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A playoff is a good start, but college football still has a long way to go
Published: 6/27/2012 7:29 PM
Last Modified: 6/27/2012 7:29 PM

You leave town for a few days, and the whole world changes.

The Thunder was eliminated from the NBA Finals, Tulsa moved closer to the sun (or at least it feels like it), and the college football landscape was turned on its ear.

It's been interesting to read some of the reaction to Tuesday's announcement that college football would finally embark on a playoff in 2014.

One of my favorites came from Yahoo.com's Dan Wetzel (you can check it out here).

In general, Tuesday was a good day for college football.

There's still a long way to go with no idea how the game will get there. But for at least one day let's applaud the powers that be for moving in the right direction.

Of course, the college presidents didn't go far enough. And by locking this four-team format into a 12-year contract, they guarantee additional, necessary changes will be at least another decade away.

But anything that begins the process of reform in the highest level of college football is a good move.

I'm really surprised anyone is arguing against the need or benefit of a college football playoff. The only people who could possibly support the current system are people who have a vested interest in it -- bowl leaders who don't want to lose their hold on college football and big school presidents who don't want to share their big pile of money.

The most laughable argument thrown out by those in college football is the "importance of the regular season." People who argue a playoff will destory the regular season don't have a strong grasp of math. The "importance" (which is an arguable concept to begin with) isn't generated by the bowl system but by the limited number of regular season games and the percentage of playoff teams vs. the total number of Division I football schools.

Nothing short of a 48- or 64-team playoff would significantly diminish the regular season, which is now only truely meaningful to the top schools in power conferences who advance through the first two-thirds of the season with no more than one loss.

If the definition of meaningful involves being able to play for a national title, than Tulsa shouldn't even kick off the football season. And that's what this playoff plan is still missing -- the appropriate sense of fairness and inclusiveness.

What, besides geography, makes TCU more deserving of a chance at a football national championship than Tulsa? I'm not sure really, but in two years, TCU will have a clear path to a football playoff, while the Golden Hurricane will need a miracle not to be on the outside looking in.

If you aren't going to allow schools like Tulsa, Boise State, SMU and Houston to play for a national title, then you should make them play in a different division. Can you imagine what the NCAA men's basketball tournament would be like without the Butlers and George Masons of the world? A lot less entertaining, that's what.

And that's the next step college football must take.

But for now, we can be grateful for first steps -- no matter how small..

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The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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