New BCS Committee Chief rips playoff idea
The Nebraska State Paper.com sat down this week with University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor Harvey Perlman, who was recently appointed as chairman of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee, which ultimately decides how the BCS is set up on a year basis.
So in other words, if college football were to ever have a playoff, this is the man who would give it the green light to happen. And considering he crapped all over the idea in the interview, it looks like we fans will be waiting a long time for BCS to adopt a playoff system.
Why is a playoff not a viable alternative? Is it because it would cut too many teams out of postseason play?
It would diminish the bowl structure and it would reduce the number of opportunities for student-athletes to play in the postseason and that’s not a good thing. If you look at college football now, it’s the greatest sporting event spread over September, October, November, December and a little bit of January that the country has. A playoff would seriously diminish the regular season, as it has in college basketball.
I don’t think it’s good for college football, I don’t think it’s good for student-athletes and I don’t think it’s good for fans. I don’t see fans travelling around the country three weeks in succession between December and January following their team. So you’re either going to have to play at home sites – which I’m sure everybody will want to play in Nebraska in December and January – or you’re gonna have to travel, which means that bowls will cease being intercollegiate events, but will become corporate events, where everybody in, you name the city, will be there except the fans of the teams.
This isn’t basketball. This isn’t March Madness. Football’s a different game, different environment. We have different traditions. It’s hard to see why a playoff is a good idea.
A playoff would diminish the bowl structure? How ironic, Harvey – because the bowl structure diminishes the college football season.
This whole notion that a playoff system would diminish the regular season is absolutely ridiculous and is the worst argument that BCS-supporters have made to date. Is the NFL regular season diminished by a playoff? Hell no. So why would a playoff diminish the college football season? Teams still have to fight to get into the playoffs, making every week just as exciting as it has ever been.
Sure, nobody is interested in Bengals-Browns in Week 17, but that’s unavoidable. Nobody cares about Washington-Washington State when both teams are lousy either. Whether there’s a playoff format in place or not, there are going to be bad games on the schedule.
The traveling argument makes sense, but if they regionalized the games as best as they can, fans will still travel to see their favorite teams. Hell, look at how Pittsburgh Steeler fans; there are often more Steeler fans in opposing stadiums than there are fans of that city’s team. Granted, it’s a little different when we’re talking about poor college students compared to adults with jobs, but the students would still find a way to pack the stadiums.
But I digress. Perlman has already made up his foolish mind and we’ll once again be where we always are come December and January – frustrated and wanting more. The BCS is a joke, the arguments for it are a joke, and the people that are running it are a joke.
This is exactly why I will continue to only pay a passing interest to college football, even though I’m an avid college basketball fan.
The lack of a true champion just drives me absolutely crazy, the way that the higher ups talk about the bowl system as being something worth preserving rubs salt in the wound.
Oh, and a playoff would lead to games being “corporate events”? Seriously? Remind me, what are they calling the Tangerine and Peach Bowls these days?
No playoffs is an absolute joke. This guy who was interviewed should be in politics. His arguments are lame and make no case for his side. What people need to do is quit watching bowl games and college football altogether. This is the only way the fans can control the situation. Stop watching and they will have to listen. If people continue to watch and attend games they will never have a playoff and They will always have a product inferior to the NFL.
If the lower divisions can do it, Division 1-A can do it. And the TV networks would pay any price to televise it.
I love the argument that a playoff would “diminish the bowl structure”. Please, I’m all for it.
And mentioning the cold weather in Nebraska… um, among the bowl locations last year: Boise, Toronto, and Detroit. Good work, Harvey.
I dont care what anyone says, I think the NCAA deserves a playoff.
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Ok so basicly what this man is saying, is that Highschool football, DIII , DII , D-IAA, and the NFL all got it wrong ….makes no sence and then on top of that look who goes to the national championship, the only teams who go 2 the national championship are the teams that the MEDIA votes for the AP poll should not determine the national championship i mean come on now seriously there are just as many teams in the bcs as there are in the FCS and i dont see them with a problem ….on top of all this explain to me how this is fair because you are telling the UTAH team and the BOSIE STATE and BYU and all the other teams that even though they go undefeated and even though they destroy the BCS teams year in and year out that they can never have a legit chance in the bcs national championship picture imean come on now realy and notice the only supporters are the ones with the automatic bid imean just a name alone will get you in the national championship running ….the bcs sucks and its run by money hungry idiots there is no reason why the actual student athletes that put there time in to this game should be turned away for no reason
I agree. Until there is a playoff structure we will not have a true champion… much like the initial BCS rankings this year… Florida at number 1 is a joke… yeah they are a good team, but with the pathetic way they played Arkansas and the multitude of questionable calls in their favor in that game, They SHOULD NOT be ranked #1 let alone in the top 5. The BCS should at least be rename to the PCS…Political Championship Series… because at this point that’s all it is… politics… and thus there is no true champion.
This guy should TOTALLY be eating crow right now. We might have yet another BCS disaster at the end of this week, and these idiots keep spewing this kind of garbage.
This year is the perfect example for an 8-team playoff. *sigh*
Great column…ALL of the arguments in favor of preserving the bowl system as it currently exists, and against a PLAYOFF are without merit. I actually laughed out loud when I read Harvey’s comment about the games becoming
I know my letter is too little too late, but I am seething over the fact that Stanford is not going to the Rose Bowl. Don’t you get it? The Rose Bowl, the granddady of them all. Steeped in tradition. Always the Pac 8 then the Pac 10 winner against the winner of the Big 10. Always the streets of Pasadena filled with fans from some place on the west coast cheering for our team. But now the BCS (badly conceived system) steps in and sends a Texas team to play in Rose Bowl and you send Stanford somewhere else? If we disliked you before, you have just added fuel to the fire. The west coast fans will not even be watching the Rose Bowl, their one and only bowl game, this year. Who cares about it if a Pac 10 team is not playing? Don’t mess with tradition and leave us the heck alone.
After this absolutly rediculous determination to put Alabama, who is NOT a conference champion, ahead of Okla. State, who IS a conference champion, Makes absolutly no sense. Alabama had its chance to win it’s own conference, and lost. End of story. LSU took it. Bama should have to wait until next year for another shot. OSU earned theirs by dominating their conference, albiet one loss. Just goes to show what a sham the BCS has become, and it is owned by the SEC. And that, my friends is the absolute argument for a playoff system.
PS. There is no doubt in my mind that Okla State, with its high powered offense, could beat either Alabama or LSU, and both of those schools know it, which is why things were manipulated to insure that neither of them had to face OSU. What a crock. PLAYOFF SYSTEM NOW!!!!