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7/2 Roundtable - There Shouldn't Be A Playoff
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Utah WR Freddie Brown
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CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Jul 2, 2009
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7/2 Roundtable - Why shouldn't there be a playoff? It's the Thursday topic in the CFN Daily Roundtable Discussion.
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CFN Daily Roundtables
 July
2
Why shouldn't there be a playoff?
(Tomorrow, why there should be a playoff.)
Over the next several weeks, as part of the CFN 2009 Preview, we'll
examine some of the key questions going into the year with a
daily discussion of the big topics.
Pete
Fiutak,
CFN
Yes, I'm part of
the problem. You can check me out at
twitter.com/CFN_Fiu and find
out future roundtable topics and other random musings.
Q: Why shouldn't there be a playoff?
A: Let's take this from the most elemental level, strip
away what we've all come to accept as the norm in the sports
world, and ask one very important question: what's the
point?
Why are sports seasons played? At the FBS
level of college football and beyond, at the D-I men's
basketball level, and for all pro leagues, sports has little
to do with the fun of competing. Forget all the naive
love-of-the-game crap; big-time sports are a business, and
those who don't think that way are the ones who aren't good
enough to compete for anything real. The only reason
playoffs, in all their forms, exist is to make more money
for the sports leagues. If it was about anything else, like
finding out who the best team really is, other sports would
get it right.
If a sport wants to come up with a true
champion then there's no real reason for a playoff. Baseball
used to have it right when the team with the best record in
one league played the team with the best record in the
national league in the World Series. Owners of mediocre
teams got sick of their teams being out of it in late June
and changed things to add more playoff teams and a
wild-card.
The NCAA men's basketball tournament used
to have it right when it only allowed in conference
champions, and then the whole thing got all gwonked up by
expanding the field and adding every team that could dribble
and chew gum at the same time. While the tournament is
fantastic, there's a huge fluke factor involved and it has
completely and totally ruined the significance of the
regular season. No one really cares about college basketball
anymore, but the tournament is every bit as big as the Super
Bowl.
The other sports have screwed it up, too, all
in the name of money. The NFL has the wild-card, meaning a
team like the 2007 New York Giants can get second chances in
a playoff format, after proving to be inferior to the
Patriots, Cowboys, and Packers in the regular season (losing
to the Cowboys twice and getting blasted by the Packers),
and can win the Super Bowl. Hockey and basketball play seven
game series, and why? Money. If it's about figuring out who
the best team is, then one game would suffice, even thought
the No. 1 teams in each conference should play for the title
and the entire playoff format should scrapped.
College football, as messed up as it
is to get to the final solution, gets it right more often
than any other sport. There's absolutely no flukiness
involved, and while you might have a beef with a team like
Utah last year or USC at times over the last few seasons not
getting a shot to play for it all, it's tough to argue with
the team that went through the wars of the regular season
and won a BCS Championship. There's no 1985 Villanova in the
NCAA Tournament , 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, and no
Pittsburgh Steelers of 2005.
My concern with a
college football playoff is a slippery slope. It can be done
right (six BCS league champions, the top non-BCS conference
champion, and one wild-card), but eventually, college
football would go for the money, devalue the regular season,
and screw it all up with more wild card, and expanded
tournament, and a Cinderella here and there.
Richard
Cirminiello,
CFN
Q:
Why shouldn't there be a playoff?
A:
Be careful what you wish for, folks. Sometimes you get it, and it’s not
all it’s cracked up to be.
Unfortunately, everything in life has
a cost, and very few things are truly free. A playoff in college
football is no different. Although it sounds sexy and has certainly been
trendy for years, you absolutely do not want to become the NFL. One of
the most charming and endearing aspects of the game is that it’s not
the National Football League. I think of the playoff debate a lot
like the healthcare debate. Are changes needed? Yup. Is a complete
overhaul in order? No way.
There are a few things that an
NFL-style playoff jeopardizes. First, you run the risk of burying the
bowl games, which just wouldn’t be right. I know, we’ve reached a
certain laughable level with the spostseason games, but so many of them
are part of the college football fabric and key cogs in local
communities. They should have an undeniable part in this process.
Second, you do not want to trample the importance of the regular season
in college football, which could happen if the brackets are too large.
How about this for a scenario? Having already clinched a playoff, Ohio
State decides to rest a dozen or so starters for the annual showdown
with Michigan. You roll your eyes today, but it can and would happen
with, say, a 16-team playoff.
Change can be good, but you don’t
need to kill a fly with an anvil. Let’s modify the postseason without
the line between college and the pros blurred, destroying some of the
things that make Saturdays so special to so many people.
Matthew
Zemek, CFN
Q:
Why shouldn't there be a playoff?
A:
My intellectually honest answer to this question is, “I
can’t give you one.” But if forced to (gasp!) argue in favor
of a no-playoff landscape in college football, the best
response would be to say that there’s an insufficient amount
of high-caliber non-conference matchups in any given season.
The paucity of prime pigskin passion plays involving teams
from different corners of the country makes it virtually
impossible to arrive at a foolproof national champion. USC
and Florida have never played over the past few years. Ditto
USC and LSU. Oklahoma and Ohio State haven’t gotten after
each other this decade. How many other thermonuclear
showdowns have not taken place in the BCS era? Even if you
played two or three of these top-of-the-line tilts in bowl
games, you still wouldn’t be able to cross-pollinate every
team and test every available matchup. Might as well have
multiple teams win their last game of the season, in the
bowl format college football knows intimately.
Hunter Ansley,
Publisher,
DraftZoo.com
Q:
Why shouldn't there be a playoff?A:
Because if we move to a playoff system then we’ll all have to
listen to Dan Beebe whine about how “players in playoff systems
aren’t as happy.”
I’m not making that up.
That’s what he said during the Bedlam Game last season.
In all seriousness, there is absolutely no reason not to move to
some form of a bracket.
Even if it’s just a ‘plus one.’
Anyone who says otherwise probably just flew away in a
Leer Jet with a big BCS logo on the side.
Jon Miller,
Publisher, HawkeyeNation.com
Q: Why shouldn't there be a playoff?
A:
I have been against a playoff for a long time, but my opposition
to it is weakening in light of the Coaches Poll going anonymous
starting in 2010. That really irks me. These guys are
multimillionaires and they can't stand a little heat from their
own brethren? If you are ornery enough to play shenanigans with
your vote then you should be man enough to let your vote be
counted. If a player came to a coach and said, 'yeah coach,
that workout program you want us to do in the summer? I might
not be into that, but I might be. But here is the thing, if I
don't do it, you can't count that against me in the fall, mmmky?'
These kids are accountable for all of their actions, or
inactions, in a football program. But the men at the top of
these programs don't want their final votes of the year to be
public? Heck, the final vote is the easiest to cast! This poll
counts for one-third of the BCS formula. Another one-third
comes from computers! So I am running out of reasons to not
want at least an 'and one' model.
The only reason I don't
want a playoff right now is because I truly believe the college
football regular season is the most compelling drama in all of
sports. Sure, the NCAA tournament one and done setting is a lot
of fun, but every single college football game matters. An NCAA
basketball game in November and December is getting to be on par
with an NBA regular season game. If we have an 8 or 16 game
college football playoff, you take away that drama. Plus, I
love the bowl season, even if there are a few too many of
those. Perhaps I am just old school...wait, I know I am. I
prefer the pre-BCS and pre-Bowl Coalition system, the backroom
bartering system to anything.
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