Should Ohio State or USC be in the playoff? Or should Alabama be the 4th team in? This will be debated over the next month while each of these teams sit home and prepare for their next game. Think about it. These schools will all have a month off while everyone debates over whose opinion is right regarding which one of these schools is the better choice to play in the playoff. My take – they should all be in the playoff.
There is plenty of time to have an expanded playoff. Give an automatic birth to all conference champions in the FBS. The FCS has a 24 team playoff. Why can’t the FBS do the same? Each of the power 5 conferences could have at least 3 teams in a playoff that big. If you feel 24 teams is too much, then 16 teams would be the next best option. Why base football championships on opinions? Is Alabama really a better team for the playoff with one loss vs a 2 loss USC team? What’s wrong with both of them playing each other next weekend? Or even two weeks from now? There’s plenty of time in the month of December to do, just as Mike Leach says in the video below, to settle all debates on the field.
In this video above, Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach.
Can you imagine if the NFL only had the 4 best teams in their playoffs? Football championships should never be decided on opinion polls but that is what we’re left with in major college football. Unfortunately there will always be controversy and teams left out in a 4 team playoff. Is it better than the 2 team “BCS” championship? Yes. But there is still no excuse of why it can’t be a real and bigger playoff.
The following was published on November 26th, 2017.
Once again, the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) and their 4 team “playoff”, is in total chaos just one week before the playoff teams are announced. Who should make the playoff is based on opinion and is sure to leave out conference champions of at least one major (Power 5) conference and all “mid major” conferences.
The biggest problem with the FBS playoff is that not everyone really has a chance to win the national championship. Polls and opinions can lead one team to have more “votes” to get you in the playoff rather than wins and losses. Every other college sport has the opportunity to play for a national championship if they win their conference, regardless of what conference they play in. Not so in football.
The people who run major universities (Presidents/Chancellors, Athletic Directors, etc.) should all listen what Mike Leach has to say here. He has the perfect solution. Coaches, players and fans should also take note. Until more people like Mike Leach speak up, we’ll be stuck with opinion polls giving us who plays for the National Championship.
In this video above, Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach.
Recently, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh made his case for a 16 team playoff. There are many other media members who have proposed a 16 team playoff, including a book even being written about it before the 4 team playoff started.
Today, I attended the first ever college football playoff game to be played in the state of Utah as Weber State played Western Illinois. It was what was right with college football, while a reminder of everything that is wrong with the top division of college football. The crowd was much larger than a regular season game and the game was very competitive. Although I never attended Weber State, they are my hometown school and I’ve followed them since I was a young kid. Being in a real playoff tournament is a big deal to them and their community, just like it is for teams that go to the NCAA basketball tournament.
The following are brackets from the FCS Playoffs from both this year and last year. There is not one good reason (in my opinion) why the FBS cannot do the same thing. The people controlling the system are the only thing stopping this from happening.
Let me know what you think. Feel free to share this post and subscribe to receive notifications of my blog posts below.
