Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
The only way to end all this needless debate is a playoff system. No excuses - the time has come.
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No it hasn't.
And if you are referring to the debate of conference ranking a playoff is irrelevant.
If you are referring to determining a NC, I think we have the best system out there. If you want to be in the game, run the table. If not, you roll the dice.
A playoff would do two things:
a) kill the bowl system. the BCS system has hit the lower bowls as it is. A playoff would kill them. I don't want to sacrifice a dozen nights of Insight bowls, cotton bowls, San Francisco bowls, outback bowls, sun bowls etc just for a dumb playoff. Right now, about 25 teams end their season with a W. People are too fixated on a NC, the current system creates more winners. The only problem with the BCS is that it has fixated people on a NC, back in the day 1 vs 2 was very rare, now you are guarenteed a 1 vs 2. if you are an alum, the focus is generally about winning your conf, the bowl game afterwards is just a reason to travel. The playoff system would down grade about half a million road trips created by the current system.
b)downgrade the regular season into what college basketball is. People talk about how great March madness is, and that is true, but nobody talks about how great the 4 month regular season is, because it doesn't matter. A good football regular season game is as imporatant and probably pulls better ratings than a playoff basketball game in March. If I was a conference rep, I'd be an idiot to make my football regular season as irrelevant as basketball.
Folks enjoy the football, enjoy the conference championships and the dozens of bowl games, don't put some much on who the NC is.
Now the one thing I would change is the poll system. I'ts awful, the BCS should be about computer rankings. Computers are far smarter than the idiots who are polled. For one, the idiots who are polled to a ranking in August ... and then use the datapoints that are created by an august poll as important in setting future rankings. Computers are smart enough to know that pre rankings are irrelevant.
Lastly I'd argue the current system is a large success because it created the 4.5 hour senior bowl with JoePa vs Bowden that went into OT a few years ago, Boise State vs Oklahoma last year and many other games where someone walked off the field as a champion. If everyone was just focused on a NC, these kind of games would be less important and a BSU would likely get bounced the next week, making the previous achievement less important.