The four-team playoff is here, and not everybody is thrilled about the news. I know I am not. The best-selling Death to the BCS knows what this all means for its own future…
We will now happily take up our rightful spot in the buck-a-book-bin
Dan Wetzel, one of the co-authors of Death to the BCS (and a previous podcast guest) penned one of the columns you absolutely must read today, of all days. Wetzel goes to town on tearing apart the men who formed this four-team “playoff.”
What do you think about the new college football playoff? Please vote in this poll and share a comment if you wish.
College football postseason changes adopted, but is it best option?
The BCS is done. Do you miss it yet? Will you miss it later? Photo: Getty Images
Have you ever wanted a toy so badly you would have done just about anything for it? You would wait in line at the mall to let Santa Claus know what you wanted every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You would write a letter and send an email to the North Pole. You do extra chores around your home to make sure you stay on the Nice list. You are unusually extra nice to your little sister for agonizing weeks. You would be sure to pull out the advertisements in the Sunday paper and circle what you wanted for your parents, subtly reminding them that if you did not get to unwrap it on Christmas morning the next year may be full of tears.
Christmas morning comes and you grab the nicely gift-wrapped box you know is the object of your desire but your parents make you wait to open it for last. Then the moment comes, you unwrap in a flurry and are super excited to hold it above your head showing it off, and you make sure everyone you see that holiday knows you got exactly what you wanted.
By mid-February the fascination with this highly sought after prize has worn off and you wish you had asked for something else.
On Tuesday evening I unwrapped that present, and I am wondering if there is a return policy on it.
College football’s four-team playoff format has been approved, and I should be happy about that. After all, I have been mapping out playoff grids for years as a college football fan, going back as early as 1994 if I can recall. That was the season Penn State went undefeated but was tied in to a Rose Bowl trip while top-ranked Nebraska got to play for the national championship crown against Miami. This was the first time I thought to myself that college football’s bowl system was stupid, to put it nicely. That was when I first found myself asking why college football does not institute a playoff system. It took me a number of years to fully understand the reasoning, which I shoved aside simply by saying that if every other level of football, from high school, college and the NFL could use a playoff format, then 1-A football surely could as well.
You would think that I would be elated that college football’s powers have announced a four-team playoff model will begin to settle the postseason starting in the 2014 season. On the surface, the format seems to be well thought-out. Six bowl sites will be used to host the national semifinal games on a rotating basis, which places the emphasis back on the New Years Day bowl games and may even add to the tradition. A selection committee will determine which four teams will be placed in the playoff field, which brings a new set of pros and cons but until we know more about the makeup of the committee it would be unfair to accurately assess.
Instead, I find myself wishing that we could have stuck with the status quo. My problem is not with the playoff format. My problem lies with the people in charge of creating and maintaining that postseason format. If the purpose of a four-team playoff was to make things better overall, I ask now if that has been accomplished. It seems there are still some flaws in the new system that existed under the old format. In some cases, the problems have become more existent.
$30,000 BCS Championship trophy shattered by player’s father
CAUTION: Fragile!
Have you ever broken a glass, a plate or perhaps a lamp? Odds are you feel pretty bad about it when it happens. But what if you happened to break a $30,000 piece of glass and crystal? That’s what happened this weekend at Alabama, home of the 2011 season BCS champions.
The Coaches’ Trophy from this season’s BCS national title was accidentally knocked off its podium and shattered by a player’s father whose foot got caught on a rug that sits beneath the trophy display. The Waterford Crystal trophy was on display in the Mal Moore Athletic Facility halls, home to coach Nick Saban’s office and other athletic personnel.
The handmade trophy sculpted in Ireland is valued at $30,000. The university previously had two such trophies, one at the Paul W. Bryant Museum and the other at the athletic facility. A university spokesman confirmed that they will immediately begin the process of replacing the trophy.
I guess Alabama will have to go on another crystal ball run in 2012, and maybe they will make sure to protect it a little more.
The Military Bowl was one of many bowl games to lack a full house. Photo: Kevin McGuire, via Flickr.
You do not have to look far to find people willing to speak out against the Bowl Championship Series and the bowl system in general, the odds are probably better than the Super Bowl betting odds for the Houston Texans that you know plenty of BCS haters. Certainly the anti-BCS sentiment is nothing new, but when I have a guest who offers to come on the show to talk about the topic, who am I to turn him away?
One of the handful of people in my neck of the woods in the Philadelphia region who truly understands and appreciates college football (we live in a pro-sports dominant town after all), Jonathan Tannenwald, sent me a message Monday night offering to go off on the BCS. Naturally, I agreed.
Tannenwald holds a few responsibilities with Philly.com, including writing about local college football, basketball and more in Philadelphia with his Philly.com blog, Soft Pretzel Logic. We squeezed in our conversation as Tannenwald was preparing to leave for Kansas City to cover the Major League Soccer draft, as he covers the Philadelphia Union and the soccer world with The Goalkeeper on Philly.com.
Attendance was down. Ratings were down. Simply put, the BCS appears to be losing klout.
Not only do we take another look at some of the flaws in the BCS and bowl system, but we put ourselves in charge of changing the system and making some adjustments. We both are in favor of a playoff format but we reside to the fact that this may not be in the cards as the BCS powers meet and discuss potential changes. Instead we look for ways to make some slight changes to the overall picture, including the addition of the Cotton Bowl to the BCS and the condensing of the schedule so that the big BCS games are not as spread out, and some of the games are not being played weeks before Christmas.
To continue the theme from yesterday’s podcast with Michael Felder, we also revisit the discussion with what we’ll take from the 2011 season and what we will remember most as well as take a peak toward 2012 and what we are looking forward to. Tannenwald throws in some Maryland and Penn State conversation and what a possible addition of Ralph Friedgen would mean for both schools (this idea has been reported to not be happening but we discuss it anyway).
Have a listen to the podcast below, then make sure you are subscribed in iTunes, and following the show on Get Glue! Follow Tannenwald’s Pretzel Logic on Twitter @pretzel_logic (follow me too). And don’t forget, this podcast can be heard at anytime on Stitcher Radio (and click here for a promo code to get started and a chance to win $100)!
