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No playoffs no surprise

Posted April 30, 2008

If you are surprised the folks who pull the strings at the BCS didn't approve any kind of playoff system, you haven't been paying attention.

Conference commissioners like the bowl system. It adds money to their coffers, it spreads the wealth of postseason competition among more than just a couple of schools in the conference and it keeps fans interested for much of the season.



The biggest positive of no football playoff is that every week is important.

Fans want to point to basketball's March Madness and envision the hype surrounding a football playoff. Fair point. But remember, only hardcore fans pay attention to college hoops in November and December. Not until mid-January does college basketball even start to grab headlines.

College football is on the front page from Day One.



And, here's one thing that most people don't think about:



A playoff system for Div. I schools would be tremendously damaging to D I-AA schools (the division now known as Football Championship Subdivision).



An approval of a playoff system would likely force Div. I schools to revert to an 11-game schedule. Not only would that take one game's revenue out of those schools' pockets, it would take revenue out of the I-AA schools.

A significant number of those schools now get at least one game per year with a 1A program. The smaller schools reap payouts regularly in excess of $500,000, with the price going up every year.

To a Texas, Michigan, or Southern Cal, a half-million is pocket change. To Chattanooga, it's a huge portion of an entire athletic department budget. Take that one game per year out of their budgets and it will be very damaging.

Yep, a playoff system would be great -- in some respects.



But the peripheral damage to college sports across the board is at least worth considering.