CFP - the now glaringly obvious flaw

Collegiate Sports
1

So the CFP committe produces Bama, FSU, Oregon and OSU as its first 4 team “playoff”. Seems like only a few naive Big 12 fans are actually surprised.

I don’t really care about this playoff at all, so I haven’t much bothered to checkout the format. I assume it’s something like 1v4 in the Rose Bowl, 2v3 in the Sugar Bowl and then the winners move to another big bowl for the championship a week or two later.

Question: how many fan bases 1) are affluent enough, 2) loyal enough, and 3) conditioned enough, to, in large numbers, fly to one coast for game number one, and then clear back across the country for game/destination #2, in the span of a week or two, to support their teams? And book the hotel rooms, etc, to pay for them? It isn’t just “brand loyalty”. This system of having the bowls rotate in a playoff format is doomed because it is economically unfeasible. Sooner or later a team like TCU, or god help the committee, a G5 team with a 15k season ticket fanbase, is gonna make it in one of these bowls, and then WTF are they gonna do to sell tickets and hotel rooms? The old adage that only 5-6 teams in the country really have a shot at the NC is even more entrenched with this system. The committee’s hands are even more tied. If this was about football, and not business, the job would be so much easier - just pick the best teams and move on.

But this is not and never has been about football. It’s just business. Football is the pretext. And that’s why I hate it.

The only out for CF (to make somewhat about football) is to end the bowl system and adopt the NFL best-team-is-the-home-team playoff model, which will cost a lot of fatcats their anuual $$millions$$ fix. That is going to be a holy war in the media and in courts if it comes to a head. Blood in the streets. I don’t see it happening.

Cliff notes: With the arrival of the CFP, college football is officially over.

2

Attendance shows that. So many empty seats for Marshall, TCU, Baylor, Boise State, etc. Programs with good teams that know their seasons mean nothing. I think a conference championship is the best any non SEC/P12/B1G team can hope for, and fanbases should start treating that as the ultimate goal…not a national championship or even a playoff berth. Try to win your conference and be happy when you do.

Of course, that’s not how life works, and as attendance continues to dwindle, so too will the number of football programs in existence. Add in the concussion stuff, we are going to lose an entire generation or more of potentially great football players because parents are not going to let their children play any more. UAB, despite its situation, is probably the first of many programs to close shop for various reasons in the next decade or two. Its just not sustainable.

3

I often argue that we’ve seen peak popularity for college football and this playoff set up will only be a temporary boost at best.

Programs often lose money on bowl games because they are legally required, by accepting a bid, to buy any unsold tickets from their allotment. Do you honestly think TCU has enough fans to buy their allotment had they made it to the playoff?

It’s a complete ripoff. The BCS may be dead, but the same people are still getting a huge pay day.

4

clt says according to espn, all is well.