Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Death to a Playoff: Chapters 15 and 16

The attempt to indicate that the blue bloods of college football are actively trying to keep smaller programs out, or that there is going to be a collapse from within by the BCS, is not quite as dramatic as the authors imply. As everyone knows, the BCS has modified the number of games it holds and the qualifications for the sole reason of making sure quality teams from outside the 6 AQ conferences are included. And just because the conference commissioners have different ideas about the college football postseason doesn't mean that they are about to have a knock-down drag-out fight in the middle of the BCS meetings. Changes have been made, and will continue to be made, in order to improve the system that is in place. Creating a 16 team playoff does not improve the overall system in place, and thinking that a few teams with small stadiums or BCS internal strife will change the overall system is useless and completely misguided.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Death to a Playoff: Chapters 13 and 14

Perhaps no American sport has benefited from the internet and cable television more than college football. The internet provides never before seen access to teams, coaches, players, recruits and fans and cable television gives viewers the ability to watch games from all across the country. Especially now with DVR technology, you could probably spend an entire week watching nothing except college football games. These are probably the 2 biggest factors in the sport's growth over the past 20 years, neither of which involve the BCS. Yet, in chapter 13 and 14, the authors try and claim that the BCS is either solely claiming credit for the sport's growth (which it hasn't) or is an extreme hindrance in the continued growth (which it isn't because much of this growth has happened with the BCS present). The chapters do provide nice histories to both phenomena, but that is the extent of the value.