My Case Against A Playoff System

As we approach the bowl season and the Mythical National Championship game the debate about the evolution to a playoff for D1 college football has already begun. I don't want the evolution to take place, myself. I'm quite happy with the way we crown our champion for the most part. I have an issue with the length of the bowl season, but I'm ok with the games themselves. I think it is a positive way for teams to get extra practice in and exposure.

I think my big problem with a possible playoff is that someone is always going to get left out and some are going to have legitimate gripes for why they should be there. And in our rush to make sure no one feels the bitter sting of injustice, we'll continue to expand the thing to where it goes from a plus one to 16 teams in 5-10 years. Then we'll have a play-in game to the field of sixteen and so on until the regular season doesn't really mean that much. Instead of a big regular season game that will decide someone's chances at a shot at the title, we'll have teams that will just be fighting for position. The really good teams will cruise the last couple weeks, or even worse, fill the end of their schedule with cupcakes. And then we have something that looks a lot like the pro game, but worse.

I'll have to admit that a plus one game does interest me. The law of averages is with you on this, because we rarely see more than three undefeated teams. However if you're going to do that, the bowl season needs to be one week earlier. We're already going into the second weekend of January now. It's just too long for teams to come back after a month and a half off. I feel sorry for Michigan and Ohio St. going into the bowl season. I feel like being off that long works against you. Adrian Peterson probably has something else to say about that, though.

I am in favor of adjusting the bowl season. It needs to start earlier. Is there a game on tonight? The games need to all be done by Jan. 1. So that if we are going to have a plus one, it be the weekend after New Years. To do this, bowls like the Gator Bowl would have to be Dec. 31 or earlier. And I don't have a problem with that, because if you can afford to go to a bowl game, you can afford and weasel the week between Christmas and New Years off. However, something tells me that the networks would have a hard time with it. And as long as we have all these bowls, the networks will tell us when, where, and how.

Playoffs are something designed to make sure we leave no doubt about the champion, or the system that decided it. And sadly, that would take something away from college football for me. Half of the joy of football is the discussion and debate. It's a great time of innovation for ways to insult your most hated MSM commentator for going against your team getting into the championship game. I mean who doesn't want to call Lee Corso a penis? No, I like my football just the way it is. You can wiggle with it, but let's don't get into the playoffs