GatorGrad
01-07-2010, 05:03 PM
http://www.aikenstandard.com/localsports/0105butch-henry-column
As more individuals undereducated in the conduct of intercollegiate athletics pine for a Division I college football playoff, I tell these folks, 'you don't have a clue what you are talking about.' Sure, the Final Four or College World Series are incredible theater, but college basketball or baseball are not college football.
There are suggestions that a 16-team playoff would produce the ultimate champion.
Please, be careful what you ask for.
A 16-team playoff would include guaranteed spots for each of the 11 Division I conferences. This means that Alabama, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Oregon and the like would be included. Also, you would include Central Michigan from the Mid-America Conference and Troy from the Sun Belt.
How much interest would there be in that first round game between Troy and Alabama and likewise, the 2-15 pairing of Central Michigan and Texas? That means only five at-large teams would be picked. Most likely, Clemson would be omitted, as well as Penn State. Are the Atlantic Coast and Big Ten conferences going to agree to a playoff that limits their post-season options?
Folks point to Divisions I-AA, II and III that have playoffs that crown a champion. The quip is "It works in these divisions, it will work in Division I-A."
Actually, it doesn't work. Those playoffs lose money and must be supported by surplus revenues from the Final Four. When Appalachian State played at Montana last month, only a handful of App. State fans made the trek to Missoula, Mont. Similarly, playoff games would have to be played on college campus sites to ensure a crowd for rounds one through three.
College presidents have long railed against the idea of Division I-A playoffs. They realize that playoffs in December would disrupt the exam process. With the fervent student bodies at the highest level of college football, they realize the larger student bodies would be adversely effected by travel and interruptions.
If Georgia Tech was playing a second round game at Oregon, would the Jacket fans make the cross country trip on a week's notice or wait to see if the team won and would be playing closer to home next week?
Also, the average size of players in Divisions I-AA, II and III are far less than those in Division I-A. Their recovery time is far quicker than the size and strength of players in the largest class. Alabama has already played 13 games. What would be left of its team to play four more games over the next four weeks? In October, Bama played five consecutive weeks against teams that qualified for bowl games. The last game in that stretch resulted in a 12-10 squeaker against a rested but lesser Tennessee team.
The suggestion has been made that the bowl system be utilized with the early round games being played at the Gator, Liberty, Sugar and Cotton, with semifinals at the Orange and Fiesta and final at the Rose. Again, crowd support is a problem.
The Sugar Bowl provides each team 17,500 tickets to sell to fans and students. How many teams would sell 17,500 tickets on a Monday after a victory for a game the following Saturday 10 hours away?
You say it works in college basketball. Well, teams in the regional round only receive 750 tickets and often struggle to sell those. Teams receive 3,500 tickets for a Final Four, and just four years ago, LSU, Florida and George Mason failed to sell their respective allotments. No, attendance would be a major problem in a football playoff system.
What is a bowl game, anyway? It is a reward for a team that has had a successful season. College football players must play 12 physical games to pay for all the other sports in an athletics department. After a break for final exams, the teams resume practice at their campus for about a week while everyone else has gone home for Christmas. The players are released for a day or two and then are given the option of returning to campus and flying to the bowl site on the team charter, or they can receive mileage and drive to the site themselves.
The players are given money for meals during the time they practice after finals when their scholarship money stops, and if four players pile into a single car and each gets mileage, that is a hefty check.
If teams were involved in a playoff, the vast majority of them would be eliminated before finals were completed, and no coach would allow players to drive on their own in a playoff scenario. So, those hefty checks players have become accustomed to would be long gone.
The NCAA gives all players in postseason competition in other sports a watch. The championship teams get a ring All bowls give every player a $300 bag of gifts, and teams are allowed to supplement with another $300 bag of gifts.
So, let's see. If there is a playoff, a player slugs it out for four more weeks, gets no $600 souvenirs, wearables and gifts and doesn't get approximately $700 for food and mileage. Also, his parents, friends and girlfriend will go to the bowl game. Few parents can make four consecutive trips across the country in December.
Similarly, teams spend five to seven days at the bowl site prior to the game. Practice and meetings take up half the day, and players are free to go to the beach or hit the tourist spots/social gatherings up until a day or so before the game. Then, the coaches put in place the normal game procedures.
If there is a playoff, the players know the coaches will fly the team to the game site on Friday, play the game on Saturday and fly home immediately afterwards. Also, almost all bowls donate a portion of the local profits to area charity. There is no charity when the NCAA takes over. There is no incentive for a locality to support the local playing of a game other than tourism.
Periodically, the NCAA has surveyed the senior student-athletes to see if they want a playoff. In each instance, the response has been about 80 percent opposed. I asked a starting football player at Alabama in September if he wanted a playoff, and he replied, "I would give up the reward we get for a good season to play four more weeks of high pressure, physical work. No thanks."
Bowl games have a great following on television. This past year, the Alamo Bowl between Missouri and Northwestern had higher ratings on ESPN than Duke-North Carolina basketball. However, all bowl television contracts contain a clause that cancels the contract if there is a football playoff.
In short, the idea that the bowl system could be utilized as the early round playoff is pure fantasy. There will be no bowls if a playoff system is initiated. Only 16 teams would play postseason. Do you think the Southeastern Conference, which has 10 teams playing in bowl games this year, will support for one second a system in which only two or three teams go to playoffs? How many coaches get fired for not making the playoffs when just two or three get to play? We have more than 60 teams going to bowl games this year. No one will agree to a system that only 16 get to go.
Some folks suggest a plus-one format where two teams are selected to play the national championship game after the bowl games are completed. This doesn't work. Remember a few years ago when Ohio State beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl? Ohio State was the only undefeated team, and a gaggle of teams had one loss. Should Ohio State have been forced to play another game? How do you select two teams out of five one-loss teams to play that extra game?
No, college football is the one sport where the regular season counts. The Southeastern Conference has a higher per game attendance than the National Football League. Lost revenue from the loss of bowl game revenue would be crippling to the SEC. There is no way the loss of revenue from 10 bowl games to the SEC would be made up in revenue from two or three teams in a playoff.
There is a too much at stake to let some senator who votes on a bill he has never seen or some newspaper publisher who has never seriously considered Division I-A football to make a knowledgeable decision about the greatest game in America.
As more individuals undereducated in the conduct of intercollegiate athletics pine for a Division I college football playoff, I tell these folks, 'you don't have a clue what you are talking about.' Sure, the Final Four or College World Series are incredible theater, but college basketball or baseball are not college football.
There are suggestions that a 16-team playoff would produce the ultimate champion.
Please, be careful what you ask for.
A 16-team playoff would include guaranteed spots for each of the 11 Division I conferences. This means that Alabama, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Oregon and the like would be included. Also, you would include Central Michigan from the Mid-America Conference and Troy from the Sun Belt.
How much interest would there be in that first round game between Troy and Alabama and likewise, the 2-15 pairing of Central Michigan and Texas? That means only five at-large teams would be picked. Most likely, Clemson would be omitted, as well as Penn State. Are the Atlantic Coast and Big Ten conferences going to agree to a playoff that limits their post-season options?
Folks point to Divisions I-AA, II and III that have playoffs that crown a champion. The quip is "It works in these divisions, it will work in Division I-A."
Actually, it doesn't work. Those playoffs lose money and must be supported by surplus revenues from the Final Four. When Appalachian State played at Montana last month, only a handful of App. State fans made the trek to Missoula, Mont. Similarly, playoff games would have to be played on college campus sites to ensure a crowd for rounds one through three.
College presidents have long railed against the idea of Division I-A playoffs. They realize that playoffs in December would disrupt the exam process. With the fervent student bodies at the highest level of college football, they realize the larger student bodies would be adversely effected by travel and interruptions.
If Georgia Tech was playing a second round game at Oregon, would the Jacket fans make the cross country trip on a week's notice or wait to see if the team won and would be playing closer to home next week?
Also, the average size of players in Divisions I-AA, II and III are far less than those in Division I-A. Their recovery time is far quicker than the size and strength of players in the largest class. Alabama has already played 13 games. What would be left of its team to play four more games over the next four weeks? In October, Bama played five consecutive weeks against teams that qualified for bowl games. The last game in that stretch resulted in a 12-10 squeaker against a rested but lesser Tennessee team.
The suggestion has been made that the bowl system be utilized with the early round games being played at the Gator, Liberty, Sugar and Cotton, with semifinals at the Orange and Fiesta and final at the Rose. Again, crowd support is a problem.
The Sugar Bowl provides each team 17,500 tickets to sell to fans and students. How many teams would sell 17,500 tickets on a Monday after a victory for a game the following Saturday 10 hours away?
You say it works in college basketball. Well, teams in the regional round only receive 750 tickets and often struggle to sell those. Teams receive 3,500 tickets for a Final Four, and just four years ago, LSU, Florida and George Mason failed to sell their respective allotments. No, attendance would be a major problem in a football playoff system.
What is a bowl game, anyway? It is a reward for a team that has had a successful season. College football players must play 12 physical games to pay for all the other sports in an athletics department. After a break for final exams, the teams resume practice at their campus for about a week while everyone else has gone home for Christmas. The players are released for a day or two and then are given the option of returning to campus and flying to the bowl site on the team charter, or they can receive mileage and drive to the site themselves.
The players are given money for meals during the time they practice after finals when their scholarship money stops, and if four players pile into a single car and each gets mileage, that is a hefty check.
If teams were involved in a playoff, the vast majority of them would be eliminated before finals were completed, and no coach would allow players to drive on their own in a playoff scenario. So, those hefty checks players have become accustomed to would be long gone.
The NCAA gives all players in postseason competition in other sports a watch. The championship teams get a ring All bowls give every player a $300 bag of gifts, and teams are allowed to supplement with another $300 bag of gifts.
So, let's see. If there is a playoff, a player slugs it out for four more weeks, gets no $600 souvenirs, wearables and gifts and doesn't get approximately $700 for food and mileage. Also, his parents, friends and girlfriend will go to the bowl game. Few parents can make four consecutive trips across the country in December.
Similarly, teams spend five to seven days at the bowl site prior to the game. Practice and meetings take up half the day, and players are free to go to the beach or hit the tourist spots/social gatherings up until a day or so before the game. Then, the coaches put in place the normal game procedures.
If there is a playoff, the players know the coaches will fly the team to the game site on Friday, play the game on Saturday and fly home immediately afterwards. Also, almost all bowls donate a portion of the local profits to area charity. There is no charity when the NCAA takes over. There is no incentive for a locality to support the local playing of a game other than tourism.
Periodically, the NCAA has surveyed the senior student-athletes to see if they want a playoff. In each instance, the response has been about 80 percent opposed. I asked a starting football player at Alabama in September if he wanted a playoff, and he replied, "I would give up the reward we get for a good season to play four more weeks of high pressure, physical work. No thanks."
Bowl games have a great following on television. This past year, the Alamo Bowl between Missouri and Northwestern had higher ratings on ESPN than Duke-North Carolina basketball. However, all bowl television contracts contain a clause that cancels the contract if there is a football playoff.
In short, the idea that the bowl system could be utilized as the early round playoff is pure fantasy. There will be no bowls if a playoff system is initiated. Only 16 teams would play postseason. Do you think the Southeastern Conference, which has 10 teams playing in bowl games this year, will support for one second a system in which only two or three teams go to playoffs? How many coaches get fired for not making the playoffs when just two or three get to play? We have more than 60 teams going to bowl games this year. No one will agree to a system that only 16 get to go.
Some folks suggest a plus-one format where two teams are selected to play the national championship game after the bowl games are completed. This doesn't work. Remember a few years ago when Ohio State beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl? Ohio State was the only undefeated team, and a gaggle of teams had one loss. Should Ohio State have been forced to play another game? How do you select two teams out of five one-loss teams to play that extra game?
No, college football is the one sport where the regular season counts. The Southeastern Conference has a higher per game attendance than the National Football League. Lost revenue from the loss of bowl game revenue would be crippling to the SEC. There is no way the loss of revenue from 10 bowl games to the SEC would be made up in revenue from two or three teams in a playoff.
There is a too much at stake to let some senator who votes on a bill he has never seen or some newspaper publisher who has never seriously considered Division I-A football to make a knowledgeable decision about the greatest game in America.