The Front Row

If I had to choose I would sacrifice our rose bowl ties to get a playoff.

I still can't believe that people are willing to sign up for LESS football just to have playoffs. When the playoff comes, the Bowls will start to disappear.

Almost every year there are two or three teams that are left out of the NC game that deserved a shot. Every other sport in the world has a playoff. Everything about a playoff makes sense. Why are people so stuck in certain ways, even if they are the wrong ways?

Because it results in MORE games that actually mean something and LESS games that mean nothing.

This is a fantastic debate...

Essentially, an NCAA playoff for football would be fun to watch. Especially if our team is involved. And people are right, it would have considerably more meaning.

However, they aren't considering everything. That would dramatically diminish the meaning of any other games. So if the other bowls remained, their meaning and impact would be minimal at best. They would be reduced to the NIT as far as equivalency.

The NIT survives because its a tournament. Imagine instead if the NIT was a serious of independent privately funded games. Thats what would happen to the remaining bowls. So essentially, they would garner so little income and so little audience that I would predict 75% of the bowls to disappear within 5 years of an established playoff. The reality is, if its not profitable to have a bowl, the bowl won't exist.

The focus would be on an NCAA playoff. Which, I admit, would be very profitable. I would enjoy watching it. But that change of focus WILL impact any other bowls. So we MUST anticipate that a playoff structure will eventually reduce the overall size of the postseason.

Its a tough thing to measure. When you're OSU and you feel like you can make that tournament most years, its a no-brainer. But when you're the 100 other teams out there, this is out of the question.

Thats not entirely whats being discussed. Neutral sites that are non-bowls are being discussed. Also, the B1G leadership is pushing Midwestern sites. Not only that, but many are pushing for playoff sites at the university location.

They are pushing for a full blown playoff structured similarly to Basketball, just not the same size and scope.

We'll see what happens. But significant change is being proposed in many different directions.

I disagree and the numbers prove it... If bragging rights were the only meaning, then only fans of those teams would watch or attend. That would mean only the OSU's, Texas and ND's of the world would produce profitable bowls. Yet there are numerous bowls.

The reality is, people watch because they believe either there is an ultimate impact or there is some emotional investment in the game. On top of "bragging rights". An NCAA playoff system would eliminate some of that. If the bowls become less profitable, the bowls disappear.

Your post COMPLETELY ignores the overall financial impact. Despite what many believe, the bowls don't exist to service your needs. The bowls exist to generate revenue.

I didn't think there was anything aggressive in your post. You are debating the points. I appreciate that. Its all I can ever ask for.

I agree that bragging rights is all that they play for. Nobody is arguing that teams would refuse a bowl. I'm arguing that bowl profits will reduce.

I am not saying ALL bowls will be eliminated. However, I think we have too many bowls as it is. And many of the existing bowls struggle already. Hence the reason why they keep changing sponsors. I am close with the Gator Bowl committee and I'm friends with board members. Its a struggle.

My prediction in my post earlier was that 75% of the existing bowls will disappear within 5 years of a playoff system. I don't believe there is enough brand equity to sustain the diminished returns for many of these Bowls. I believe the major ones will remain in addition to the playoff. That leaves the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, etc... But bowls like the Insight, Taxslayer.com I believe are gone. And there are too many of them as it is.

I believe if you think that through, you will agree.

A Bowl game needs advertising sponsers. They are not going to continue to sponser lower tier Bowl games. People who call for a playoff simply have not thought about the fact that they are calling for less football. Those sponsers are going to sink their money into the playof games.

I think something along the lines of NFL where there's 12 teams. 5-12 play the first round while 1-4 get byes. These would all take place at the universities with the higher rankings. then 1-4 would get the next round of home games and so on. The only game held at a neutral site would be the championship game which cannot be held at any stadium where college football is already played eg. Indy.
It's good food for thought but, I don't know if I wanna give up bowl season for anything less than 12 teams. I think that would give us enough football to satiate me.

I wouldn't say 'more than football'. If no playoffs meant no football... I wouldn't want that. But since I can't think of a scenario where that wourld be required...

But Yes. I am a fan of competition at the highest level more so than I am a fan of continuing something that was started a long, long time ago... under conditions and cirmcumstanes that aren't relevant today.

All new traditions have to start somewhere, sometime. And it's a good thing if some traditions die.

No. Read it again.