Jagoff BCS power-brokers look awful criticizing Obama playoff comments

playthrough · Nov 18, 2008

Agree, Dan. It was a bad question on 60 Minutes part. I'd rather hear Obama's thoughts on labor strife in pro sports, how would he treat the next big strike that leads to canceling games and all the financial trickle-down that entails? Should he "throw around his weight" there, as he said he'd do with the BCS? Of course that probably wouldn't generate a very snippy 5-second sound bite.

Sam Mills 51 · Nov 18, 2008

dog428 said:

The reason we'll never see a playoff has nothing to do with classes missed or blue-haired bowl organizers or a fear that the regular season might ruined.

It's money.

The BCS conference schools haul in somewhere around 98 percent of the cash generated by these bowl games. They don't have to share. They don't have to divide the pot. They just rake it into their pockets and walk off whistling.

All of that changes if the NCAA institutes a playoff system. Because at that point, it becomes an inclusive event. Every team in (formerly) I-A has a shot to make the field, and every team, and every conference, has a chance to miss the tournament. The payouts get split more evenly. And the TV revenue, like it is with the basketball tourney, gets divided up among all the conferences. If you're one of the six BCS conference commissioners, why would you give up all that guaranteed money and start splitting the pot?

That's the bottom line. These college presidents and conference commissioners don't give a shit about the student-athletes or the integrity of the game. They want to protect their extra large slice of the money pie.
Click to expand...

Well, um, yeah.

And when they can make the money while marching out the top teams to play exactly once, saving a bundle on expenses, and claiming that a playoff would cause more classes to be missed by the student-athletes (*chuckle*), it's an easy stance to take.

[PowerConferenceCommissioners]
While you're at it, stop talking about these BCS busters. Even though they're also Division I-A, that's more people sharing our pie. We don't want to share our pie with any of these other scrappy schools. It's bad we have to for the NCAA basketball tournaments. We don't care about no stinking Gonzaga or Davidson.[/PowerConferenceCommissioners]

BitterYoungMatador2 · Nov 18, 2008

micropolitan guy said:

A few years back, a local reporter took the 32 bowl games, scheduled them down and showed how they all could fit perfectly into a playoff system. Each bowl sponsor keeps its name and the shitter ones "douchebag.com Bowl" get the first round while the bigger, more traditional bowls host late-round games.
No reason why this couldn't happen.
Click to expand...

How many times have we read about this setup? It makes for a nice soundbite but it won't work because the Sun/Independence/Rose/Fiesta/Orange/ChampsSports/Alamo etc. etc. etc. bowl-organizing committees that do all the work to run their games want nothing to do with an NCAA-run playoff.

They won't do all the legwork so the NCAA can stage a playoff game that eliminates their own bowl. The Rose Bowl is no longer the Rose Bowl if it's nothing more than an NCAA quarterfinal or semifinal.

Would a 16-team playoff work? Of course, using on-campus sites until the final 2, like I-AA, II and III, or until the final 4, with the games being run by the NCAA, just like they run the baseball and softball playoffs.
Click to expand...

What if you rotate 'em? I mean, we don't have the SUper Bowl in Miami every year, so why should the Sugar or Rose be the national championship game every year? Start a rotation of the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and maybe Peach Bowl.

Captain_Kirk · Nov 19, 2008

BitterYoungMatador2 said:

micropolitan guy said:

A few years back, a local reporter took the 32 bowl games, scheduled them down and showed how they all could fit perfectly into a playoff system. Each bowl sponsor keeps its name and the shitter ones "douchebag.com Bowl" get the first round while the bigger, more traditional bowls host late-round games.
No reason why this couldn't happen.
Click to expand...

How many times have we read about this setup? It makes for a nice soundbite but it won't work because the Sun/Independence/Rose/Fiesta/Orange/ChampsSports/Alamo etc. etc. etc. bowl-organizing committees that do all the work to run their games want nothing to do with an NCAA-run playoff.

They won't do all the legwork so the NCAA can stage a playoff game that eliminates their own bowl. The Rose Bowl is no longer the Rose Bowl if it's nothing more than an NCAA quarterfinal or semifinal.

Would a 16-team playoff work? Of course, using on-campus sites until the final 2, like I-AA, II and III, or until the final 4, with the games being run by the NCAA, just like they run the baseball and softball playoffs.
Click to expand...

What if you rotate 'em? I mean, we don't have the SUper Bowl in Miami every year, so why should the Sugar or Rose be the national championship game every year? Start a rotation of the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and maybe Peach Bowl.
Click to expand...

You could and would rotate them.

And they could still maintain their Bowl brand/status in this setup. Still can have their parade and pre-game festivities. I don't agree that all of that has to fall by the wayside just because they are a piece to the tournament puzzle.

And one factoid from last year's bowls. Seven of the 21 pre-Jan 1 bowl games were played at less than 80% capacity from an attendance perspective. Nine total if you add in the Gator and International Bowls. Not exactly what I would call an unmitigated success.

And if you work the bowls into a 16 team playoff, instead of getting under 2.5 TV ratings for games like the Sun and Independence, they probably double or triple those numbers if that's a first round playoff game.

Years from now, people will look back on the current arrangement and find it almost incomprehensible it existed. And for that long.

Simon_Cowbell · Nov 19, 2008

Captain_Kirk said:

BitterYoungMatador2 said:

micropolitan guy said:

A few years back, a local reporter took the 32 bowl games, scheduled them down and showed how they all could fit perfectly into a playoff system. Each bowl sponsor keeps its name and the shitter ones "douchebag.com Bowl" get the first round while the bigger, more traditional bowls host late-round games.
No reason why this couldn't happen.
Click to expand...

How many times have we read about this setup? It makes for a nice soundbite but it won't work because the Sun/Independence/Rose/Fiesta/Orange/ChampsSports/Alamo etc. etc. etc. bowl-organizing committees that do all the work to run their games want nothing to do with an NCAA-run playoff.

They won't do all the legwork so the NCAA can stage a playoff game that eliminates their own bowl. The Rose Bowl is no longer the Rose Bowl if it's nothing more than an NCAA quarterfinal or semifinal.

Would a 16-team playoff work? Of course, using on-campus sites until the final 2, like I-AA, II and III, or until the final 4, with the games being run by the NCAA, just like they run the baseball and softball playoffs.
Click to expand...

What if you rotate 'em? I mean, we don't have the SUper Bowl in Miami every year, so why should the Sugar or Rose be the national championship game every year? Start a rotation of the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and maybe Peach Bowl.
Click to expand...

You could and would rotate them.

And they could still maintain their Bowl brand/status in this setup. Still can have their parade and pre-game festivities. I don't agree that all of that has to fall by the wayside just because they are a piece to the tournament puzzle.

And one factoid from last year's bowls. Seven of the 21 pre-Jan 1 bowl games were played at less than 80% capacity from an attendance perspective. Nine total if you add in the Gator and International Bowls. Not exactly what I would call an unmitigated success.

And if you work the bowls into a 16 team playoff, instead of getting under 2.5 TV ratings for games like the Sun and Independence, they probably double or triple those numbers if that's a first round playoff game.

Years from now, people will look back on the current arrangement and find it almost incomprehensible it existed. And for that long.
Click to expand...

Boom.

Nail. Meet. Hammer.

trifectarich · Nov 19, 2008

The system would change in about 10 minutes after a coach whose team gets screwed just says, "We'll decline our BCS invitation this year. We'd rather go play in the Sun Bowl."

Baron Scicluna · Nov 19, 2008

trifectarich said:

The system would change in about 10 minutes after a coach whose team gets screwed just says, "We'll decline our BCS invitation this year. We'd rather go play in the Sun Bowl."
Click to expand...

Probably won't ever happen. The coaches get paid extra bonus money for reaching the best bowls.

DanOregon · Jan 12, 2009

Liked this story on Obama, love the picture of him with the Heisman.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17313.html

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Jagoff BCS power-brokers look awful criticizing Obama playoff comments

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Jagoff BCS power-brokers look awful criticizing Obama playoff comments

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