College Football Doesn’t Need a ‘Plus One’

The Super Bowl played annually on St. Patrick’s Day.

April Madness.

Opening game of the NBA Championship Series played on the 4th of July.

The Winter Classic wrapping up at Thanksgiving.

If the three major sports leagues and the NCAA basketball tournament followed the same logic of the NCAA BCS that is what the sporting public would have been. A regular season, followed by a month (or more) off, then the playoffs.

Now that the BCS has seemingly (finally) run its course, there is a move afoot to “expand” to a four team “playoff,” also referred to as a “plus one.”

This plan is, in part, to preserve the “sanctity” of the regular season – the idea that in college football “every game counts” whereas in the aforementioned other sports the regular season accounts for very little. Just things like higher seeding and home playoff games – there’s no real value in having a higher seeding in the NCAA tournament or hosting games in the playoffs. That never works out.

Plus, we’ve got to save those “bowl games” because the participating schools all print money from their participation. That and the fans have to be rewarded with a trip to a warm weather climate to spend their otherwise dreary holiday season – renowned winter destinations like Boise, Shreveport, and El Paso.

Let us not forget the tradition of the storied bowl games – like the SWC Champ playing in the Cotton Bowl (the stadium) in the Cotton Bowl (the game) on New Year’s Day against an at-large team like Notre Dame. A conference that no longer exists (a new tradition in college football) in a stadium that no longer hosts its namesake game five days removed from the New Year between non-champions from leagues that at least have several of the former SWC schools. Seems fitting that Arkansas, the first to bolt the SWC, won this year’s game.

Lastly, we must remember the poor student athlete – to extend his college season even longer would only further interfere with his hectic school schedule (these are “student-athletes” after all). LSU, Georgia, Oregon, UCLA, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Houston, Southern Miss, Virginia Tech, and Clemson all played 14 games this season. In 1970, teams that competed in bowl games of which there were only a dozen, played a total of 11 games.

All of the above is really a bunch of malarkey – it’s been well documented that schools lose money on the vast majority of bowl games (see the three articles in the supporting links: http://www.azcentral.com/ news/articles/2011/09/26/ 20110926bcs-bowl-games-teams- lose-money.html ; http://www. bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-23/ college-football-winners- still-lose-as-bowl-game- expenses-exceed-payout.html ; http://www.mndaily.com/2011/ 10/04/bcs-bill-how-bowl-games- cost-football-programs ) The main reason the coaches want the bowls is the extra practice time. That and the extra scratch they (and their assistants) earn from qualifying (and more if they win) for a bowl – any bowl.

So, to “address” the issues laid out above, the obvious answer is to extend the season an additional week. That will ensure the sanctity of the regular season, fix the ills of the ailing bowls and pump up viewership and lighten the academic impact of all that missed school during December when nobody is in class.

Playing a plus one will increase television viewership in the two bowls fortunate enough to be selected as semi-finals. It will also simultaneously kill television ratings for the remaining “BCS” bowls and ensure nobody attends the two semi-final games. At least none of the four schools will have fans there as they will all be saving their money in the hopes their school wins and plays the following week in some other city. The Final Four works because it takes place on one weekend, and anybody who has attended both the National Semi-Final and the Final knows that the losing fans don’t stick around for Monday night.

Another problem with any scenario that uses current BCS bowls as any sort of “play-in” to the National Championship Game is that the semifinals will take place in January and thus directly compete with the NFL playoffs unless the college games are held during the week.

Part of the reason that March works so well for basketball is that the NBA doesn’t get interesting until April – after the championships.

So, what is the solution?

A 12-team playoff, played in December, at the home stadium of the higher-seeded schools.

No “automatic berths” either. Twelve teams chosen by a committee – similar to how its done for basketball, seeded one-through-twelve. This scenario would allow for a strong assortment of teams – both traditional and Cinderella; while giving teams that had truly superior regular seasons a chance to have a needed week of rest and stay home for December. Seeds five through eight would earn the right to host a playoff game – on a Saturday.

Similar to the NFL, the highest seeds would always be hosting the lowest remaining seeds. Thus if there were an opening round upset – say the #12 defeated the #5 (which happens every March as any college basketball fan with a busted bracket can testify), the #1 seed, by virtue of having the best regular season would host the #12 team – as opposed to automatically playing the winner of #8 vs. #9. But, how to preserve the “tradition” of the bowls?

First, there is nothing stopping the good folks of Boise, Shreveport, and El Paso from continuing to hold their annual fund-raisers for their loud sports jacketed entrepreneurs that culminated in a clash of 6-6 and 7-5 teams. Those teams won’t qualify for any tournament no matter how many schools are ultimately allowed to participate. After all basketball still has its NIT and CBI.

As for the current BCS bowls, consider this alternative – the ten teams that qualify for the football tournament but are eliminated from the championship game could then have the “bowl experience” in the four current BCS Bowls (Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta) and one additional game (e.g. the Cotton Bowl) to be played on January 1 with the National Championship game played on either the succeeding Friday or Monday to allow a couple days build-up and to not compete against the NFL Wild Card round.

To really make it feasible, a move back to an 11-game regular season and the elimination of conference championship games would ensure no student athlete miss more school than he already does, and teams would play, at most, 14 games. Any revenue lost by the reduction in games would more than likely be offset by the huge television monies awaiting the schools.

The regular season would begin Labor Day weekend and finish the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving, allowing for the opening round, quarter-finals and semi-finals all to be played prior to the NFL playoffs beginning and well before any meaningful basketball (college or professional) has been played.


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