One word...Greed...money grubbing greed off the backs of cheap labor.
This year has highlighted what I think is very controversial and exploitive. The Conference Championships only add more confusion to the FBS College Playoffs. Not more clarity. They add no value to the FBS play off picture....except they generate gobs of....$$$$.
This is the elephant in the room.
Don't get me wrong...as a fan, I love this drama. But let's not kid ourselves...
Are these Professional Athletes that we demand more production (a source of $ revenue) or are they Student Athletes (amateurs getting an education)? Which is it?
None of this is sustainable as more and more money pours into FBS/Power 5 Conference Football. Not sure what the solution is.
But I see no reason (except for $) to go back to the following (I got some extra time on my hands):
This year has highlighted what I think is very controversial and exploitive. The Conference Championships only add more confusion to the FBS College Playoffs. Not more clarity. They add no value to the FBS play off picture....except they generate gobs of....$$$$.
This is the elephant in the room.
- In some cases, teams are playing the same team they played during the season.
- In other cases, 2 loss teams are playing for a Conference Championship.
- In one case, Alabama, they get to be in the Final 4 and they didn't even make it to the Conference Championship. They have been entitled as long as 1 of the current 4 teams lose. Free Pass.
- Many folks advocate picking 4 best teams regardless if they win or lose or don't even play in the Conference Championship.
- Gary TD's ranking system seems to under weight conference records...he's a big fan of W-L records and SOS.
Don't get me wrong...as a fan, I love this drama. But let's not kid ourselves...
Are these Professional Athletes that we demand more production (a source of $ revenue) or are they Student Athletes (amateurs getting an education)? Which is it?
None of this is sustainable as more and more money pours into FBS/Power 5 Conference Football. Not sure what the solution is.
But I see no reason (except for $) to go back to the following (I got some extra time on my hands):
- BCS-type system - Use a highly analytical model (w SOS metric) + AP Poll to rank the Top 25.
- No more Conference Championship Games
- Limit regular season to 12 games (10 conference, 2 non-conference games)
- Each conference can figure out their own tie-breaker system for naming the Champion-whatever. I suppose you could also expand the Power conferences to 6 if needed to.
- Allow the BCS+AP Poll analysis pick the Top 5 teams. #4 vs. #5 play a wild card game. Certainly, an analytical system with a pool of 5 teams should be 95%+ certain that 1 of those 5 teams really are the best team in America. The National Championship should NOT be about squeaking in at #7 or #8 - this is the realm of pretenders. The National Championship should be about validating the BCS+AP Poll Analytics as to who is the best team in America after a 12 game season - this will keep the 12 game schedule critical and accountable - every game counts!
- No change to current system - keep the Conference Championships.
- Only P-5 Conference Champions go to the Playoffs (ND must join a P-5 conference)
- 5 playoff teams - need some ranking of seeding of the 5 teams (just like CIF playoffs)
- #4 vs #5 is a wild card playoff game. #5 plays @ #4 home field.
- Rest of 4 team playoffs are at neutral sites similar to what we do now.
- This way the Conference Championship actually means something. Integrity.
