FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Thank you Big Ten, Pac-10 and Notre Dame. Real college football fans know that you are doing to right thing and why you did. There is no need to worry about the ESPN nation, they don't care about college football. They are sheep. They do not understand the game. They detest its near perfection. They can watch the NFL if they want a playoff.

I'm starting to think that these college presidents don't want a playoff in college football. These college presidents are the reason there is no playoff in college football. They are also a bunch of phonys. There reason for not having a playoff is beacuse they don't want to extended the season, and they don't want student athletes to miss class. But when it come to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, where CBS pays a Zillion dollars for it, they have no problem with student atletes missing class. The NCAA is stealing money for the NCAA Tournament, and are cheap with the BCS.

There is a reason why there is no playoff system. It would just be too hard and too difficult to make money doing it. How are you going to get 10's of thousands in your fan base to fly out to some place one week and then to another place another week. It's just not feasible and it's not financially viable as much as we'd like to see it happen. Sure it can happen in lower div cuz their fan base is tiny compared to the bigger schools.

Ow Wow, U think i agree with the Warden. i guess there is a first time for everything. Seriously, good point.

I think, not U think; I was still in shock.

Without even reading the article, I'll answer "yes."

Yep Warden got this one right, even if the Big Ten and Pac 10 agreed, and as passionate as the fans are from those conferences, asking them to out together 2 or 3 big road trips in the span of a month would be rough for anyone.

The Plus One format is just as stupid as the current system. You could have a team go undefeated and win their bowl game and then get beat by a two loss team in the plus one game. It makes no sense. Short of a true playoff system all college football fans are being fed sawdust.

As always...the Big Ten takes the blame.
And the people of America can whine, complain, and moan all they want, there is not going to be a playoff system anytime soon. (Agreeing with The Warden right about now)

I can see a 4 team playoff some day. I really don't see agreement on a plus 1, I am not a fan of +1, and I honestly believe there would be just as many gripes about plus 1 as we have now.

Side note - behind the scenes, there's a lot more than these 2 votes, thse reps just got stuck holding the bag.

Remember the UGA guy promoting a playoff hard last year? Funny thing - the year before that he was dead set against it in interviews when his team finished 23rd or so and the bowl they were attending would have been hurt by a playoff. If it were just these 2 conferences, they would have bought them off by now if the money made sense. Apparently it doesn't.

As for this rehahing of what we already know in the article above, the rehashing might be the only part he got right. "The Rose Bowl is merely a concerned spectator" should be appended with "Who happens to hold contracts with 2 of the conferences and the most lucrative TV contract (per bowl)... perhaps a bit more than a "Concerned Spectator..." I guess that's why they call them sports writers and not sports journalists.

So apparently, the fan bases of the college basketball teams are smaller? Or easier to manage the travel of? Admittedly some are (e.g. Davidson, Valparaiso, etc). But what about the high majors and elite programs?

Anyone got any revenue statistics handy for what takes in more money? Bowl games or the NCAA tournaments? If I had to guess I would say they are about equal.

And I'm talking about total revenue - not just the gate.

A playoff could easily happen, if only people would take their heads out of the sand.

I see what you're sayin Kraz, but when I think of going to a basketball game, for the tournament, its usually driving distance or atleast a short Southwest flight, and tickets are usually around 100 a pop.
But with football bowls you're looking at taking the whole thing, flight, hotel, tailgating, the game, its gets much more expensive..
I think a playoff would be cool, but there are positives and negatives to both, I guess all we can hope is the off chance there are two undefeateds at the end of the year....

The problem is that everyone is obsessed with the question "Who is the BEST team in teh NATION!?!"

Guess what...there is NO WAY to ever know! The majesty of the bowl games has been killed. Nobody really cares about the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar aor Orange Bowl games anymore.....except for the sponsors. Everyone just wants to find out who will win the NC.....as if the team that wins it really gets to call themselves the "best" with a straight face.

Kraz - There are a lot more people in a football stadium than a basketball arena. A bowl game floods towns, a basketball game is like a special concert. You can't compare the logistics of the two.

I can't imagine going to back to back bowl games. That would be awfully expensive.

Hahaha... so one one hand there's no way you could get that many people to travel and then on the other hand you're saying that there's too many fans that would be in the stands to make the logistics possible to have two games at one site?

This is exactly why a playoff will never happen. Nobody even knows where to start and the answer is always "no".

I can't imagine going to back to back bowl games. That would be awfully expensive.

NWPA | 04/30/08, 12:12 PM

That's because your a PSU fan... sorry low hanging fruit there...

Anyways, the plus one would mean only a single extra game. I doubt any bowl would have any trouble selling out. If done right, the national championship game would sell out even if fans couldn't make it... but it should also be done in such a way that students and fans get the first chance at the tickets, not family of the rich and media.

I am against anything more than a plus one. A multiple game playoff takes away the emotion and passion displayed every game, all season long. No matter whether you like LSU or not, the ballsy moves by him at the end of multiple games are exciting and fun for fans, because a loss means the end of a season essentially. If a multiple game playoff is implemented, a team like LSU last season might play it safer, because if they lose one or two, they know they will still make it into the top 8 or 16 teams. I think the plus 1 avoids this problem while still providing a much clearer national champion.

Tom Hansen is a terrible Pac-10 commish. Not necessarily for this, but just in general.

Hey MARIN I was in LA last weekend, great city!

glad you enjoyed it!

The Pac-10 is poorly managed as evidenced by it's miserable television deal that gives it minimal East coast exposure. HOWEVER, that sad fact plays into it's decision to maintain status quo since the Pac-10 knows how difficult it is for West coast teams to garner lofty rankings and premium bowl invitations. Let's not forget the slighting of OSU, CAL, and ORE in recent years. All in all, if it isn't USC (or in years gone by, UW) then the East coast voters don't bother ranking the Pac very highly - EVEN WORSE - these idiots are somewhat vindicated when disinterested Pac teams are regulated to piss-poor-bowls and tend to fade into the night. Sorry, but it's hard for UCLA to get revved up about the Las Vegas Bowl.

Let's face facts, if voters were forced to blindly rank teams based on their stats you would see very VERY different polls. As it is, most of the voters fill out their rankings before the West has even finished playing.