College Football Playoff

Well, we finally have a playoff.....sort of.

I know there are a lot of thoughts flying around the blogosphere and the airwaves about whether this is progress, or just the top 1% throwing the fans a bone.  I have to say, I am not a huge fan of the proposed "playoff'".  You can look at last year, to see how little it is going to improve things. 

Last year, we had a huge debate about whether 2 teams who had already played, should play again for the national title.  We also have a huge game about what to do with the teams who were in the dicussion, and people are acting like it was a given who the top 4 teams in the country were, Alablama, LSU, Oklahoma State, and Stanford.

To that,  I have one glaring question.....What about the Oregon Ducks?  The destroyed the Stanford Cardinal in the last month of the season, exposing the lack of overall team speed for the team from Palo Alto. 

I know, they had 2 losses, but they were demonstratively better than a team that some were arguing should be in the national title game.  Now, I know we all recognize that Stanford was no better than #4 overall after they lost to the Cowboys, but this is about who gets a shot right? 

I will give that taking the top 4 teams in the country gives us a better chance to get the best 2 included, and that is is absolutely a step in the right direction.  However, why do we need to work in a hybrid system that keeps the existing bowl situation in place?

Why not go to a full playoff?

We can debate if we should limit it at 8 teams, or go bigger, as those are logistic arguments that have valid issues.  But taking or creating 3 games, and leaving the remainder in place is not necessary.  It is holding onto history for history's sake. 

I am hopeful that this is the first step, and that they are being conservative so that they can show the money to the presidents and other approvers.  But, I have to say that i am not in a great state of mind about this change.  I see this as being more of the same, with 2 more of the big boys getting a shot.

What we need is a setup that encourages parity, not a setup that encourages the status quo.  People love to argue that we should have the 'best' teams and not give automatic bids to league champions.  The problem there is that there is no reason for top recruits to consider the non-BCS schools.  But, if a top team in a lower-tier conference can sell a likely shot at the national title, they have the chance to compete for the top players in their region, and therefore compete overall.

To my mind, that is where we should be driving basketball to go.  You can see the results of this in basketball, whose tournament is held up as the paragon that football should aspire to.  The mid-majors have a single big per conference, which allows them to get solid players into those leagues, giving us teams like Wichita State, Virginia Commonweath, Creighton, and Gonzaga.  Some of those teams have raised the profile of their leagues while others have been able to jump to better leagues.  Their fans have real excitement that they have a shot to make noise on the national level, and that should be what it's all about.