Forget the BCS Mess, 5 Reasons College Football Needs Playoffs

As former New Orleans and Indianapolis head coach Jim Mora says in the beer ads, "playoffs, are you kiddin' me, playoffs, playoffs!!!??? But, alas Mr. Mora coached in the NFL, a league that, get this revolutionary concept, actually has a playoff to determine the champion every year!

No antiquated beauty contest format with writers or coaches opinions determining who plays on college football's biggest stage for the Sears Trophy and the national championship that accompanies it.

One by one, I will systematically destroy the ridiculous arguments that have been used to prop up college football's biggest division's way of determining a champion.

The Water Cooler Debate
Why, this outlandish way of determining a champion "keeps people at work gathered around the water cooler talking about college football". Hogwash!

Where do I begin to debunk this one? First of all, in this economy with Corporate America further tightening it's grip on the throats of workers, most companies have little tolerance for this sort of thing any more.

Secondly, my company and many others are too cheap to have water coolers any longer, replacing them with cheaper water fountains.

Thirdly, a playoff in college football's biggest division with more teams actually having a shot at the national championship would increase talk about college football, not decrease it. Just ask the people who run the NCAA Tournament for men's and women's basketball, orgainizations that have a playoff to determine the national champion.

A Playoff Would Cause The Players To Miss Too Many Classes
This is one of the more disingenuous arguments ever. First of all, college football players miss class only on fridays when they are playing a road game. That's it. College basketball players miss 10 times more classes than their football counterparts.

Where is the outcry? There isn't one because the money that comes from the NCAA Tournament. Imagine the cash that a college football playoff would bring! And somehow, the other divisions of college football, 1AA or whatever they're called now, all have a playoff! They have found a way to make playoffs work, so can the "big boys" of the BCS conferences.

Playoffs Would Bring Too Many Games
Again, BUNK! Eliminate the extra Viagra 4 Hour Erection type games at the beginning of the season. Give teams only one bye week. And most of all, a college football playoff would only affect a small percentage of teams. A 16 team playoff would mean one extra game for 8 teams, 2 extra games for 4 more teams and so on. There are currently 119 teams in college football's top division. An 8 team playoff would affect even fewer, about 7% of the total teams.

Playoffs Would Do Away With Bowls
It's hard to decide which of these specious arguments makes the least sense, but this one is right up there. Why couldn't teams which didn't qualify for college football playoffs play in a bowl the same way college basketball has the NIT for teams that don't make the NCAA Tournament?

I can hear the whining and hand-wringing now. "But, most of the little bowls wouldn't matter". I hate to break this to those folks, but no bowl outside of one in the BCS system has anything to do with the national championship now. The other bowls have no bearing on that whatsoever, so they are mainly for fans of the two teams involved and hardcore football junkies. That's it and that's all. Go ahead and give 7-5 teams a place to go and give gifts to the players, that doesn't have to change.

The Bowls Have Been Good For College Football And Pay Out Big Money
True, but think how much more money could be earned through a college football playoff! Nike offered the NCAA $100 million several years ago to stage a college football playoff! Leather helmets were good for college football at one time too, but when was the last time you saw a player wearing one?

This argument reminds me of "traditionalist" golfers who whine that Ben Hogan carried his own bag or whatever and then reach for their 460cc graphite shafted, titanium faced driver to hit their Titleist Pro-V1 golf ball.

In 1996, college football did away with tie games and instituted overtime. The "purists" cried foul, but the popularity of college football has grown much since then, at least partly due to taking their heads out of the sand on tie games. In the bad old days, even bowl games could end in a tie!

To sum up, the other divisions of college football have all found ways to make playoffs work, so can the largest division.

NCAA basketball has continued to grow in popularity even after "purists" cried foul upon the introduction of the 3 point shot and shot clock back in the mid 80's. The addition of more teams to the NCAA Tournament added more excitement rather than watering the product down as critics claimed.

It's time, no it's past time, for the powers that be in NCAA football to crawl out of their caves and join the 21st century instead of strutting around campus in their mink coats and living in the Knute Rockne era.

Polls determine the champion, or at least the two teams that meet in the championship game only in big time college football. One writer's opinion can cause a team to fall from #2 in the polls to #3 and out of the national championship picture.

Opinion, whether mine or anyone else's shouldn't have anything to do with who plays in a championship game, especially with so much money at stake for the schools involved.

The current Beauty Contest Sham makes no allowances for three or more teams all having the same record with only two playing for the championship. A few years ago, Auburn was 13-0 and left out of the picture as OU and USC battled it out in the Orange Bowl. All major conference teams, all undefeated in the regular season.

Last season 11-1 Texas watched as an 11-1 OU team they beat by 10 points went to the championship game. Yes, it's way past time to have a college football playoff, but late would be better than never.

Big time college football needs to at least join the 20th century before the end of the 21st century and have a playoff as soon as possible. End the sham known as the BCS, which is like Olympic figure skating only without the Russian judges. The currrent system is just as based on opinion as that.