64 team playoff?

[Harry]

TULSA, Okla. -- They threw around ideas people dream about -- a 64-team football playoff -- and others that might be more realistic: finding a way to let players receive a small stipend in addition to their scholarships.

A group of reform-minded professors who represent their faculties on the Coalition On Intercollegiate Athletics met this weekend to talk about the many changes they'd like to see in college sports and the precious few they might help push through.

This year's annual meeting came in the midst of some troubling times for college athletics. Over the past year, the NCAA has endured scandals at -- to name a few -- Miami, North Carolina, Ohio State and, of course, Penn State, where the news of Joe Paterno's death hit hard Sunday.

It's been the sad lessons in State College that have resonated deepest with many of these professors. A child sex-abuse scandal and its aftermath have come to define the massive, 157-year-old institution instead of academics setting the agenda.

"It's been a classic example of the tail wagging the dog," said Nathan Tublitz, a biology professor at Oregon and one of the more vocal voices in COIA. "It's where an auxiliary enterprise, which is what athletics is, has gotten too big. It's like the kids telling the parents what to do."

In hopes of remedying that, COIA explored several questions during its three-day meeting, the full answers to which will be hashed out over the next several weeks, with those results being passed along to faculty senates, athletic departments, school presidents and the NCAA.

Among the topics: Should COIA advocate changes in the BCS?

Read More: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7490165/coalition-intercollegiate-athletics-discusses-64-team-football-playoff

[UNTcrazy727]

Kill the WAC, the Sun Belt and MAC form a football conference much like C-USA and the MWC are doing, that would make 8 conferences for football.

Make a 16 team playoff with all the conference champions getting a bid and then selecting 8 at large bids.

Edited January 25, 2012 by UNTcrazy727

[drex]

Eveyone who thinks a bunch of college professors will make any difference, please raise your hand.

[Rudy]

Kill the WAC, the Sun Belt and MAC form a football conference much like C-USA and the MWC are doing, that would make 8 conferences for football.

Make a 16 team playoff with all the conference champions getting a bid and then selecting 8 at large bids.

You're talking commen sense which doesn't exist in college football.

[shaft]

For all the people that cry there isn't a real national champion without a playoff, this is the only true option.

A two tier post season will kill the bottom tier (bowls). Over half the teams already lose money on the post season, a two tier post season will only make things worse.

[golfingomez]

Just because you make a nice 8 conference format doesn't mean there will be a playoff. Just like killing the bcs doesn't mean that there will be a playoff

[forevereagle]

Aren't dreams fun?

[gksmith]

Man I hate to be a Debbie Downer but come one! As long as there are university presidents (especially BCS school presidents) to want the bowl money more than the integrity of a playoff for D-1 football, the playoff will never happen.

You can say I am a pessimist. I think I am just a realist.

[KRAM1]

Man I hate to be a Debbie Downer but come one! As long as there are university presidents (especially BCS school presidents) to want the bowl money more than the integrity of a playoff for D-1 football, the playoff will never happen.

You can say I am a pessimist. I think I am just a realist.

Pessimist, optimist or realist...you have a valid point. Money will, in the end, drive this decision.

[UNTcrazy727]

Playoffs would make A LOT more money than the BCS. Like, a whole lot more. But the school presidents would see a lot less of that money, which doesn't bode well for the playoffs.

[Arkstfan]

If money were the issue we would have adopted a playoff back when ISL threw a ton of money out there.

There is no reason for the Sun Belt and MAC to merge. If we want to get to 12 there are ample WAC schools and quality schools wanting to move to FBS that could take the Sun Belt to 16 without taking everyone available. There just isn't a benefit to it.

Once the WAC dies and the foolish Alliance gets approved we are down to 9 conferences.

Once again assuming the throne as emperor of college football my solution at that point is a 12 team playoff with 9 league champs and 3 at-large. Rate the champs 1-9. Top four get a first round bye. Next four get home field in the first round. The remaining champ and three at-large are then seeded to go on the road.

[BeanCounterGrad'03]

Man I hate to be a Debbie Downer but come one! As long as there are university presidents (especially BCS school presidents) to want the bowl money more than the integrity of a playoff for D-1 football, the playoff will never happen.

You can say I am a pessimist. I think I am just a realist.

[GrayEagle]

I'm not totally convinced that there couldn't be both. Sixteen teams involved in a playoff and and bowl games for the "best of the rest." Only seven wins or better for the bowls.

[shaft]

I'm not totally convinced that there couldn't be both. Sixteen teams involved in a playoff and and bowl games for the "best of the rest." Only seven wins or better for the bowls.

A two tiered post season would kill the lower tier bowls.

16 teams means 4 weeks of play offs. The TV pecking order would go NFL, NCAA Playoffs,then the bowls. This would shove the bowls to the middle of the week throughout the month of December. Are sponsors still going to get behind the smaller bowls if their played when no one will watch them?

[Varsity]

No playoff system will ever satisfy enough people to be worth a damn so don't try to institute one. If we have a four team playoff, people will want an eight team playoff, then a 10 team system and finally a Rube Goldberg system emerges where none is needed.

The BCS was an attempt to placate people clamoring for a "true" national championship and it is hated. Stop trying to remake college football on the NFL model. Ditch the BCS and go to a three tier, 14 bowl post season that involves 28 teams.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Varsity

[UNTflyer]

Man I hate to be a Debbie Downer but come one! As long as there are university presidents (especially BCS school presidents) to want the bowl money more than the integrity of a playoff for D-1 football, the playoff will never happen.

You can say I am a pessimist. I think I am just a realist.

When most universities lose money going to a bowl game, change may come sooner than you think.

A 64-team playoff? Not, that's kind of ridiculous. But I can see that a 16-team playoff is possible.

[gksmith]

UNTFlyer - I just don't see how schools lose money going to bowl games...especially BCS games where they pay $10M+.

The bad part of all of this is that the university presidents are the ones running the show (specifically the BCS university presidents). The inmates are running the asylum. They are the ones who decide on the life or death of the bowl system and the life or death of a playoff system. As long as they have that power, I just don’t see a playoff system ever happening.

And as long as the last place team in the BCS conferences make more money than the Sunbelt Champion makes at the New Orleans Bowl (you can insert any number of mid major conference champions and their automatic bid to a lower tier bowl), there is no reason for even the loseingest football schools to change their minds.

[shaft]

UNTFlyer - I just don't see how schools lose money going to bowl games...

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-12-15/news/college-football-s-fleecing-of-american-universities/

This article is a bit biased for my taste, it does explain how you can lose money on bowls.

The big issue for most schools are the ticket minimums and travel costs.

The other problem is 3rd party ticket brokers. Fans can by better seats for cheaper than the schools are selling them for and the school gets left holding a lot of empty seats.