 1 or no 2 then all of your games are therefore meaningless. I mean, why go see a 6-5 Alabama team vs a 9-2 Auburn team. It's obvious that neither of those teams are competitive for a national or SEC championship.
2. It would ruin the bowl system.
Why? The bowl system is almost to the point of being meaningless already. Every day it seems they add a new bowl. Tell me who wants to go to the Meineke Car Care bowl?
Who says that you can't have a playoff system and the bowl system. It's obvious that they just keep adding more games to make more money. Who says that non-playoff teams can't go to a bowl. Would they just order the Meineke Car Care bowl to stop playing? No, of course not, the smaller bowls would go right on playing. Which is a good thing, it gives schools that are not in contention for a national championship something to play for and good games for the rest of us to watch. Again I guess you could argue it would be meaningless, but then again the Independence bowl last year wasn't for any sort of championship but it still had some meaning to us when we watched it.
Further, why not incorporate the large BCS bowls into the playoff format. I know that a million proposals for this have been argued about over and over again so I'm not going to go into that but it seems that the real sticking point is with the Rose Bowl which seems to think it's more important than everyone else.
3. What's great about college football is the arguments and the hype about who's better than who, and which conference is the best. Having a playoff would kill that. (ie college football is something special, adding a playoff would make it too much like the NFL)
Every time I turn on ESPN and they're discussing a college football playoff someone brings this up. They all say what they love about college football is that there is no true champion and it creates all the great rivalries we have. Well, of course ESPN and the rest of the media likes it this way. They get to chose the champion.
Personally, I think that any amount of power that can be taken away from ESPN and their Big10(or11) contracts and put back on the field is a good thing. Now you can argue that the BCS computer poll isn't based on the AP anymore but it would be naive to think that the Harris poll and coaches poll isn't based at least in part on what the media reports and ESPN thinks. Last year ESPN had all but anointed Ohio State the national champion. Playing Florida was a mere formality and in fact many felt like Michigan should have had a shot (wouldn't the Big10(or11) have loved that).
Now, why a playoff is a good thing:
1. Championships decided on the field and not in a New York or Chicago press room. Nothing more to say here.
2. Even the little guy has a shot, but he'd better actually be able to play. You could argue that the little guy has a shot now just look at Rutgers and West Virgina. Well, that's true, but do they really have a shot? Most people didn't consider Rutgers a national championship contender and so the media didn't give them much of a shot. In a playoff format they do have the chance but they'd better be able to play against the best of the SEC, ACC, Big10, Pac10, etc. It would force some of the weaker conference contenders to play against real competition.
3. Alabama can be a little guy. Now I know what you're thinking, 12 national championships etc etc and I agree with you. To me Alabama is and always has been the pinnacle of college football but not necessarily so to the media who gets to decide who plays and who doesn't. Right now many in the media consider Alabama a non-contender in the SEC and nation. Even we went undefeated and won the SEC, if there are two other undefeated teams I can guarantee you we won't be playing for any national championship. We all laughed at Auburn when it happened to them but remember that the same thing could very easily happen to us.
4. Roll Tide and sorry for the long rant.
and I'm perfectly happy that there are people that disagree with me and the conclusions that I've come to.
