Ah, a playoff for college football. What a great topic! How come we've never talked about this before?
I have long been a strong opponent of any playoff, but I will admit that I could live with four teams. No more. The argument hinges on why you want a playoff.
If you just want to do something fun at the end of the season like they do in basketball then go for it. Invite as many teams as you like. It will be very exciting. But Syracuse was not the best team in 2003 any more than Villanova was in 80-whatever it was when they beat GTown. They were the best team in that tournament, but not for that season.
OSU finished fourth in the polls last season. Even as a Buckeye fan I can't make a strong argument that we didn't leave our bid to be ranked #1 in Madison and Ann Arbor.
Iowa was 8th with three losses - all by 9 points or more. Can anyone make a case why they should compete for the crystal football in an 8 team playoff?
Boise St and Miami of Ohio were both in the top 16. They had nice runs, but do they really belong with USC, LSU and OU?
More to the point. What if a miracle happens and Boise St wins it all. What does that prove? Look up and down their roster. They play in a weak conference and won 2 or 3 nice games to get them ranked in the top 16. They are not a NC contender and let's not pretend differently.
But teams like Boise St do pull off playoffs during the regular season and they cost teams NCs. That is why the regular season matters. If you put two loss
OSU and three loss Iowa in a playoff how does that not discount what happened during the regular season.
Fans of an expanded playoff must not play fantasy NFL football. In those leagues you always have to finish your playoffs one or two weeks before the end of the regular season. Why? Because many of the best players in the NFL are sitting the pine (or some sort of synthetic plastic compound that we will find 20 years from now causes ass canser) those last two games nursing nagging injuries waiting for a playoff that their team has already qualified for.
Of course that wont happen in the
OSU-Michigan game. But it sure could happen in USC versus Oregon State. With an 8 team playoff that game didn't matter. But last year USC needed that win to still have a chance. How does that make college football better?
There was a great quote from Schlegel in an article somebody linked (thanks whoever it was - nice read). It talked about why AF went 6-0 and then collapsed. It wasn't because AF was a pretender. It was because in football people get hurt.
OSU loses a starting DL and they bring in a raw future NFL player. AF brings in a kid who couldn't wallk on in the Big Ten. Create a playoff where the champions play in 3 or 4 games in as many weeks and it will be decided by kids who were not in the two deep in September.
So if you want to have a fun tournament go for it. But if you want to crown the best team for that particular season - all of that season - weigh the regular season as strongly as you possibly can and let only those teams compete who have a legitimate argument that they have already proven they are the best.