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College Football Playoff – Too Little, Too Late

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Starting in 2014, college football will have a four-team playoff in which the four teams will be selected by a committee. It’s been an agonizingly long wait for college football fans.  A step in the right direction? Yes. The answer? Absolutely not!

Think about it. What if we were talking about college basketball and I told you to forget about March Madness and that I had a better idea. Let’s play 30 or so regular season games, rank the teams, take a month off and then have one championship game between the first and second ranked teams. The other ranked basketball teams could play in meaningless “bowl” games in which they could celebrate their victories with their alumni and fans.

Wouldn’t that be great? It’s not tee ball where every 5-year-old thinks they are winners, but it’s close. There are so many winners and it makes everyone so happy. It makes no sense, but that's what we have to today with the college football bowl system.

The BCS was supposed to help fix this issue. Sure, it’s helped on occasion but it’s been a disaster in so many other ways. Check out the crowds and the TV ratings of the non-championship games of recent years if you don’t believe me. Now all the non-championship games are meaningless and no one cares outside of some core alumni and fans.

Which leads us to this year’s potential disappointment and nightmare; four teams that may go undefeated with only two getting a chance at the title.  The two teams will be selected by “style points." Isn’t that wonderful! Tell that to the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team, the 1969 New York Mets, the 1983 North Carolina State basketball team and so on (and on and on and on) who would have never had a chance to allow us to share in their unforgettable moments if under such a system.  

It’s time for an 8 or 16-team playoff. What’s keeping this from happening? It’s not money. No one can convince me that there is not more money to make in a 16-team playoff versus the current system. It’s who’s making the money. Those with the gold want to keep it and that’s where the hold up lies. Outside the 16-team playoff have all the meaningless bowls you want. While you are at it just give participation trophies to every team.  

We love underdogs probably because we all have felt like one at times. We have been in situations when we have somehow succeeded when it looked like we didn’t have a chance. We love the stories especially when they are about kids playing for the love of the game. The NCAA, CFA, BCS and whatever other acronym they go by has for years denied the players, fans and the world of the possibility of the unbelievable underdog. How many wonderful moments have we already lost?

Wirtten by Steve Wright for TheFantasyFix.com.


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