This was a very interesting topic in the comment thread of yesterday’s post about the Buckeyes/Gators game, so I wanted to expand it into its own post (sorry Wizbang Sports!). Several commenters volleyed back and forth with arguments for and against a college football playoff system with interesting arguments on both sides. For me, as a college football fan, I would enjoy a playoff.
As much as I would enjoy a college football playoffs, actually getting there is a completely different animal. Yesterday, Tom Blogical linked to this article about Jim Delaney, the president of the Big Ten and the man who is probably the one person blocking the move to college football playoffs. We also can’t forget all the companies involved in the BCS and that sponsor these bowls. We have the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the Fed Ex Orange Bowl, the All-State Sugar Bowl. I don’t think these companies would like a playoff system either because they would lose their sponsorship opportunities, which allows their companies’ names to be associated with them. College football has become an endeavor that is so entrenched in commercialism that dismantling that would be very difficult.
Added: Let me clarify some of my comments. I don’t think companies will lose their sponsorships because obviously companies would still sponsor and buy commercial time. That was bad word choice. I mean that companies wouldn’t necessarily get their names in the titles of the games anymore. Well, I suppose they could but it would sound kind of weird. We’d have a playoff game called – The Tostitos Second Round Playoff Game between… Get my point? No other playoff system does what the BCS does in terms of naming bowl games after sponsors. That’s what I was saying.
