The Dawgs Ramblings

Bowls - Playoffs

I remember the joy of New Year's Day when I was a young kid. Would wake up, do God knows what but eventually settle in and watch college football games all day long with my Dad. Once in a while I think I would return to my own tackle football game in the backyard, jumping over piles of snow until I tired of dive plays up the middle. When I did return to the house, there was always soda and pizza to drink and eat. The pizza has remained, the wings have been added and the drink of choice is usually fluid based on what is still open on the countertop.

1985 is when I was hooked for good. Doug Flutie brought BC to the Cotton Bowl and a victory over the then powerful Houston Cougars. BC has never returned, but I have, countless times to witness college football's grand day, an absolute blowout of bowls from morning till night providing the college football fan with all the memories he needed to live his life during the eight months that college football is not a part of his routine.


But slowly things changed. First the number of bowls on that day decreased. Then the bowls started being spread out on the days after New Year's. Now we have a system where the title game is 7 days after New Year's. The reasons are of course financial in addition to attempting to pit the top two teams against each other. As much as I detest losing that day, the matchups that the BCS produces have given us some great games. Ohio St. would have never played Miami (or should have won because of pass interference) in the double OT thriller in the Fiesta Bowl. Texas would have never brought 50000 cowboys to Los Angeles. And Notre Dame would not be routinely slaughtered due to an undeserved invite. I only wish they could all play them on the same day now.


This system also has its own share of flaws. An undefeated SEC team should never get left out of the national title game but that occurred with Auburn just a few years ago. Inevitably, this reignited the argument that the bowl system should be modified and replaced with a playoff system. Division 1-AA currently has the system in place which produces a consensus
national champion on the field, not in the polls.


The argument against a playoff system is of course a lie, that this would adversely effect our student-athletes who would not be able to juggle the additional football games in a playoff scenario vs the one game bowl scenario with their academics. The real reason is the financial power of the bowls who do not want their historic system altered. People have full time jobs working for the Sugar, the Rose or the orange Bowl. And these situations have been in place for years.


I am not one for abolishing the bowls but why not use the bowls as part of the playoff system? Why not figure out a way to allow the bowls to get their money while providing college football with a system that is fair to all parties that think they have a right to lay claim to the national title. Do you think Florida wishes that Auburn had come calling to the Swamp? Or that Michigan might be number one if the game had taken place in Ann Arbor? Those can be described as part of the uniqueness of college football but it also does provide merit to the argument that home field should not be the only factor in determining who the best team in college football is.


The reason for bringing this up now is just to point out some of the hypocrisy of the system. The college presidents just agreed to have a 12 game season. What does this added game bring us? Buffalo for crying out loud. Half the leagues also have a title game. That brings us up to 13 games. Add a bowl to that and you now have 14 games. So, if we revert to an 11 game season and introduce a 16 team playoff the actual title game participants are the only ones playing more games than what some teams do now. Do you think that the presidents of those schools would care one iota about their student-athletes with that type of exposure? This present state just goes a long way towards proving that it has nothing to do with academics but everything to do with finances. Then we could have a big bash on New Year's day again. Put the semifinals on that day and have a bunch of other bowls to reward good seasons to teams that did not quite make the playoffs. This year the non-playoff teams could include Tennessee, California, Virginia tech, Texas, Nebraska, West Virginia ..... Not too bad for some bowls.

posted by oceanjay @ 4:09 PM