BCS: Playoff vs. Bowl System vs. Plus One
Now that there was a possibility of a split championship the playoff proponents have come out again. A playoff is the truest way to determine a champion. I concede that. A true playoff, however, is never going to happen. It’s loses too much money for the title sponsors of the bowl games and requires too much travel for fans.
Look at the BCS games last year. UConn got into a BCS game for the first time in its history and couldn’t sell all of it’s tickets, not even at a discounted rate. This in turn cost the school (read Connecticut taxpayers) millions of dollars. Just imagine if that was a part of a playoff and they happen to play 2 or 3 more games? The tea-party would be blowing their frickin’ lids!
UConn is not alone. Take this years Holiday Bowl where the mighty University of Texas Longhorns played the Cal Bears and neither team sold all of their tickets to the game. If you think it’s only small schools or apathetic fans that have this problem think about this: What if Alabama was playing UConn or Cincinatti in the first round of the playoffs? Alabama wouldn’t sell out because they would assume the victory and be looking ahead to next week. UConn/Cincy wouldn’t sell out because they would assume a beatdown and not want to spend all that money to get destroyed. Lose/Lose.
Is the Bowl System really so bad?
Look, I love Mr. Brooks and his website, but he’s got this completely wrong. The bowl system isn’t so bad. So what if they’re 35 bowl games? Nobody is making you watch them and they pull higher ratings than playoff basketball and playoff baseball. This year’s Insight Bowl garnered a 3.0, the same rating as the Mavericks/Thunder Western Conference Finals last year.
Bowl games provide sponsors and schools the opportunity to have a somewhat meaningful game at the end of the season. Teams like Louisiana Tech don’t have aspirations of national titles. They just want to represent their university, play well and be spotlighted on TV. If there was only a playoff, they either wouldn’t make the playoff or would be blown out in the first game. Bowl games helps with that. Fans of smaller universities can get behind their team, go party in a new city and make some money for the sponsors, its a win/win all the way around.
But, as I’ve already said, bowl games don’t name a true champion.
Is Plus One the solution?
Perhaps. It would definitely solve all the current complaints about the BCS. 2004 Auburn, 2012 OkState/Stanford, Boise State of the last 5 years, Texas in 2008, and on and on and on…
For those that don’t know a Plus One is a mini-playoff between the top 4 teams in the BCS. There would likely be the addition of the Cotton Bowl in the BCS and make the other bowl games rotate the championship/non-playoff games. One would play four and two would play three. Those winners would meet in the championship game the following week.
Like I said, that would solve the current problems. Right now, the number 6, 7 and 8th ranked teams aren’t bitching that they should be involved in the title game. I don’t think they should. But as soon as we switch to a PlusOne a new scenario will arise where a #5 team gets “screwed.” You may say you don’t care about the 5th, 6th or 7th ranked team now, but that’s what people said about the 3rd ranked team when the BCS was created. I think it begins to open a can of worms that you may not be able to put the lid back on.
Everybody is NEVER going to be happy. Somebody always gets “screwed.”
[...] I think Steward Cink hit the nail on the head. Check out my more in-depth views on Playoffs vs. Bowl System vs. Plus One here. [...]
January 10th, 2012 at 8:30 pm