NCAA playoffs - no room at the inn.

College football mini playoff could be coming but NCAA savants will likely mess it up.


http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7851441/source-bcs-exploring-neutral-site-4-team-playoff-format

The conference commissioners have reached a conclusion that some FBS schools' stadiums aren't large enough to host a national semifinal game and that many college towns don't have enough hotel rooms to accommodate bigger crowds.

"What happens if TCU finishes No. 2 in the country and hosts a semifinal game?" the source said. "TCU finished No. 3 two years ago. Are they really hosting No. 3 Ohio State in a 45,000-seat stadium? Where are people going to stay if Oregon hosts a semifinal game? In Portland? As much as it would be great for the sport to see a game played in Ann Arbor, Mich., Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Lincoln, Neb., some of the logistical issues are just too severe. I think that idea has come home to roost as far as these guys are concerned."


So those folks who travel to Lincoln, Neb., and have sold it out every week for 50 years, must have to go to Chicago to get rooms, huh.
I guess those folks from North Platte all fly in and jet out right after the game.

Gee, no reason to actually reward a team like LSU last year that was perfect.

The concept of NFC and AFC championship games at home sites hasn't exactly ruined that sport. Green Bay is not forced to travel because it doesn't have as many rooms as San Francisco.

How about letting the conferences and schools worry about logistics like they do every weekend and stay the fuck out NCAA warlords.

 

ESPECIALLY since by far the payoff for these games will come from TV deals.

 

At a lot of places like LSU and Nebraska, there's a ton of fans that don't stay in hotels. They either tailgate and bring the RVs to stay overnight, or drive in and drive home afterward.
Of course, I don't see why an on-campus playoff game would be any more difficult to handle, logistically, than a normal home game. If you can get 120,000 people on and off campus in Baton Rouge in an orderly fashion for an SEC game, it doesn't suddenly become more difficult because some of the drivers are from Michigan or Ohio.
All those people coming in seem to find hotels, somewhere, just fine too. It can't be any worse than staying 50 miles away for a major bowl game, NFL playoff game or Super Bowl. Or are these college presidents really saying, with a straight face, that there aren't enough hotel rooms in the Metroplex to handle the massive influx of people for a TCU playoff game?

 

I think the commissioners are just afraid that Purdue is going to sneak into the top four and fans will be sentenced to a weekend in West Lafayette in December.

 

Is the NCAA saying that on-campus games would have to have a 50-50 ticket split? In that scenario I could see why a Boise State would struggle to host a huge influx oc visiting fans when most of the regular fanbase is made up of locals. In reality, no way it isn't still a home crowd.

As for TCU, I'm sure they would hop to JerryWorld for the right price. But if they want to keep it in their bandbox, they earned the right.

 

If the price is more than a buck, you betcha.

 

The problem is, at some of the smaller possible venues there might not be not enough hotel rooms for visiting fans AND the NCAA/corporate fat cat suckups who show up at these events, take the best seats, often leave them empty because they're in the hospitality suite all night, and generally ruin the atmosphere because they ar enot fans at all.

 

I agree with this and to use Lincoln as an example of places that couldn't possibly handle the "logistics" is crazy.

They also travel like crazy, so they would go to a place like TCU or Oregon or Alabama or wherever. They are exactly the type of team you would love to have in the "four-team event" as they are calling it.

The people the NCAA is worried about having to travel to Lincoln in January are the bowl executives and corporate people who take the best seats from "true" fans as well as have the most lavish perks. It's BS. Let them find seats, rooms, restaurants like every other fan driving the interstate. Hell, I'm sure the RVers would pick them up.

 

isn't there a minimum seating requirement for a DI-FBS team anyway? It's not like they'd be playing in some 5000-seat field like you might see at D-III or D-II, which ohbytheway host post-season games at campus sites every year with no trouble.
If they're that concerned why not just rotate the semis and national title game between the major bowl sites like they do now for the BCS

 

This absolutely cuts to the core of how idiotic these excuses are.

 

Because all those crowds commute instead of hanging overnight...

 

Somehow NASCAR figures it out...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Motor_Speedway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinsville_Speedway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocono_Raceway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlington_Raceway