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Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The battle for a playoff will be very, very ugly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans—The college football season, one of the best I can ever remember, ended late last has night with LSU beating Ohio State in the BCS championship game, 38-24.
But it looks like we’re going to change the subject rather quickly.
By now most of you have learned that University of Georgia President Michael Adams, in his role as the chair of the NCAA Executive Committee, will propose that the NCAA administer an eight-team playoff to decide college football’s national championship. As the chair of the most powerful committee in the NCAA, this is a totally appropriate thing for Dr. Adams to do. I am a strong believer in presidential oversight of college athletics.
But understand what is really going on here.
This is not just about making a proposal to change the post-season structure of Division I-A football, one that many fans say they would like to see. This is going to be an ugly political war among a lot of powerful interests for college football’s soul.
Example: How do you think SEC Commissioner Mike Slive feels about this? Yesterday he finished his tour as the BCS coordinator and has, for the last two years, been a voice of reason when it comes to recognizing the flaws of the BCS system. He has been open minded about change and discussions on that change were getting ready to start as the BCS prepared to negotiate its new television agreement, which would begin in 2010. Now one of his own presidents fires this shot across the bow just hours after an SEC team wins a national championship. It puts Slive in a very uncomfortable position.
Because Dr. Adams’ idea isn’t just about putting together a playoff, it’s about taking the power away from the conference commissioners who have been charged with running college football for about 25 years. If the 120 Division I-A presidents believe that time has come, then so be it. The commissioners work for them. But it is going to messy.
The Big Ten and the Pac-10 have been adamantly opposed to any change in the format but the feeling was that, with some gentle negotiating, they could be coaxed into a “Plus-One” format, which would essentially be a four-team playoff. Dr. Adams must be banking on the belief that the Big Ten and Pac-10 would not go it alone if an eight-team playoff were created. But I do know this: The Rose Bowl, with all of its tradition and clout, will not be a quarterfinal game of an NCAA playoff as Dr. Adams has suggested.
And what about the athletics directors, who are paying huge salaries to coaches and manage budgets now reaching $100 million? Dr. Adams proposes eliminating the 12th regular-season game that just came into being. But if this playoff becomes a reality, he is right. The 12th game has to go.
Here’s the bottom line. Many fans want a playoff and I understand that. They want to eliminate the annual argument and anxiety over post-season football and I understand that.
But understand this: After a great college football season we’re getting ready to have a big, ugly fight about where the game should go next. Maybe it is a fight that has to happen. But it won’t be pretty to watch and some people who have been good to college football will get hurt in the process.
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