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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > November > 19
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
No such thing as workable playoff system
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
See what I’ve been trying to tell you forever? When it comes to the big boys of college football, there is no such thing as a workable playoff system with a limited amount of games and with only a slight chance for controversy.
Well, unless you believe Bobby Bowden really is Santa Claus.
For every President-elect Barack Obama, who has mentioned twice in recent days about his preference for an eight-game playoff system, you have a slew of those such as Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, who said he wants something such as a 64-team playoff system.
Why stop there? Why not include all 119 Division I-A teams?
Don’t think somebody doesn’t have those thoughts, especially since college basketball coaches such as Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim wants March Madness to grow from 65 teams to nearly everybody for a mad scramble to the end.
Obama got this latest round of playoff-talk silliness rolling in recent interviews with ESPN and 60 Minutes. Then you had Leach taking a break from running his No. 2 ranked team in the Bowl Championship Series to give his counter.
It’s all knee jerk. For one, the BCS is spending another year moving toward an exciting finish. Plus, you already have an unofficial playoff system in the works, with SEC and Big 12 heavyweights battling each other every week for a possible trip to the championship game.
For another, those who want a playoff system are ignoring the exponentially higher toll - both mentally and physically - that such a system would have on student-athletes operating at the highest level of college football. And, if you throw in an always expanding playoff system, which would happen (see above), you would have even more of a significant toll.
No offense to our pending chief executive, but he needs to stick to the economy and foreign policy.
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