Coming soon to college football (probably): DeLoss Dodds' playoff plan
Published: 5/16/2012 7:54 AM
Last Modified: 5/16/2012 7:54 AM
Texas gets what Texas wants. Right?
So we should all be extremely interested in what Longhorns AD DeLoss Dodds had to say to Austin American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls recently.
The topic, thank heavens, was not Florida State or realignment. Rather, it was college football's Final Four, due to arrive at the end of the 2014 season.
Let's take it point by point...
* Dodds favors a selection committee
The Final Four selected by an odd number of panelists – seven to nine, he prefers – with "football backgrounds who are not biased."
I like the idea of giving the BCS computers the same treatment Peter, Samir and Michael Bolton gave the copy machine in Office Space. The more human this process, the more humane.
Still, just how you come up with a 9-member selection committee that satisfies power conferences, power television executives and NCAA fat cats... You'd have better luck asking Nick Saban to host a picnic lunch for Alabama's beat writers.
Put another way: Before anyone decided who sits on the committee, you'd have to decide who decides who sits on the committee. That in itself could take a number of years and cost countless (political) lives.
But by all means, DeLoss, give it your best shot. It beats the data out of the Colley Matrix.
* Dodds believes you don't have to win your conference to be eligible for the Final Four
Fine with me, seeing as how Alabama rubbed SEC champ LSU into the Superdome turf last January. If LSU had done the same to the Crimson Tide, we could have excluded conference non-champions from important January games from here until the end of football.
Now, however, is not the time to do that.
* Dodds to Bohls: "Those four selected would not play in the bowls."
I don't have a problem with this, but I'll bet coaches and ADs do. I'll bet that come 2014, the two semifinals will be played at bowl sites, with a national championship game awarded to a high-rolling host city. Just like the Super Bowl.
Two reasons bowls will likely stay involved.
One, for over a half century they've turned shmoozing into an art form. Doesn't matter that universities (see: eaten ticket allotments) and dignities (see: Fiesta Bowl under John Junker) have suffered. College football is going to take care of the shmoozers, to a certain extent, even in the Final Four era.
Two, Bob Stoops is right. The bowl game is most definitely a reward for the players. I've seen it firsthand for years – guys walking around hotel ballrooms at media day wearing brand new gear, holding brand new electronic doodads and with brand new bags slung over their shoulders. All compliments of the bowl or their school (which can also provide postseason gifts), and all approved by the NCAA (up to a certain dollar figure).
Coaches/administrators families, meantime, stay in swanky resorts and shop swanky malls. It's half football/half vacation.
I'm not here to judge whether that's necessary. Truth be told, you could make a case it's the least the players deserve for delivering TV ratings, selling uniform likenesses and attracting fans. In other words, it's the least they deserve for churning out $$$ for everyone but themselves.
I'm simply pointing out that the blazers with the Rose, Orange, Suger and Fiesta are going to want a piece of the playoff action. They've brown-nosed far too long to be left out.
Once more, DeLoss' mind is in the right place. Just not sure logic is going to win out here.
* Dodds to Bohls: "I favor neutral sites because using campuses would be too much of an advantage."
You could argue that the top two seeds will have earned the right to host the semifinals. You could work around typical homefield advantage by reserving an extra section or two for visiting parties willing to travel. You could even say fans won't have the disposable income to make what amounts to two bowl trips, should their team advance to a championship.
Still, DeLoss' way sounds better.
Bidding out the semis to three non-BCS bowl sites lends more of a true Final Four feel, while promoting college football's brand that much more.
Here's a case of finally making something so rotten for so long right. Of trashing the BCS for a true playoff. Don't you want to spread that gospel beyond Norman, Tuscaloosa, Columbus and Eugene?
Take the new-and-improved version college football to Dallas or Indianapolis or even New York. Make it worth celebrating. Give the players an extra taste of the bigtime in an NFL stadium in an NFL city. Maybe it even makes up for missing out on that bowl-sponsored Sony gift suite shopping spree.
Neutral NFL sites mean NFL stadium suites. Which means charging more money to corportate types to sit in them. The TV cameras might find these places friendlier than Autzen Stadium as well. That probably counts for something.
I sort of think Dodds goes 2-for-4 here. Any other AD would gladly take that. DeLoss?
Imagine he'll expect to hit for the cycle.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
