How bad was it? So bad that it woke up some people who matter.
College football may finally get a playoff system of sorts, if the rumblings out of the Big Ten this week are any indication of the current thought process. The conference that helped spike the idea of teams actually earning their spots in the national title game when it was proposed four years ago, seems to be warming up to it now.
The four-team playoff proposal isn’t perfect, and will invariably still leave some qualified teams out. But it’s the first real step toward reform since the major conferences first banded together to anoint their national champion 14 years ago.
Back then it was all about money and television ratings. Still is, because the more the ratings go south the better a playoff looks.
“The reason for the sagging ratings is the fans are recognizing what these games actually are,’’ said Matthew Sanderson, co-founder of Playoff PAC, a Washington, D.C., organization in favor of playoffs in college football. “They realize that these aren’t anything other than glorified exhibition games that have little legitimacy.’’
BCS officials would surely disagree. They like to think they’ve gotten it right every year, using computer programs no one can explain and polls that defy explanation to pick the two most worthy teams in the country to play for the title.
It’s a system laden with so many flaws that it can’t be trusted. Even when the BCS does get it right, there’s always a school that feels its been wronged.
The four-team playoff wouldn’t eliminate that totally. But it’s a lot easier to pick four qualified teams than just two, even if No. 5 if left fuming on the sidelines.
The format isn’t terribly complicated. The No. 1 team in the rankings would play at home against the No. 4 team. The No. 2 team would host the No. 3 team, and the winners would meet, say, two weeks later on a neutral site.
