The Rearview 5-1

Much to the chagrin of a lot of sports writers and college football fans, the “big 6”, and Notre Dame, decided the status quo is what should rule the day.

There are many reasons why this playoff, or any other version of a playoff, won’t happen. Well, won’t happen any time soon. The earliest it could happen is 2014, six long years away.

Here’s a summary of topics that were relevant this weekend:

• TV doesn’t care one way or the other. Fox is enjoying great success with the current format, and honestly, they have basically said, they aren’t opposed to enhancing it, but are “thrilled” with the way it is now. They actually won an Emmy over the Super Bowl and World Series for their coverage of the BCS. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it applies here.
• The Big 10 and Pac 10 are arm in arm with each other over the Rose Bowl. And the Rose Bowl likes it that way. We got our big dose of reality last year when the Rose Bowl had the opportunity to put USC and Georgia in the same game, yet took an albeit deserving, but much less sexy, Illinois to face the Trojans, for fear that a USC/GA game paired against an LSU/OSU game could possibly look like a seeded tournament. Well, that, and the Rose Bowl just isn’t going to break tradition when it doesn’t have to.
• It’s clear that the SEC and ACC do want a plus one. All other conferences, and Notre Dame, are against it. It’s pretty clear why Notre Dame, the Big 10 and Pac 10 are against, though I’m fuzzy as to why the Big East and Big 12 are against it. The issue, it seems, is that it “looks like a playoff”. With the bigger issue being, how would they keep it to only 4? These things do have the tendency to snowball. The NCAA basketball tournament is a good example of this. But that’s a pretty weak reason to snuff the idea all together. I would hope that conference commissioners could come up with a better reason than “well it looks too much like a playoff, and we’re against that”.
• There is an earnest effort to keep the regular season’s importance intact. Anything that seems to remotely impact the relative importance of regular season match ups is deemed bad for the game. This sport after all does have the most intriguing regular season in ALL of sports. Combine that with the most controversial post season in ALL of sports, and what you have is pure gold, from a fan interest and marketing standpoint. For 3 months every year, Saturdays are treated as ‘events’ all across the country. The other 9 months, people like you and I bitch and moan about the BCS. It’s beautiful when you really think about it.

In the end though, I can’t say I’m disappointed as a fan. I agree that protecting the regular season is what’s most important. I do think that a playoff (not the plus one) would impact the regular season. I do think Conference Championships should still mean something. I like the debate. A playoff would sterilize the sport; it would pre package it and makes it shelf ready. I kind of like it the way it is now….a big mess, kind of raw and not knowing how it’s going to end.

I love the regular season. I love the fact that every weekend helps determine conf. championships and national title contenders. I love arguing about who should and shouldn’t be in contention.

As a fan, I don’t know that I could stand it, knowing that we could beat Georgia or Florida, probably knocking them out of the SEC title race, but they still have a legitimate shot at the National Title (which would have been the case last season for Georgia had there been an 8 team playoff). Another example I would put forth would be the Tennessee/Memphis basketball game earlier this year. As excited as we all were abut that game, and its outcome, what did it really mean? Memphis went on to win the C-USA and play for a national title. Big game, sure it was. But it didn’t matter one iota to the out come of the season. Which is fine for basketball since you’re playing 30 plus games in a season. Translate that to football’s 12 games. Each one determines that team’s season. We could beat Florida, win the SEC title, and Florida could still win the National Title? Nope. Sorry. Can’t get behind a system that would allow that to happen. I like the plus one model set forth by Slive, short of that though, leave it as is, and for the losers complaining about being left out or more deserving……..play harder next year.

It’s like the old Rolling Stones song…….”you can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need”. My father, who would play this song to me as a kid when I wanted something, would be glad to know that I’ve learned this lesson in life. Maybe that’s why I’m content with how it is. I learned very young not to get greedy. Be thankful for what you have. It could be worse.

And the truth is, it really could be, in fact, it was. Keep in mind that before the BCS, post Bowl Coalition, there was no system. Conference tie ins to the bowls over ruled anything deemed good for the game. Number 1 playing in the Orange Bowl, number 2 playing in the Sugar Bowl, and the voters decided when it’s all over. Before that, your national champion was crowned before the bowl was played. Which worked out well for those national champions that went on to LOSE their bowl game.

So, call me pessimistic, but I’m not too young to remember how it was. With out the BCS we never see Ohio State vs. Miami, USC vs. Texas, Ohio State vs. Florida, LSU vs. Ohio State, USC vs. Oklahoma, or LSU vs. Oklahoma.

It hasn’t been all bad, and I know one thing for sure, the interest level in college football is as high as it’s ever been. How can that be bad for this sport? Answer: it’s not.

We’ll have to check back in six years and see what happens. Until then, let the debate continue…..