Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Simplest Argument for a College Football 4-team Playoff

If there were a 4-team college football playoff, it would likely be held on New Year's Day. The most popular scenario is #2 vs. #4 in one of the BCS bowls at 1:00, the traditional Rose Bowl at 4:00, and then #1 vs. #4 at 8:00.

I have no beef with the selection of the BCS Title Game. I think LSU and Alabama are the two best teams, even though it's a little bit anti-climatic to have two teams from the same conference playing one another for a second time this season. The main problem with the current system is people have a hard time deciphering who 'deserves' to play in the title game.

In college basketball, the Final Four is rarely made up of four teams whose regular season merits their being included. And you might even have the 35th best team and the 11th best team playing for the national title (as we did in 2011). But basketball is a whole other topic. The simplest argument I can make for a college football playoff is that we want to include all the teams who are good enough to merit playing for a national championship.

Baylor is good, but with three loses they don't deserve a shot. Oklahoma State slipped up once, they deserve a shot. We really will never know just how good they are. Sure, the Fiesta Bowl vs. Stanford should be good, but in a meaningless game what will we really learn? Stanford deserves a shot too. One loss doesn't mean you aren't as good as someone else, let's settle it on the field!


JB

No comments:

Post a Comment