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Obama’s playoff would be wrong kind of change
Published Tuesday, November 18, 2008
This playoff thing has officially gotten out of hand.
If it weren’t bad enough that an overwhelming majority of college football fans think the sport needs a playoff to determine its national champion, President-Elect Barack Obama has joined the discussion on the wrong side.
Obama told national audiences on both 60 minutes and on ESPN’s Monday Night Football that he supports an eight-team playoff.
“I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this,” Obama said. “So, I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit.”
I’ll assume the slight Obama is talking about his weight in the figurative sense. After the reaction to Obama’s election, any weight throwing would be apocalyptic for all those serious college football fans, like me, that don’t want to see our sport move toward a playoff.
Wait, you say I’m the only one that doesn’t want a playoff?
May be, but I don’t want a playoff so much that I’m willing to throw my weight around. As I’ve argued before in this space, college football is easily the most intriguing sport in our fair country. Now, I’m not naive enough to believe that the lack of a playoff is the sole reason behind people’s passion for college football. But it doesn’t hurt. Think about it: Why are regular season losses in college basketball taken with a grain of salt? Why are National Football League rivalries unimportant?
College football’s unique feature is the importance of the regular season, where one loss has significant implications for a team’s championship aspirations and the only solace for a team with three or more losses is the prospect of a win over a hated rival.
All that said, I dislike the Bowl Championship Series as much as the next guy. My solution is to, first, fill five BCS bowl slots the way they would have been filled traditionally—for argument’s sake we’ll say Oregon State and Penn State to the Rose Bowl, Alabama to the Sugar Bowl, Miami to the Orange Bowl and Texas Tech to the Fiesta Bowl. The Big East champion, Cincinnati, gets in, as well as at-large teams Texas and Utah.
Next, take those last three teams mentioned and assign them to bowls in a way that would have the highest ranked teams in the BCS playing each other. So, we would have the Rose Bowl plus Alabama (No. 1 in the BCS right now) and Texas (3) in the Sugar Bowl, Texas Tech (2) and Utah (7) in the Fiesta, and Miami (23) and Cincinnati (19) in the Orange.
Finally, after all the bowl games have been played, one more round of BCS rankings determines what two teams will play in the national championship game one week later. It’s a plus-one that allows bowls to keep their traditional tie-ins and makes it almost impossible for a team that isn’t a conference champ to win a national title (Texas would be the only team out of the eight BCS squads without hardware already).
We would probably have to cut one week off the beginning of the regular season, but a team that doesn’t play in a conference championship game wouldn’t be at such a huge disadvantage in a potential national championship game because they would have played one week earlier. Also, unbeaten and highly ranked teams, such as Alabama and Texas Tech, would be rewarded in the bowls by getting the chance to impress against better competition.
My proposal is not a playoff—that requires at least eight teams, right?—but it is a change we can believe in.
Stephen Dawkins is the sports editor for The Clanton Advertiser. His column appears each Sunday and each Wednesday.
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Comments
Posted by bamaboy07 (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 8:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Great! This is all we needed a president or any politician to get involved in college football. I don't think that there should be any type of playoff. Just because a team is on the outside lookin in doesn't mean that politicians should get involved! All of these Universities should realize that one of the keys to the BCS is strength of schedule. Alabama and Auburn need to start scheduling big name teams instead of teams like Arkansas State and UT Martin!
Posted by KatherineReece (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 1:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You can hardly suggest that Alabama and Auburn have easy schedules! We play in the SEC for pete's sake! The toughest conference out there.
We OPEN against Clemson and you mention Arkansas St!! Wow... yeah... that one team which was (I believe) the homecoming game when everyone schedules an easy opponent is really causing us problems. And I do believe the BCS has Alabama as #1 so that one game just didn't affect things did it?
Auburn's problem this year isn't that they had UT Martin on the schedule its that this year Auburn isn't playing well against almost everyone!
Posted by eagle1 (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 1:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeah Katherine, and I seem to remember one La-Monroe team a couple of years ago that handed Bama their Homecoming loss. HAR!
Posted by KatherineReece (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 1:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So? That happens! Just like Troy almost beat LSU ....
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Anyone who took Obama's statement on this issue have two problems: 1. They did not see the interview. It was in jest. 2. A president, sitting or elect, has no authority over the NCAA. Remember the week after 9/11? Don't get your thong tangled. As for a playoff. There must be some credence to this idea. Otherwise the NCAA would not have allowed conference championship games. The next step for the NCAA is to have regional championship games for conferences, then, a final championship game. Call it what you want, but, it is designed by the NCAA to become a playoff system. It just takes time to set up logistically and time for us to absorb.
Posted by heathermc (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 5:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
i just want more football, can't we figure out a way to play year round??? I really don't want Obama involved with anything in this country but it is what we have to deal with for the next four years. There is absolutely no telling what he is gonna dabble in so to say but after what I read about that terrorist talking about him, I don't think football will be on his mind if they have their way. Did anybody else read that? You should search it if not or find it on netscape, bin laden's no. 2 man pretty much said that they will declare jihad on us when he takes office, he should focus on that and not the holy sanctity of the sec or any other football (or baseball, or basketball, or ...)
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 6:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Heather, I heard the tape. Nothing like that was said. Besides they declared a jihad after we backed Israel in 1967. Where have you been hiding? Besides this is about a football playoff system, not international politics. If that's not plain enough read my earlier post. The election is over, get over it. If you're going to spend 4 years fretting, you need to stay off netscape and pick up the King James.
Posted by bamaboy07 (anonymous) on November 19, 2008 at 11:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
KatherineReece you must have miss understood what I was trying to say! I wasn't talking about us having a week schedule I was talking about all of the other teams having weaker schedules and then complaining about being left out. I was just using those teams as examples. I would like to see bama play teams like penn state or ohio state i believe that those match ups would fuel the college football world!
One more thing O bama may or may not have a say so over the ncaa rules but him coming out publicly saying that he would like to see a playoff in college football would 9 times out of 10 change the minds of certain people on the ncaa comity. I to would like 2 see college football more but year round would eventually get old!
Posted by heathermc (anonymous) on November 20, 2008 at 7:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
i read what was said and yeah that is what was said. I know the bible sweety, probably alot bettr than you. My statment is, Obama ned sto keep his A*$ out of football and studying world politics. If you read your bible the way you read my post then you are a very lost soul.
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on November 20, 2008 at 8:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Obviously you didn't watch Steve Kroft's interview with Obama. It was a question to Obama. He was also asked in other interviews about his jump shot, doesn't mean he is going to place himself on an NBA team. Darling, don't take life so serious. Jeezz, by the way, I like the pseudo-cussing. Real adult and christian like.
Posted by KatherineReece (anonymous) on November 20, 2008 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well when you type "Alabama and Auburn need to start scheduling big name teams instead of teams like Arkansas State and UT Martin!" it does make me think you're talking about Alabama and Auburn! But if you meant something else, I apologize.
Now about Obama, he's got enough on his plate, he's not going to get involved with college football! It was an interview, he's a fan, a Lot of us have talked for years about wanting a playoff system.
I don't want to get into a fight with anyone but that cleric didn't declare any jihad against us... honestly they did that a LONG time ago. The cleric was upset because he said Obama had gone against the religion of his father and had supported Israel and was a Christan and that's why the cleric was upset with him. But I really don't know why this is being brought up on this topic.
Posted by kwsrgraves (anonymous) on November 20, 2008 at 1:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well stated Katherine. I agree.
Posted by heathermc (anonymous) on November 21, 2008 at 9:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
well my goodness sweetie, i guess you have never said a curse word huh, i had no idea the perfect son of GOD lived right here in Clanton. If you think that by saying a word that is termed as a curse word by MAN (not God) then you are in some serious trouble. And yes he said that if our troops go any further into afghanistan then they would declare Jihad.
Posted by heathermc (anonymous) on November 21, 2008 at 9:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
http://www.rightsidenews.com/20081121269...
here is the transcript (and the title says it all)
but the point of my posts was that he has enough to do w/o messing with football and not to argue with someone.
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