Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville has been the Tigers head coach for eight years now – and he’d like to officially announce that he’s had it with the NCAA “playoff” format.
In a recent ESPN.com article, Tuberville voiced his opinions about the current BCS format and more specifically, how it hurts SEC teams trying to get to a national title.
“I’ve about had it with this playoff deal,” Tuberville said after a lengthy, emotional argument for a playoff. “We all understand in our conference how tough it is. In our conference, that’s about the only chance we’d have to make it.”
“The problem we have is you have 120 universities that are I-A and probably 25 would say they have a legitimate chance each year,” he said. “And you have presidents that for some reason look at it more as for the money than having a national championship on the field. They keep coming up with lame excuses about academics. Football players miss fewer classes than anybody.”
“Presidents take the money and go spend it, but they don’t worry about the business of making it better,” Tuberville said. “They keep coming up with excuses, yet we’re playing [the national championship game] Jan. 8. It’s hypocritical.”
Amen.
I love college football, but I’ve been telling everybody within earshot for years that the NCAA will never hold the power that the NFL has without a playoff format. Teams like USC and Nebraska (albeit not lately for the Cornhuskers) have been beating tiny schools and boasting powerful rankings for years. While other programs like Auburn and LSU beat each other up and virtually have no chance at a National Championship. As Tuberville noted, 120 (119 to be accurate) schools participate in the college football season every year. But you can eliminate about 110 of them from having a realistic shot at being ranked #1 or #2 right off the bat.
The last quote I took from Tuberville up above is the one that should hold the most water. The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are each run like a business. You have your entertainment, you market it and you sell it to the public. You also take those profits and you work on making it better. The NC-Two-A gets it’s entertainment from players who are playing purely for the love of the game or for a chance to reach the next level. It’s a cheaper cost to run things and the big wigs of the NCAA have no interest in making it better for the general public or for the students/coaches. Sure, they still have to pay for coaches, fields, equipment, etc. But they also receive money from boosters and sponsors (how much does Nike shell out to but its swoosh on those hideous Oregon uniforms?) – so don’t tell me they need all of these bowl sponsors (and more specifically their money) just to support the programs.
Tuberville is right – it’s about the players. So, give these student athletes what should matter most:
1) A great education to prepare them for life after sports.
2) An opportunity to showcase what they can do in case they are good enough for the next level.
3) And three – give these athletes something bigger than the Fritos-Pampers Instate.com Bowl at the end of season – due to the fact they had to go through Auburn, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State and Georgia just to get there, while their competition is ranked #1 and had to face Little School U, Blind Mary’s School of the Deaf and Central High School.
