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Crown conundrum

 
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 6/18/2008  2:04 AM
Last Modified: 6/18/2008  2:23 PM

Ready to vote? Click here to go to the U Decide vote page to read about the candidates and vote.


The controversial BCS will be used to determine the national champion for the foreseeable future, but is there a better way to decide who's No. 1?



For the foreseeable future, college football's national champion will be crowned by the BCS.

Coaches, for one, wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm a proponent of the bowl games," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.

"I like the bowl system," Kansas' Mark Mangino said.

"I believe in the experience," TCU's Gary Patterson said.

So what gives? Why do coaches love the bowls and wish to stay married to the BCS? More importantly, why do university presidents and conference commissioners favor the current system instead of a playoff?

"You don't have enough space (in the newspaper) to devote to explaining it," OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said. "Nor am I sure the people reading it have enough patience to hear it out."

Castiglione and Stoops spoke on the topic during a recent visit to Tulsa on the Sooner Caravan. Mangino, Patterson and a handful of other college football leaders discussed it at the inaugural Football Forum on May 15-16 in Dallas.

The debate is whether college football is better off with its current system or with a playoff. Now, 68 of the 119 Bowl Subdivision teams get to play in a bowl game, eight get to play in a Bowl Championship Series bowl game (with per-participant checks of $14-17 million going to each school's conference) and the two ranked highest in the BCS standings get to play for a national championship.

Endless playoff scenarios include several "plus-one" models that take place either after the bowls or in place of the BCS bowls, as well as brackets of four, eight or 16 teams.

"I know eventually because of public pressure and economics that we probably at some point in time are going to go to some kind of playoff system," Mangino said. "But I hope it doesn't affect the bowls. I think the bowls are unique to college football."

In May, conference commissioners from the Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and Pac-10 announced there would be no vote on the plus-one proposal by Southeastern Conference commissioner and former BCS coordinator Mike Slive. The SEC and the ACC were the only leagues willing to continue the discussion.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe fears Slive's plan would be just the first step toward a full-blown playoff.

"The system is under a lot of scrutiny that can result in pressure to add games," Beebe told reporters after the commissioner's meeting. "Our league is not favorable to a playoff system as a whole, and viewed this as the first step in that direction."

So what's standing in the way?

Primary among the reasons presidents have given in the past is academics. More specifically, final exams occur in mid-December, when a playoff system would begin. Players preparing for a bowl a month down the road study just fine with a week off from football; if they had to begin weekly game prep immediately, taking finals would be much tougher.

And while teams from the NCAA's lower divisions do compete in playoffs each mid-December, the money those schools earn from their playoffs is infinitesimal compared to the bowl payouts and postseason television contracts. Bowl Subdivision presidents see no reason to make their student-athletes work that much harder for minimal financial gain.

"If you think the playoff system is going to be fun for the kids, except for the team that wins the final game, we'd all be kidding ourselves," Patterson said. "You're talking about six hard days of work, we let them take one day off, somewhere we'll work finals in between all of it, and then yeah, (one team will) end up as the national championship winner, but there's not going to be anybody else happy."

Presidents and their administrators — and, apparently, a whole lot of coaches — are reluctant to surrender two other crucial and unique aspects of college football.

One is the importance of the regular season and its traditional rivalries, many of which are played late in the year. A 16-team playoff might dilute the impact of late-season games. Bowl supporters believe the sanctity of a 12-game regular-season should stand as the focus of the sport.

"Our regular season means more than any other sport," Stoops said. "That's why it's followed so much.

"When ratings start falling and no one's coming to games and TV isn't interested any more, then you'll start having some real reasons (to institute playoff)."

The other is the bowl games themselves, where traditions for some schools stand like monuments. In addition to the money, thousands of bowl volunteers at virtually every bowl go out of their way to treat teams like royalty.

"I wouldn't want to take those bowl experiences away from the players because they really and truly enjoy it...They're all special," Mangino said. "Those are memories that the players will have forever."

Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White said if fans stop packing the house for regular-season games, that could hurt the entire athletic department. White estimated 85 percent of his department's revenue comes from regular-season football games.

"Protecting the regular season is really important," White said. "We have a playoff, we have a tournament. It starts the first week in September."



Playoff roadblocks



Final exams



Most schools have finals during the middle of December. That’s right when an eight- or 16-team playoff would be heating up. Yes, the lower divisions pull it off. But those programs don’t have millions of dollars at stake from the bowls — both from the payout and the television packages. Why trade bowl millions for playo< millions if your studentathletes have to miss class?

The bowls



They were a great idea when they started — a postseason reward of a week or two in a warmweather locale — and they still work today. Young men under five consecutive months of stress from playing football, making the grade in class and carrying on a social life need a break. Hundreds of volunteers at virtually every bowl treat them like royalty. Why add stress by making them play two, three or four more games? Last year, almost 2 million people attended bowls, and conferences and bowl participants split $222 million.

Regular season



No sport has a better regular season than college football. What’s more dramatic than a Florida State kicker in September lining up for a field goal to beat Miami? Would Rashaun Woods’ TD against OU in 2001 mean as much to OSU fans if the Sooners still went on to win the national championship? Is the Big House rocking in December if both teams are guaranteed a playoff spot? Would attendance and ratings drop for later games if less is at stake? Attendance last year was an all-time high 48 million-plus.

Tradition



NCAA presidents, fuddyduddy and old-fashioned they may be, are smart to cling to the game’s tradition and pageantry. Turning football into a winnertake- all “December Madness” tournament that resembles the NFL, as opposed to keeping with the true beauty of the game — those storied Saturday rivalries that outshine anything the NFL has to offer — would be a mistake, they say.

The BCS works



A number of teams have that “left out” feeling when the bowl pairings come out each December, but even the toughest BCS critics can’t begrudge a team ranked No. 1 if it beats No. 2 (or vice versa). No BCS title game winners are called paper champions. And it’s way better than the era of conference-bowl marriages, where No. 1-ranked Oklahoma beats up on No. 13-ranked Penn State and No. 2 Georgia has no chance to move up in its bowl.

The BCS pays



As long as Fox ($320 million to the BCS for four years, with negotiations expected in the fall to lock the current structure in place through 2013) and ABC (still throwing millions at the Big Ten, the Pac-10 and the Rose Bowl) keep the coffers full, university presidents (and, consequently, conference commissioners) will profess their love for all things BCS. But if the networks ever force the issue, a playoff could be imminent.



Who’s the best quarterback? Best coach? U DECIDE



Forget Obama and McCain for now. Throughout the summer, we’ll give you other candidates. We’ll ask questions about college football in Oklahoma, and we’ll give you candidates. Then we have one request: You decide.

It’s simple. Go to our Web site (www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra), check out the candidates and then vote for who you think is best. You can vote daily on any question — one vote per e-mail address, per day. We’ll add questions to our site every week. And on Aug. 24 in our college football preview section, we’ll unveil the winners.

LAST SUNDAY’S QUESTION



Who are the best quarterbacks ever at OU, OSU and TU?

TODAY’S QUESTION



Should there be a college football playoff? Vote to keep the current system, or vote for one of our proposals.

COMING SUNDAY



What is the best venue for the OU-Texas game?

Cast your vote at www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra



Bowl Championship Series



The pros

Keeps some traditional bowl matchups intact (example, Pac-10/Big 10 in Rose Bowl).

Places more emphasis on the regular season.

The cons

Creates controversy when teams worthy of a national championship bid are left out.

BCS national championship makes the other BCS bowl games (Fiesta, Orange, Sugar and Rose) seem less important.

Four-team Bracket



The pros

An actual playo< would exist. Would keep Rose Bowl intact.

The cons

Fans would have to travel to two game sites.

BCS bowls not hosting national title game could be hit with revenue loss.

Still would be controversy with top teams not making the top-four cut.

Plus-one Format



The pros

More than two teams have a chance to play for the championship.

Keeps traditional bowls unharmed.

Increases importance of those BCS bowls.

The cons

What ranking system would determine who plays in the championship game?

Eight-team Bracket



The pros

Most would agree an eight-team playoff is the most fair and exciting format.

The cons

Fans, coaches and athletes would have to deal with travel to as many as three di
Academic concerns for athletes and school administrators.

Could lower incentives for conference title games.


Ready to vote? Click here to go to the U Decide vote page to read about the candidates and vote.




John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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Bixby Jeff, (6/18/2008 1:31:27 PM)
Well, before reading this I thought I was in favor of some kind of playoff. Now I think I like it the way that it is. Of course, as an OSU fan, for now I can only dream about a playoff having any kind of effect on my team.
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Andrew Jenks, (6/19/2008 2:06:22 AM)
After reading this I think I now prefer the BCS. Before, I really didn't care. One thing that I think might help the controversy issue is having all the conferences play a championship game. Another thing that I’d personally like to see is an end to the conference tie-ends. Yeah you should still have an automatic bid, but as a fan I would probably get tired of the same destination. Also, it would be nice to see if they could get the bowls to play straight down the BCS rankings 3v4, 5v6, etc., but that’s not going to happen.
 

 
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